22 100 years ago in London
Winnie the Pooh arrives on the scene
On 14 October 1926, the first Winnie-the-Pooh book of short stories for children written by London-born author A. A. Milne and illustrated by the English artist and book illustrator Ernest Howard Shepard, was published
Prior to the publication of the book, Milne and Shepard had worked together on the British satirical magazine Punch. Together they produced a collection of poetry called When We Were Very Young in 1924. The poems included a teddy bear that Shepard based on his own son’ s toy bear. Shepard then encouraged Milne to write about his son Christopher Robin’ s toys, hence the inspiration for Winnie-the-Pooh.
Personified
Set in the fictional Hundred Acre Wood( based on the real Five Hundred Acre Wood in Ashdown Forest, East Sussex near Milne’ s country home), the book follows the adventures of the personified teddy bear Winniethe-Pooh and his friends – the human boy Christopher Robin( named after Milne’ s son), the timid Piglet who tries to be brave, the pessimistic yet wise grey donkey Eeyore, Owl, who acts as mentor to the friends, Rabbit, who likes to take the lead, Kanga, a female kangaroo and Roo, the son of Kanga.
The spark for the character of Winniethe-Pooh came from a stuffed toy that Milne had bought for Christopher Robin in Harrods and a bear named Winnie they had seen at London Zoo. The other animals were also inspired by Christopher Robin’ s toys.
Instant success
Winnie-the-Pooh was an instant success and sold 150,000 copies by the
end of the year. The book’ s appeal lies in its idyllic pastoral setting and the fact it does not deal in‘ real world’ matters. The stories can be read independently because they do not follow on from one another. In the first story, Winnie-the- Pooh tries to climb a tree to get some honey but falls off, bouncing on the branches as he goes. In a later story, Christopher Robin and all the animals go on a quest to find the North Pole in the Hundred Acre Wood.
Two years later, the House at Pooh Corner was published. AA Milne’ s second book of short stories featured the same characters inhabiting the Hundred Acre Wood but also introduced Tigger, a human-like tiger also based on one of Christopher Robin’ s toys.
Franchise
The Winnie-the-Pooh books were eventually translated into over 50 languages. In 1966, stories and characters were turned into a franchise by The Walt Disney Company, starting with Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree.
Born in Kilburn in 1882, AA Milne was educated at Westminster School and
Trinity College, Cambridge. He served in World War I as an officer in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment. Milne was already an established writer by the time Winnie-the-Pooh was published. Between 1903 and 1925, he published 18 plays and three novels, plus a collection of short stories for children named A Gallery of Children. However, he is best known for his Winnie-the- Pooh books. Milne married Dorothy de Sélincourt in 1913 and Christopher Robin was born seven years later. He died at home in Sussex in 1956.
Scholarship
Ernest Howard Shepard was born in St John’ s Wood in 1879 and educated at St Paul’ s School. After attending Heatherley School of Fine Art in Chelsea and the Royal Academy Schools, he won a Landseer scholarship in 1899 and a British Institute prize the following year. Shepard became a successful illustrator – his work covered illustrated editions of Aesop ' s Fables, David Copperfield and Tom Brown ' s Schooldays. In 1907, he began contributing to Punch where he collaborated with AA Milne. Married twice, he had two children, Graham and Mary. Shepard died in March 1976.
A century on, their books are still delighting children.
100 years ago in London is researched and written by Alexa Michael