Kenneth Grahame (1859–1932) was a Scottish-born English writer of children’s stories and essayist.
Born in Lasswade, Scotland, Grahame was educated at St Edward’s School, Oxford, and in 1876 entered the Bank of England as a clerk. He became its secretary in 1898–1908 when he retired for health reasons.
Grahame’s early work consisted of collections of essays and country tales, such as Pagan Papers (1893,) The Golden Age (1895,) and Dream Days (1898.) These works made known his extraordinarily refined and humorous sympathy of the mind of a child.
In 1908, Grahame published his best-known work, The Wind in the Willows. Initially written in the form of bedtime stories and letters to his only child Alastair, it featured the magical and unforgettable riverside characters Rat, Mole, Badger, and Toad.
The Wind in the Willows did not initially win acclaim, but within a few years of Grahame’s death, it had become a children’s classic. A. A. Milne, the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh, successfully dramatized it the popular Christmas play Toad of Toad Hall (1929.)
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Glorious, stirring sight! The poetry of motion! The real way to travel! The only way to travel! Here today—in next week tomorrow! Villages skipped, towns and cities jumped—always somebody else’s horizons! O bliss! O poop-poop! O my! O my!
—Kenneth Grahame
Well, well, perhaps I am a bit of a talker. A popular fellow such as I am—my friends get round me—we chaff, we sparkle, we tell witty stories—and somehow my tongue gets wagging. I have the gift of conversation. I’ve been told I ought to have a salon, whatever that may be.
—Kenneth Grahame
Topics: Conversation
Believe me my young friend; there is nothing—absolutely nothing—half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.
—Kenneth Grahame
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