The Wind and Willows (With Grahame Biography)

By Paul Brody

Grahame's classic fantasy is told here. The book tells of the wild adventures of Mr. Toad. This edition also includes a biography of the books author, Kenneth Grahame.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookCaps
• Release date: Mar 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310645754

Book preview

The Wind and the Willows

By Kenneth Grahame

With Biography by Paul Brody

Golgotha Press

By BookCaps Study Guides

© 2011 by Golgotha Press, Inc.

Published at SmashWords

A Biography of Mr. Toad Creator, Kenneth Grahame

Introduction

The golden era of Victorian children’s literature produced some of the most iconic and enduring literary works of all time. Authors like Lewis Carroll, A. A. Milne, J. M. Barrie, Louisa May Alcott, Robert Louis Stephenson, and Rudyard Kipling created characters who became the beloved heroes of generations of children. These authors’ works continue to influence writers, filmmakers, playwrights, and television, as well as children throughout the world. Such a powerful literary movement happens only rarely, and when it does, the world is forever changed.

The Victorian era saw a great shift in the way in which children were viewed, as well as educated. Before that time, children were often regarded as mini-adults. They were dressed like adults and were expected to learn their place quickly. Children’s literature was limited to black and white morality stories. Parents were encouraged to use stories only as a way to educate their children in the societal norms expected of them. Children were usually told tales from the Bible, or thinly disguised versions of such.

As the influence of Romantic literature began to shift such thinking in the early 19th century, the lives of children were reimagined. In the writings of the Romantics, children began to take on a mythic quality. They were now viewed as the last bastions of innocence and purity. The Victorian writers of the late 19th century and early 20th century saw that vision fully realized. Rather than a period of strict molding and shaping, childhood became something to protect and nurture. The wealthiest members of society built elaborate nurseries and playgrounds, hoping to spare their children the cold reality of growing up for as long as they could. Kenneth Grahame benefited from this shift, as a young boy in Scotland, and it heavily influenced his life as a man and a writer.

Although his early days were marked by tragedy, and there was more to follow in adulthood, Grahame spent his formative years in an idyllic state. He remembered his childhood as a magical time free from worry, obligation, or the pressing concerns of becoming a functioning member of British society. It shaped a philosophy that children should be protected and shielded from the terrible truths inherent in growing up. Grahame felt that adult existence was oppressive and brutish. The longer one could spare children from that realization, the better. Kenneth wrote that his best days were spent as a child who wandered the mysterious shores of the River Thames. It was his profound wish that those days never be forgotten.

Although Grahame was finally forced to play the role of an upstanding British adult, he never abandoned the idea that childhood should remain untainted and unspoiled. After his son was born, Grahame was determined to lavish the boy with all of the affection and magic that a Victorian child should have. Grahame spun tales of fantastic wonder to pass the idle time, and send young Alastair to sleep. Kenneth later compiled those stories into a book, so that other children might enjoy the tales. Little did he realize that his masterpiece, The Wind in the Willows, would later become a cornerstone of children’s literature. And unfortunately, Kenneth had no idea that his book would become a poignant memorial as well, earning his place in the hallowed canon of children’s fantasy.

Chapter 1: The Childhood of Kenneth Grahame

Kenneth Grahame rarely spoke about his parents publicly, and he never published any information regarding them. Much of what is known was later pieced together by historians, though even that information is brief and is based on anecdotes and letters. Many believe that Grahame’s silence on the matter of his mother and father spoke volumes about how he processed the tragedy of his childhood. In some ways, he simply ignored it.

Grahame’s family came from the highlands of Scotland. They were proud of their Scottish heritage, and Grahame could trace his paternal roots back to the 14th century Scottish king, Robert the Bruce. Aside from a few exceptions, however, the Grahame family was not noble, nor was it usually one to pursue literary aspirations. Kenneth’s father, James, was born in 1830. His family had money and social influence, though they were not extravagantly rich. James became a lawyer and worked as an Advocate for the Court of Scotland. He was well-liked, and his penchant for being witty during court proceedings endeared him to his colleagues. He made a very good income and could provide well for a family. James was something of a man-about-town, however, and his love of wine was also a well-known fact. He enjoyed entertaining guests and quickly found a woman who shared his social interests. Much of James’ psyche remains a mystery, despite being outgoing, and there were hints that he had a dark, broody side.

James married Bessie Ingles in 1855. The two moved into a home within a very respectable neighborhood in the capital of Scotland, Edinburgh. Little is now known about Bessie’s family, but she was a beautiful woman who was loved as much by her husband as by Edinburgh’s elite. The couple quickly became a formidable, socialite team and counted the best of Edinburgh’s society as friends. Bessie became pregnant soon after her marriage. It was a condition she would come to know well. She bore three children over the course of five years: Helen, Thomas Willie, and Kenneth in 1859. All of the births were uncomplicated for Bessie, and she quickly returned to entertaining with her husband.

There is little in the history that hints at the reason for the sudden change in Bessie and James’ life. He was a successful lawyer and certainly well-liked. Bessie seemed to love her life as his spouse, and the constant social obligations that came with it. Only rumors of James’ broody disposition explain his rapid shift in career choices. He applied for a position as an aid to the Sheriff of Argyllshire and was accepted. James uprooted his wife and three children in 1860, moving them to the remote town of Inveraray, Scotland. James then decided to have a new home built and he and his family spent three years in temporary housing while the construction took place.

Kenneth found these years of his childhood to be a golden, magical time filled with the joy of imagination. It is probably where he first gained his love of boating and the water. Inveraray was situated on Loch Fyne, a long waterway that branched up through Scotland. Kenneth later wrote about some of these early memories, and though they did not include his parents, his recollections recalled the Loch and the wild countryside that surrounded it.

As a small child, he and his brother Willie would wander the beaches, piers, and Scottish highlands. Willie and Kenneth befriended the local fishermen, who would often give the children small gifts. Sometimes Kenneth’s father would join the boys on their walks, reciting poetry to his sons while they all breathed in the salty sea air. And everywhere the boys traveled, they encountered boats. Whether it was the great ships at sea, or small rowboats used to travel back and forth across the waterways, the power and majesty of water became a persistent memory for Kenneth for the rest of his life. The Grahames’ new house was finished in 1863 and the family moved in. It could not have been more perfect for young Kenneth. Built of solid stone, the home overlooked the Loch itself.

These carefree days spent in the new house at Inveraray were not to last, however. Bessie had her fourth child, Roland, in 1864. Just a few days later, she was overcome by scarlet fever and died. Kenneth also contracted the illness and began fighting for his life. James’ mother traveled from Edinburgh to help nurse Kenneth through the worst of it. Though it was touch and go for a while, Kenneth eventually recovered from the fever. For the rest of his life, he was prone to various lung infections, as scarlet fever is well-known to take a great toll on the body. More importantly, though, his family was shattered by the illness.

With Bessie dead, Kenneth’s father sank into a terrible, gloomy depression. Not long after Kenneth recovered, James sent a letter to Bessie’s mother in Berkshire, in southeast England. The children called her Granny Ingles. He wanted her to come and collect his children, so that he might be alone with his grief. She did so, and after they were were gone, James sequestered himself in the Scottish house, with nothing but alcohol to keep him company.

Bessie’s mother was an older woman without a great deal of income. Though history seems to indicate that James was not poor, he provided almost no money for his children. It is uncertain why that was the case. Consequently, Granny Ingles had difficulty providing for the day to day needs of the Grahame children. She was a lady who did her familial duty, as she saw it, though she was not particularly warm or loving. The Grahame children moved into her large home in the English countryside, which she called The Mount. They were left with no choice but to embrace their new house in Cookham Dene, England.

The troubles of the family did not seem to darken Kenneth’s memory of his youth. He recorded that those years spent with Granny Ingles were, again, some of the happiest times of his childhood. With the resiliency that only children can summon, the tragedies of a lost mother and an absent father barely touched the life of Kenneth. Granny Ingles provided for his everyday needs and he was encouraged to spend time as he pleased. He spent those days as an adventurous explorer, discovering new tracts of land, waterways, and the dark, mysterious woods of the rolling English landscape. The great Thames River of England passed through the town of Cookham Dene, and Kenneth became especially fond of its shores and marshy depths. It would become the river of his dreams, a place that always called out to him as it wound its way throughout much of his later writing.

Granny Ingles’ home was a formidable stone building, filled with all of the secret nooks and spaces that children love to explore. It was also surrounded by thick gardens and shady trees. The Mount was a fertile ground for the imagination of a child, one that nurtured magical thinking and escape. Kenneth and his siblings were seldom bothered by adults. They were allowed to retreat into their own collective and individual fantasies. The Grahame children became the Victorian archetype so often written into the literature from this time: bold and removed from adult supervision, wandering through the landscape of their world to discover wonders. It was an ideal, perfect state that shaped all of Kenneth’s later stories.

He and his siblings spent a great deal of time playing in the attic, which they named the Gallery. Within the lofty room they constructed an imaginary city, one that excluded adults. Kenneth later used the mysterious image of this city, and other elements of his fantasy world at The Mount, within his published essays. Those memories evoked the purest elements of childhood and struck a chord with many of his readers. Alongside this image was the idea of a world free from the pressing concerns of adult life. Although Granny Ingles was always present, she was often an aloof figure. Kenneth did have distinct memories of one adult, though: Granny Ingles’ son.

David stayed at the house with the children for two years, before his marriage in 1866. Uncle David was a kind man and spent time playing with the Grahame children, often taking them with him when he traveled to town. These were always adventures, especially when viewed through the eyes of inquisitive children. For Kenneth, however, it was Uncle David’s fondness for rowboats that he loved best. David had studied at Trinity College in Cambridge, and was a skilled rower as well as a reverend. He would often take the children out on the ponds and rivers, telling them stories to pass the time as they explored the local waterways. Coupled with Kenneth’s early fondness for boats during his time in Scotland, David’s influence ensured that Kenneth would never lose a love of boating.

Though the Grahame children were never treated cruelly by the adults in their lives, those adults were largely absent, or were concerned with daily events that meant nothing to children. Uncle David’s attentions aside, Kenneth grew up believing that adults and children lived in separate worlds. It was a belief and an aesthetic fostered by many writers of Victorian children’s literature. It formed the core idea of Grahame’s essays and stories. Using mythic images from Ancient Greece, Kenneth later created the Olympians, a title his young narrators often use to speak of the adults in their lives.

Much like the Greek stories of gods and goddesses, Olympians were powerful, but aloof, untouchable, and often uncaring. Whether this characterization was truly deserved by the adults in young Kenneth’s life, it was certainly the way he later personified their behavior. His writing treats adults as the boring enemy of children, an enemy that should be avoided or ignored if possible. Adults represented social constraint, unwanted advice, and convictions that children could not possibly understand or care about.

Kenneth’s time at The Mount ended abruptly, just two years after he had arrived. During a windstorm in late 1865, one of the chimneys of the old house collapsed. Granny Ingles became concerned that the other chimneys of the home might also crumble. On the advice of one of James Grahame’s brothers, John, she took the children and moved to a smaller home. John had assumed some of the financial responsibility that Kenneth’s father lacked. John helped Granny Ingles pay for the children and their move into the new house. The family traveled to Berkshire to settle in a small village named Cranbourne, in early 1866. This transition must have been jarring for the four Grahame children. They had lost both their parents, and two homes, in just a handful of years. The house was owned by family members, however, and Granny Ingles’ financial worries eased somewhat.

To make matters worse that same year, James Grahame decided to ask that his children be returned to him in Scotland. Although initially they were excited to be reunited with their father, it rapidly became obvious that James acted out of some sense of guilt, rather than real responsibility and love. His drinking continued and threatened to completely derail his position as Sheriff, not to mention the toll it took upon the lives of his children. The young Grahames spent barely a year with James before they were again shuttled off to be with their Granny Ingles in England. James Grahame resigned his position and left Scotland in 1867. None of the children ever saw him alive again. Twenty years later he died alone of alcoholism, in a small town in France.

Kenneth later wrote about the trip that briefly returned him to his father. He and his siblings traveled by train, a mode of transportation that Kenneth never liked. The train became linked in his mind with disappointment and trips to dark places. Some of the characters from his later stories would speak of trains, always with negative connotations.

Education

Kenneth always wrote that his days of an innocent, carefree childhood ended when he was shipped off to boarding school. In 1868, he and his brother Willie were sent to St. Edward’s School in Oxford. Kenneth was nine years old and Willie had just turned ten. For children of this era, they were relatively old to be sent to such a school. Finances had kept them from the formal education that many wealthier families sought for their children at a much younger age. Up until this point, Kenneth and Willie were schooled at home. Both were bright, but education had not been the focus of their lives. Kenneth felt this sudden change to be gut-wrenching and he counted the transition as more painful than the loss of his parents.

The change was a shock, but the brothers quickly settled into a routine. After his initial horror at exposure to a more strict discipline than he was used to receiving, Kenneth found that Oxford held great joy. His beloved river, the Thames, flowed through the city. St. Edwards was far less strict than other schools of its type during that era. Rather than being forced to remain on campus during their off time, the students were left to roam the surrounding countryside and city as they pleased. Kenneth used every minute of this free time to continue his explorations of the dark and enigmatic river. From the very beginning, he loved the city of Oxford, with its ancient buildings and majestic stonework.

Kenneth spent seven years in school at Oxford. His time there further solidified his belief in the great rift between children and adults. At this point, he saw the two completely at odds, with no room for reconciliation. Children remained innocent and free, using their imaginations to create secret worlds that adults could not understand. The adults, on the other hand, were authoritarian, unpleasant, and bent on destroying any joy that childishness could bring. Kenneth became even more withdrawn, usually keeping his rich imaginings to himself. He published his first piece of writing during his school days. The essay was far different from the fantastic prose he would complete as an adult.

Kenneth began to write on a semi-formal basis for the first time in his life. He helped to edit the school paper, the Chronicle, and probably wrote many of the articles it published. Most of the articles were anonymous, however, and absolute authorship cannot be established by historians. Anonymity would become a theme for Kenneth. It was many years before he openly signed his name to the pieces he composed. When he was not writing, Kenneth actively pursued sports.

He became an accomplished cricket player, and played tennis and rugby as well. Although he was somewhat less healthy than his schoolmates, due to his bout of scarlet fever when he was very young, Kenneth managed to be awarded numerous trophies for various games. He enjoyed the physical activity. But it was exploring that he loved most.

Later in life, Kenneth wrote about his explorations of the city. He claimed to have memorized almost every stone, window, garden, and road he encountered. Whether by day, or in the magical gloom of night, he wandered the bridges, waterways, and streets of Oxford. The mystical atmosphere of the river seemed to create a natural, pagan perspective within Kenneth. He began to see nature as almost divine, worthy of worship. This feeling of nature as something wild and untamed, yet pure and holy, would later find itself personified in Grahame’s books.

Kenneth and Willie usually spent their holidays visiting either their Uncle John or Uncle Jack. John lived in London and was a very practical man. He did not particularly like Kenneth. He felt that Kenneth was too preoccupied with dreaming rather than the practicalities of life. It was exactly the sort of attitude that Kenneth believed all adults shared. Kenneth’s time spent with his maternal uncle Jack, during the summer, was more pleasant. Jack was a ranking officer aboard a boat in the British navy. He introduced Willie and Kenneth to the routines and joys of working on a large ship, bound for the sea.

Willie left St. Edwards in 1871 to return home to Granny Ingles. He had started to become ill on a routine basis and could not seem to shake the affliction. Kenneth remained in school, without his brother, and this only served to foster his sense of solitude. In 1875, Willie died while visiting his Uncle Jack with Kenneth. Willie contracted an infection of the lungs and there was nothing the doctors could do to cure him. The 15 year old Kenneth took the death very hard. He could no longer deny the harsh reality of growing up, as death had finally come to one of his lifelong playmates.

The year of 1875 would also mark the last days of Kenneth’s formal education. He very much wanted to finish his studies, thereafter to remain at Oxford to pursue further classes and schooling. He had risen in the academic ranks at St. Edwards, becoming the head of his class in many areas of study. It was not to be. Both Granny Ingles and Uncle John refused to pay for the privilege of further education. They felt that Kenneth would be better served getting a practical job that would bring in a steady wage. He was removed from school in late 1875. Granny Ingles had found him a respectable position as a clerk in a bank in London.

Unfortunately, Kenneth could not begin right away, as there was a waiting list for the position. While he waited to become a bank clerk, Kenneth went to work in the offices of his Uncle John. For the Grahame adults, it was a victory to know that one of the children would be able to provide for himself. For Kenneth, it was a catastrophic defeat to his dreams, in a world governed by Olympians.

Chapter 2: Clerk and Banker

At first, Kenneth pleaded that he be allowed stay in school, but it fell upon deaf ears. Historians believe that Uncle John could have afforded the tuition, although only barely. John was not a wealthy man. He did not seem to refuse Kenneth out of cruelty, but more out of the solid practicality for which he was well known. Kenneth had no choice but to concede to his uncle’s wishes, and he began his apprenticeship. Although it galled him bitterly within, Kenneth did his duty to his family.

Grahame’s expectations were correct;