Oh bother, it’s A.A. Milne’s birthday!
"Life is a journey to be experienced, not a problem to be solved.” - Winnie-the-Pooh
Pooh in one in one of the original illustrations by E.H. Shepard.
Alan Alexander Milne is the author behind some of the most beloved characters of all time - Winnie-the-Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger, Kanga and Roo.
Born in London in January 1882 - Milne intersected with some of the great writers and writers-to-be of the age - one of this elementary school teachers was H.G. Wells. Later, he played cricket on a school team alongside P.G. Wodehouse, Arthur Conan Doyle, and J.M. Barrie.
After a stint serving in the British Army in World War I, he and his wife Daphne had a son in 1920. They named him Christopher Robin.
Milne, his son Christopher Robin, and the stuffed bear who inspired so many adventures.
Milne did not start his writing career with children’s books or Winnie-the-Pooh. He initially wrote plays and novels and even screenplays for the growing British film industry. The Pooh books about a boy named Christopher Robin were inspired by his son and his stuffed animals (the originals are now at the New York Public Library). Two characters from the mind of A.A. Milne were added to Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo and Tigger - Rabbit and Owl.
The Hundred Acre Wood was a fictionalized version of a forest in East Sussex where Milne and his family had a farm.
The first publication of Winnie-the-Pooh in The Evening News.
The Pooh stories became a smash hit - becoming Disney cartoons; a collection of the Pooh illustrations sold for more than a million at a London Sotheby’s auction in 2008; and UK polls have voted Winnie-the-Pooh onto lists of “icons of England.”
Penguin - a new character introduced in 2016 - in “The Best Bear in All the World” was inspired by a photo of the author with his son and a toy penguin. (https://www.bbc.com/news/av/entertainment-arts-37401359/listen-to-the-moment-winnie-the-pooh-meets-penguin-friend-in-new-book )
In 2018, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London staged a blockbuster Winnie-the-Pooh exhibition - here’s a look at it through the eyes of the children visiting - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGOpwDOdHp0 And a slightly more grown-up look from the BBC - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tv_-a8pfGHw
A great write-up here about the 90-plus year journey of this bear from pencil sketch to beloved Disney character. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-winnie-the-poohs-90-year-journey-pencil-sketch-disney-icon
You can read a the complete volume of tales and poems here in The Complete Winnie-the-Pooh.