Editing Kenneth Grahame (section)

===Retirement and later life===

Grahame retired from the Bank in 1908, aged forty-nine, ostensibly on the grounds of ill-health. In his resignation letter, Grahame stated that his health was being affected by his work.<ref name=Museum/> A different explanation for Grahame's retirement was offered by a former colleague, W. Marston Acres, who wrote in 1950 that Grahame's resentment of the bullying manner of a director during a discussion about official business provoked him into accusing the director of being "no gentleman". Marston Acres believed the director in question to be [[Walter Cunliffe, 1st Baron Cunliffe|Walter Cunliffe]] who would later become [[Governor of the Bank of England]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/CalmView/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=19A32%2F1&pos=2|title=Bank of England Archive - Letter from W Marston Acres dated  March 1950|access-date=10 October 2024}}</ref> On leaving the Bank, Grahame was awarded an annual pension of £400, although he could have expected to receive £710.<ref name=Museum/> In 1906, he had taken out a lease on a house called Mayfield (later Herries Preparatory School) in Cookham Dean, close to where he grew up.{{r|Green|p=102}}<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Story of Cookham|author=Robin & Valerie Bootle|year=1990|publisher=private, Cookham|isbn=0-9516276-0-0|page=188}}</ref>

''The Wind in the Willows'' was published in 1908, four months after the author's resignation from the Bank. Rejected at first by ''[[Everybody's Magazine]]'' in the United States and by Grahame's usual publishers, Bodley Head, the book was eventually published in the United Kingdom by [[Methuen Publishing|Methuen]], with an American edition released by [[Charles Scribner's Sons|Scribner]]. Reviews were generally unfavourable; a reviewer in ''[[The Times]]'' wrote: "Grown-up readers will find it monstruous and elusive, children will hope, in vain, for more fun". A rare positive review appeared in ''[[Vanity Fair (British magazine)|Vanity Fair]]'' where [[Richard Barham Middleton|Richard Middleton]] wrote that it was "the best book ever written for children and one of the best written for adults". The book sold well and continued to sell well, reaching 100 editions in the United Kingdom in 1951.{{r|Galvin|p=126-134}} In 1910, the Grahames moved from Cookham Dean to a farmhouse, Boham's, in the village of [[Blewbury]] near Oxford.{{r|Galvin|p=135-136}}

Grahame's son Alastair flourished at [[The Old Malthouse School]] but went on to have brief, and less happy, experiences at [[Rugby School]] and [[Eton College]] before having lessons with a private tutor to prepare for the [[University of Oxford]].{{r|Galvin|p=152-160}} During [[World War I]], Grahame did war work in the village, setting up a factory for surgical supplies, while Alastair was rejected for active service, probably on account of his poor eyesight, and went up to [[Christ Church, Oxford]] in 1918.{{r|Galvin|p=161-162}} On 7 May 1920, Alastair's body was found on the railway line near a level crossing in Oxford. Although the jury at the inquest returned a verdict of accidental death, rumours of suicide persisted. He was buried in [[Holywell Cemetery]] in Oxford on 12 May 1920, his twentieth birthday.{{r|Galvin|p=163-166}}

Following the death of their son, Grahame and Elsie went to Italy and spent several years travelling. When they returned to England, they settled at Church Cottage in the village of [[Pangbourne]], where Grahame died of a [[Intracerebral hemorrhage|cerebral haemorrhage]] on 6 July 1932. He was buried at the Church of St James the Less in Pangbourne, with his body later being removed to Holywell cemetery to be buried with Alastair. Grahame's cousin, Anthony Hope, wrote his epitaph: "To the beautiful memory of Kenneth Grahame, husband of Elspeth and father of Alastair, who passed the river on the 6th of July, 1932, leaving childhood and literature through him the more blest for all time." Elsie survived him by fourteen years.<ref name=ODNB/> Grahame bequeathed the royalties from his works to the [[Bodleian Library]], which also holds his archive.<ref name=ODNB/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://archives.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/repositories/2/resources/8558|title=Archive of Kenneth Grahame|access-date=22 March 2024|work=Bodleian Archives and Manuscripts}}</ref>

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Kenneth Grahame 16 Phillimore Place blue plaque.jpg|Blue plaque, 16 [[Phillimore Place]], London, home during 1901–1908
File:Kenneth_Grahame_his_gravestone.jpg|Grahame's headstone in [[Holywell Cemetery]], Oxford
File:Grave of Kenneth Grahame at Holywell.jpg|Alastair Grahame's grave at [[Holywell Cemetery]], Oxford
</gallery>