Page:Arthur Rackham (Hudson).pdf/89

 recently been published, with only a frontispiece by Graham Robertson as illustration, and they were anxious that Arthur Rackham should illustrate it – particularly the incident of the field-mice singing carols. Rackham’s reply, which is reproduced below, ends with an amusing self-portrait and reveals him as an early admirer of The Wind in the Willows. He had been the author’s choice as the illustrator, but had had to refuse, reluctantly, owing to pressure of other work. Hence the fact that the illustrations most usually associated with Kenneth Grahame’s masterpiece are E. H. Shepard’s. It was not until nearly thirty years later that Rackham got another chance to illustrate The Wind in the Willows, when an American publisher commissioned a delightful set of drawings from him, which have a special charm born of long affection. They are the last drawings he ever made.