He wrote one of the most quintessentially English books, yet Kenneth Grahame (1859 – 1932) was a Scot. He was four years old when his mother died and his father became an alcoholic, so Kenneth grew up with his grandmother who lived on the banks of the beloved River Thames. Forced to abandon his dreams of studying at Oxford, he was accepted as a clerk at the Bank of England where he became one of the youngest men to be made company secretary. He narrowly escaped death in 1903 when he was mistaken for the Bank’s governor and shot at several times. He wrote secretly in his spare time for magazines and became a contemporary of contributors including Rudyard Kipling, George Bernard Shaw and WB Yeats. Kenneth’s first book, Pagan Papers (1893) initiated his success, followed by The Golden Age (1895) and Dream Days (1898), which turned him into a celebrated author. Ironically, his most famous novel today was the least successful during his lifetime: The Wind in the Willows (1908) originated as letters to his disabled son, who was later found dead on a train line after a suspected suicide. Kenneth never recovered from the tragedy and died with a broken heart in earshot of the River Thames. His widow, Elspeth, dedicated the rest of her life to preserving her husband’s name and promoting his work.

A moving biography of Kenneth Grahame, author of the children’s classic The Wind in the Willows, and of the vision of English pastoral life that inspired it. During his regular days in London, Kenneth Grahame sat behind a mahogany desk as Secretary of the Bank of England; on weekends he retired to the house in the country that he shared with his fanciful wife, Elspeth, and their fragile son, Alistair, and took lengthy walks along the Thames in Berkshire, "tempted by the treasures of hedge and ditch; the rapt surprise of the first lords-and-ladies, the rustle of a field-mouse, the splash of a frog." The result of these pastoral wanderings was his masterful creation of The Wind in the Willows, the enduring classic of children's literature; a cautionary tale for adult readers; a warning of the fragility of the English countryside; and an expression of fear at threatened social changes that, in the aftermath of the World War I, became a reality. Like its remarkable author, the book balances maverick tendencies with conservatism. Kenneth Grahame was an Edwardian pantheist whose work has a timeless appeal, an escapist whose withdrawal from reality took the form of time travel into his own past.

Kenneth Grahame was a British writer, most famous for The Wind in the Willows (1908, included), one of the classics of children’s literature. He also wrote The Reluctant Dragon (included here as part of Dream Days); both books were later adapted into Disney films. Contents: THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS THE GOLDEN AGE DREAM DAYS PAGAN PAPERS THE HEADSWOMAN If you enjoy this ebook, don't forget to search your favorite ebook store for "Wildside Press Megapack" to see more of the 300+ volumes in this series, covering adventure, historical fiction, mysteries, westerns, ghost stories, science fiction -- and much, much more!

Best of Kenneth Grahame (Set of 4 Bestseller Books) The Headswoman/ The Golden Age/ The Wind in the Willows/ Dream Days This Combo Collection (Set of 4 Books) includes All-time Bestseller Books. This anthology contains: The Headswoman The Golden Age The Wind in the Willows Dream Days

The British author Kenneth Grahame is celebrated for creating ‘The Wind in the Willows’, one of the most beloved tales of classic children’s literature. He also wrote ‘The Reluctant Dragon’, as well as endearing short stories and thought-provoking essays. This comprehensive eBook presents Grahame’s complete works, with numerous illustrations, rare texts appearing in digital print for the first time, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Grahame’s life and works * Concise introductions to the texts * All the tales and essays, fully illustrated, with individual contents tables * Includes rare works appearing for the first time in digital publishing, including BERTIE’S ESCAPADE * Images of how the books were first published, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts * Excellent formatting of the texts * Famous works such as ‘The Wind in the Willows’ are fully illustrated (Paul Bransom) with the original artwork * Includes Grahame’s rare non-fiction work, FIRST WHISPER OF ‘THE WIND OF THE WILLOWS’ – available in no other collection * Features two biographies, including Chalmers’ seminal work - discover Grahame’s literary life * Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles CONTENTS: The Children’s Books THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS THE CAMBRIDGE BOOK OF POETRY FOR CHILDREN BERTIE’S ESCAPADE The Short Story Collections PAGAN PAPERS THE GOLDEN AGE DREAM DAYS THE HEADSWOMAN The Non-Fiction FIRST WHISPER OF ‘THE WIND OF THE WILLOWS’ The Biographies KENNETH GRAHAME LIFE LETTERS AND UNPUBLISHED WORK by Patrick Chalmers THE CHILDREN’S ADVOCATE: KENNETH GRAHAME by W. M. Parker Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to browse through our range of exciting titles or to purchase this eBook as a Parts Edition of individual eBooks

Kenneth Grahame’s most famous works are collected in one large book. This edition also includes a biography Grahame. The collection includes the following books: Dream Days The Golden Age The Headswoman Pagan Papers The Wind In the Willows

The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home. First with brooms, then with dusters; then on ladders and steps and chairs, with a brush and a pail of whitewash; till he had dust in his throat and eyes, and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur, and an aching back and weary arms. Spring was moving in the air above and in the earth below and around him, penetrating even his dark and lowly little house with its spirit of divine discontent and longing. It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly flung down his brush on the floor, said 'Bother!' and 'O blow!' and also 'Hang spring-cleaning!' and bolted out of the house without even waiting to put on his coat. Something up above was calling him imperiously, and he made for the steep little tunnel which answered in his case to the gavelled carriage-drive owned by animals whose residences are nearer to the sun and air. So he scraped and scratched and scrabbled and scrooged and then he scrooged again and scrabbled and scratched and scraped, working busily with his little paws and muttering to himself, 'Up we go! Up we go!' till at last, pop! His snout came out into the sunlight, and he found himself rolling in the warm grass of a great meadow.

From the imaginative author of "The Wind in the Willows," an enchanting pair of books that map the imaginative landscape of childhood..

Kenneth Grahame is a British writer famous for being the author of classics of children's literature and fantasy. In this book the critic August Nemo selected seven short stories of this author, including The Reluctant Dragon: - The Twenty-First of October - Dies Irae - Mutabile Semper - The Magic Ring - Its Walls Were as of Jasper - A Saga of the Seas - The Reluctant Dragon