A(lan) A(lexander) Milne
1882-1956
May Hill Arbuthnot has noted that "we shall never encounter a writer who understands more completely the curious opposite of gravity and gaiety, of supreme egoism and occasional whimsy, that is the young child." Author A.A. Milne has been praised universally by young and old alike for his careful and accurate observations and descriptions of childhood and their special world full of play and imagination. He was also known in his time for his skill with language, especially his abilities with wordplay, verse and dialogue. Though his books of poetry, When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six are very popular, Milne is best known as the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh, the main character of the fantasies Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner. His books were inspired by viewing his son, Christopher Robin and his wife, Daphne, interact with toys in the nursery. He also took inspiration from his own happy childhood and his interactions with his father and his brother, Ken. Milne was born January 12, 1882 the youngest of the three sons of schoolmaster John Vine Milne and Sarah Maria Milne. He graduated with honors in mathematics from Cambridge. After graduating, he became a freelance writer and was later named assistant editor of the humor magazine Punch. He married Dorothy de Selincourt, better known as Daphne, June 4, 1913, and their son, Christopher Robin was born August 21, 1920. Though, he is known to the whole world as Christopher Robin, he was affectionately called Billy, and later Moon, by his family and friends. The teddy bear that went to become Winnie the Pooh was purchased not long after Christopher's birth. Christopher named his toy, Winnie, after a real black bear he enjoyed visiting at a zoo, Winnipeg, brought to Britain from Canada. He got "Pooh" from the name of a swan they had met on vacation. The real Winnie the Pooh and the majority of Christopher's stuffed friends that inspired Milne's books can be found today in the Donnell Library in New York City. Milne began writing the Pooh books after acquiring Cotchford Farm in East Sussex, and he based much of the settings on the nearby Ashdown Forest. Pooh Bear first started appearing in the pages of Punch magazine and then made his way into his first book of verses, When We Were Very Young published in 1924. The beginnings of Winnie-the-Pooh appeared as a story for a Christmas Eve issue of the Evening News with drawings by J.H. Dowd, followed by subsequent "chapters" published in the Royal Magazine and in the New York Evening Post with drawings by E.H. Shepard. The first edition of Winnie-the-Pooh came out October 14, 1926. Critic Margaret Blount has written, "Pooh [is] the most famous bear ever created", a very believable statement considering the huge success of Milne's books and all of the spinoffs, movies and merchandise that has come from the Pooh industry.
