The Real Kenneth Grahame : The Tragedy Behind the Wind in the Willows.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Galvin, Elisabeth.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Grahame, Kenneth, 1859-1932.

Grahame, Kenneth.

Novelists, Scottish--19th century--Biography.

Novelists, Scottish.

Genre:

collective biographies.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (227 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Real Kenneth Grahame

Place of Publication:

Havertown : Pen & Sword Books Limited, 2022.

Summary:

"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"--Publisher's description.

Contents:

Intro

Title

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1 Born a Scot

Chapter 2 A Barefoot Boy

Chapter 3 Schooldays

Chapter 4 Forced Downstream

Chapter 5 From Bank to Bank

Chapter 6 The Familiar and the Friendly

Chapter 7 A Man of Letters

Chapter 8 Olympic Achievement

Chapter 9 Elsie

Chapter 10 A Cornish Affair

Chapter 11 Marrying the Princess

Chapter 12 From Minkie to Pinkie

Chapter 13 Mouse

Chapter 14 Moving Upstream

Chapter 15 From Your Affectionate Daddy

Chapter 16 The Women Behind The Willows

Chapter 17 Mr Mole and His Mates

Chapter 18 Three Animals in a Boat

Chapter 19 A Feeling of Snugness

Chapter 20 An Early Environmentalist

Chapter 21 Eternal Boy

Chapter 22 Like Summer Tempests Came His Tears

Chapter 23 Dino and Minkie Rekindled

Chapter 24 The End

Chapter 25 Elsie Lives On

Bibliography

Notes

Plate section.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-5267-4881-9

OCLC:

1321798587