# Is "The Wind in the Willows" by Kenneth Grahame a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame (Methuen & Co., London, 1908) is identified by: Original-language (English) first edition: Methuen & Co., London, 1908 — published 8 October 1908. Original language is English, so no foreign-language "first English translation" applies.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- Original-language (English) first edition: Methuen & Co., London, 1908 — published 8 October 1908
- Octavo (approx
- 19.8 x 13.3 cm); collation pp. viii + 302 (dealer collations give roughly [1] + viii + 302 + terminal blank)
- Bound in publisher's green / dark blue-green cloth (variously cataloged "green" or "blue-green"), extravagantly stamped in gilt on spine and front board: the upper board bears the "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" (Pan) design and the spine shows Toad in motoring costume amid reeds; top edge gilt, other edges rough-cut / untrimmed
- Single black-and-white frontispiece by W. Graham Robertson with tissue guard — the text is OTHERWISE UNILLUSTRATED, which distinguishes the true 1908 first from the later fully-illustrated Shepard
- and Rackham
- Publisher imprint reads Methuen & Co., London

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Kenneth Grahame |
| Publisher | Methuen & Co., London |
| Year | 1908 |
| True first | American edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | Original-language (English) first edition: Methuen & Co., London, 1908 — published 8 October 1908 |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
Original-language (English) first edition: Methuen & Co., London, 1908 — published 8 October 1908. Octavo (approx. 19.8 x 13.3 cm); collation pp. viii + 302 (dealer collations give roughly [1] + viii + 302 + terminal blank). Bound in publisher's green / dark blue-green cloth (variously cataloged "green" or "blue-green"), extravagantly stamped in gilt on spine and front board: the upper board bears the "Piper at the Gates of Dawn" (Pan) design and the spine shows Toad in motoring costume amid reeds; top edge gilt, other edges rough-cut / untrimmed. Single black-and-white frontispiece by W. Graham Robertson with tissue guard — the text is OTHERWISE UNILLUSTRATED, which distinguishes the true 1908 first from the later fully-illustrated Shepard (1931) and Rackham (1940) editions. Title page dated 1908, Methuen imprint, verso with no statement of a later impression/edition. KEY DUST-JACKET POINT: the first-issue jacket is priced 6/- net on the front panel; the second-issue jacket is with its printed price (some surviving early-jacketed copies carry the printed price jacket, so the 6/- jacket is the primary-issue point). Jacketed copies are among the great rarities of children's-book collecting — roughly nine first-issue-jacketed copies recorded at auction in the last ~45 years (per Peter Harrington). Verified against Peter Harrington, Whitmore Rare Books, Fine and Finer Editions, Sotheby's listings, and Wikipedia.

## Is this the true first?
Original language is English, so no foreign-language "first English translation" applies. The relevant precedence question is the near-simultaneous transatlantic 1908 issue: the London Methuen edition (8 October 1908) is the universally cataloged true first edition, carrying the Graham Robertson frontispiece and unillustrated text. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York issued the American first edition the same season (1908), likewise with the Graham Robertson frontispiece and unillustrated text. Day-priority is contested: Wikipedia, Peter Harrington, Whitmore, Sotheby's and mainstream dealer consensus treat Methuen/London as the true first (Scribner "later"); a competing claim — sourced to a Books Tell You Why trade article and a Biblio listing echoing it — asserts the Scribner issue preceded Methuen by four days. That four-days claim traces to a single lineage rather than independent bibliographic authority, and the Methuen 1908 remains the collecting benchmark and the cataloged first edition.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition is relevant to first-edition identification. Beware conflating the 1908 first with later reissues: the Methuen edition was reprinted many times (later impressions state additional printings and/or carry the printed price second-issue jacket). Distinct illustrated editions — Paul Bransom (Scribner, 1913, first illustrated), Wyndham Payne (Methuen, 1927), Ernest H. Shepard (Methuen, 1931), and Arthur Rackham (Limited Editions Club, New York, 1940) — are separate publications, NOT states of the 1908 first, and are commonly mistaken for it.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Wind in the Willows* by Kenneth Grahame a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-wind-in-the-willows
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.