Kenneth Grahame was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1859. His mother died when he was young
and, because his father drank heavily and was therefore unable to care for his
children, Grahame and his three siblings were raised by their maternal grandmother at
Cookham Dene, England. These early years on the shores of the Thames provided lasting inspiration for the author’s
essays and fiction.
Grahame was educated at St. Edward’s School,
Oxford. Though he clearly longed to spend his
life immersed in tranquil studies at the University of
Oxford, in 1878 limited finances obliged him to move to
London and take a post with the Bank of England.
The extent to which Grahame’s spirit chafed at the din and congestion of the imperial
metropolis is clear in his first recorded publication, the prose sketch “By a
Northern Furrow,” which appeared in the St. James's
Gazette in 1888. It is also powerfully manifested in his first
collection of essays, Pagan Papers (1893),
the frontispiece of which [Aubrey Beardsley](#ABE) (1872-1898)
designed. Deeply influenced by the work of Robert Louis
Stevenson (1850-1894), Pagan Papers’
nostalgic vignettes celebrate the lingering remnants of ancient modes of life and
acknowledge that those essential elements will soon be tarred over by crass modern
progress.
Pagan Papers was published by [John
Lane](#JLA) (1854-1925) at The Bodley Head and, a year later, Grahame showed up for
the first time in Lane’s Yellow Book. The fin de siècle was, in fact, Grahame’s most productive
literary period. In addition to publishing pieces in The Yellow
Book, National Observer, and St. James's Gazette, his story collections The Golden
Age (1895) and Dream Days
(1898) — both issued by Lane — were met with
considerable acclaim. In all three of his 1890s volumes, there is a clear stylistic
affinity with the decade’s jaundiced hues: “Summers sicken, flowers fail and
die, all beauty but rides round the ring and out at the portal” (Dream Days).
Grahame married Elspeth Thomson (1862-1946) in 1899, a relationship that
reputedly brought neither person much happiness.
In 1908, through a combination of ill health and financial ease, Grahame
was at last able to retire from the Bank of
England and return to his beloved upper Thames. That year also saw the publication of The
Wind in the Willows, a book that began as a series of bedtime stories for
and letters to his only child, Alastair
(affectionately known as Mouse).
In 1916 Grahame edited The Cambridge Book of Poetry
for Children. From that point onward, however, the rest is almost utter
silence, as Mouse’s untimely death in
1920 appears to have broken Grahame’s spirit and stifled his creative
drive. In 1932 Grahame passed away at his home in Pangbourne and was buried in a quiet Oxford churchyard.
© 2010, Morgan Holmes
Morgan Holmes holds a PhD in English from McGill University. The director of
WordMeridian Communications in Toronto, his research and publication focus on early
modern literature and culture, Victorian/Edwardian history, and current developments
in post-secondary education and health-care policies and service delivery.
Selected Publications by Grahame
“Dies Iræ.” The Yellow Book, Vol. 8 (Jan. 1896):
101-11.
Dream Days. London: John Lane at the Bodley Head,
1898.
“A Falling Out.” The Yellow Book, Vol. 4 (Jan.
1895): 195-201.
The Golden Age. London: John Lane at the Bodley Head,
1895.
“The Headswoman.” The Yellow Book, Vol. 3 (Oct.
1894): 25-47.
“The Iniquity of Oblivion.” The Yellow Book, Vol. 7
(Oct. 1895): 192-99.
“The Inner Ear.” The Yellow Book, Vol. 5 (April
1895): 73-76.
Introduction. The Cambridge Book of Poetry for
Children. Ed. Kenneth Grahame. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons,
1916.
Introduction. The Cambridge Book of Poetry for
Children. Ed. Kenneth Grahame. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons,
1916.
Introduction. The Cambridge Book of Poetry for
Children. By George Sanger. London: J.M. Dent, 1926.
Introduction. The Cambridge Book of Poetry for
Children. By George Sanger. London: J.M. Dent, 1926.
Introduction. Gazette. Ed. Kenneth Grahame. New
York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1916.
Introduction. Seventy Years a Showman. By George
Sanger. London: J.M. Dent, 1926.
“Long Odds.” The Yellow Book, Vol. 6 (July 1895):
78-86.
Pagan Papers. London: John Lane at The Bodley Head,
1893.
“The Roman Road.” The Yellow Book, Vol. 2 (July
1894): 211-19.
“To Rollo.” The Yellow Book, Vol. 12 (Jan. 1897):
165-66. [Poem.]
The Wind in the Willows. New York: C. Scribner’s &
Sons, 1908.
Selected Publications about Grahame
Chalmers, Patrick Reginald. Kenneth Grahame: Life, Letters
and Unpublished Work. London: Methuen, 1933.
Graham, Eleanor. Kenneth Grahame. London: Bodley
Head, 1963.
Green, Peter. Kenneth Grahame: A Biography. London:
John Murray, 1959.
Kuznets, Lois R. Kenneth Grahame. Boston: Twayne,
1987.
Prince, Alison. Kenneth Grahame: An Innocent in the Wild
Wood. London: Alison & Busby, 1994.