New York Times Bestselling author and Eisner Award-winning creator David Petersen (Mouse Guard) The Wind in the Willows will get a special hardcover edition providing a beautiful experience for the timeless story of Toad, Rat, Mole, and Badger.
This hardcover edition features both color and pen and ink illustrations throughout. Petersen illustrated over 60 new pages for this special edition! He will also be hand-signing each copy of the 1st printing.
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame was first published in 1908 and has introduced generations of adults and children to the entrancing, lyrical world of gurgling rivers and whispering reeds. Living among this beautiful world are four of the wisest, wittiest, noblest, and most lovable creatures in literature – Rat, Mole, Badger, and Toad of Toad Hall. These adventurers glory in life’s simplest pleasures and natural wonders. Toad’s passion for motorcars represents the free and fearless spirit in all of us. However, Toad is cocky and irrepressible in his goggles and overcoat. His downfall inspires other to test Grahame’s precious theme of loyalty and friendship.
“The Wind in the Willows has long been a favorite of mine. I love talking animal stories and I don’t know that they get better than Kenneth Grahame’s,” says David Petersen. “This is also a bucket list project for me, something I had to illustrate before I passed on. It’s been tremendously difficult to illustrate as I’m trying to live up to the spirit of the original text while living in the shadows of illustrators like E. H. Shepard, Arthur Rackham, Inga Moore, and Robert Ingpen (among many others) who have visualized this tale in ways impossible not to be influenced by. The challenge of doing this story right has lead me to push my work further than I ever have, and I think my artwork will be forever changed by it for the better.”
The Wind in the Willows hits stores this October!