Kenneth Grahame
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Kenneth Grahame (March 8, 1859 – July 6, 1932) was a Scottish novelist.
Grahame was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is most famous for writing The Wind in the Willows (1908), one of the classics of children's literature and originally written for his son Alastair who shared the waywardness of Toad of Toad Hall (a principal character). Grahame also wrote the children's story "The Reluctant Dragon," which is included in the collection Dream Days.
Grahame was orphaned as a child and went to live with his grandmother in England. He was an outstanding student at St Edward's School in Oxford and wanted to attend Oxford University but was not allowed to do so by his guardian on grounds of cost. Instead he was sent to work at the Bank of England which he did until retiring as Secretary of the Bank of England in 1907 due to ill health. He was shot during an unsuccessful bank robbery a few years earlier, which may have precipitated his retirement.
His marriage was unhappy. His son Alastair (Grahame's only child) was born blind in one eye and was plagued by health problems throughout his short life; Alastair Grahame eventually committed suicide on a railway track in Oxford while an undergraduate at the university, two days before his 20th birthday. Out of respect for Kenneth's feelings Alistair's demise was recorded as an accidental death.
Kenneth Grahame died in Pangbourne, Berkshire, England. He is buried in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford, near the grave of the American expatriate author James Blish.
Bibliography
- Pagan Papers (1893)
- The Golden Age (1895)
- Dream Days (1898)
- The Wind in the Willows (1908)
External links
- (Including all of the above four books)
- [Kenneth Grahame]: an appreciation of The Wind in the Willows
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