A new edition of Kenneth Grahame 's 1895 collection of recollection of his childhood, The Golden Age. Its publication immediately put Grahame -- who later achieved literary immortality with his masterpiece The Wind in the Willows -- on the map, with noted literary luminaries like Algernon Charles Swinburne calling it "one of the few books which are well-night too praiseworthy for praise" and an instant classic. Grahame casts his childhood reminiscences in imagery and metaphor rooted in Ancient Greek mythology, with the adults cast as "Olympians" and the children "locked in perpetual [tension] with the adult 'Olympians' who have wholly forgotten how it feels to be young." This non-illustrated, reading edition is appropriate for readers of all ages. Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932) was a British author, most famous for his masterpiece children’s novel The Wind in the Willows , considered to be one of the definitive classics of children’s literature, as well as the story The Reluctant Dragon . Grahame’s work has been the subject of frequent stage and screen adaptations. While a young man, Grahame wrote light stories for magazines – many collected and published in The Golden Age and Dream Days – during his free time while working for the Bank of England. In 1908, he took an early retirement and wrote The Wind in the Willows , based on bedtime stories he conceived to entertain his son Alastair.