Word: toadding
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...house of Scribner got from Kenneth Grahame, secretary of the Bank of England, a manuscript entitled Mr. Toad. Publisher Charles Scribner II was doubtful of its success. Author Grahame's previous juveniles (The Golden Age, Dream Days) had been about children, whereas Mr. Toad was about animals, with nary a child from start to finish...
...Publisher Scribner was unduly worried. Retitled The Wind in the Willows, the Book of Toad has proved one of the sturdiest juvenile successes ever known. In Britain alone it has sold 1,338,000 copies; in the U.S. it has never been out of print. Year in year out, it keeps its appeal in literature's most competitive, most unpredictable market. For children, as an editor of juveniles noted recently, "are the most difficult of all readers to write for . . . The editor's real job is to help the writer bridge the chasm between the child...
...Toad's Mockery. In The Wind in the Willows (newly reissued by Scribner, with illustrations by Ernest Shepard; $2.50), Grahame deals with sensible animals whose aim is to enjoy life to the full. Mr. Rat, who lives in a well-furnished hole in the riverbank, is just like any middle-class bachelor with a riverside bungalow-except that he is sensible enough to spend his days boating instead of in an office. And his friend Mole is the same kind of fellow...
Faction v. Faction. Soon afterward, a new statue appeared on Don Silvio's lawn -a large toad with a human head. Carmine Guarino saw it and made the mistake of complaining in public. Soon all of Contrada was flocking to the Capuana estate to look at the new portrait and laugh at its subject. Professor Guarino writhed in an agony of shame. Silvio broke precedent by driving into the village to write, "Life can be beautiful," in bold, black letters on the side of his desecrated tomb. Carmine promptly brought suit for defamation of character...
...being shut out. But when the verdict came, nobody could say who was the victor. The offending statue was ordered put out of sight, and Silvio got a six-month suspended jail sentence. But Carmine was distressed nonetheless. "The constituted order confirms it," he moaned. "I do have that toad's face...