A.A. Milne and Winnie the Pooh
Christina Weigand
Alan Alexander Milne was born January 18, 1882. And he died January 31, 1956. Because of these two dates falling around the date of this post I thought it appropriate to write about him instead of continuing exploring some of the Inklings. No worries I will return to the Inklings in my next post.
Alan Alexander Milne otherwise known to readers as A. A. Milne and author of Winnie the Pooh was born in London to John and Sarah Marie Milne. He attended Henley House School, a small school that his father ran. One of his teachers was H. G. Wells. He attended Westminster School and Trinity College. While there he and his brother Kenneth wrote for the student magazine. After graduating with a B.A. in Mathematics, he came to the attention of a leading humor magazine where he became a contributor and later editor. Along with J. M. Barrie and Arthur Conan Doyle, Milne played on an amateur English cricket team.
While writing for the magazine he published several plays and novels. When his son was born he wrote a collection of children’s poems that were illustrated by E. H. Shepard. He also wrote a series of children’s stories that would later become a part of the Winnie the Pooh books.
During this time he was also a screenwriter for a British film company where he wrote four stories. Throughout this period every time he suggested that he would write in a specific genre he was told by his agent that the genre was not what the country wanted and encouraged him to write in another genre. He finally came to the conclusion “the only excuse which I have yet discovered for writing anything is that I want to write it; and I should be as proud to be delivered of a Telephone Directory con amore as I should be ashamed to create a Blank Verse Tragedy at the bidding of others.”
Milne’s famous Winnie the Pooh books were about a boy named after his son and his son’s stuffed animals the most famous being Winnie the Pooh. Originally the bear was named Edward, but was eventually renamed after Winnie after the black bear used as a military mascot during WWI and later left to the London Zoo. Pooh comes from a swan the boy had named Pooh. The Hundred Acre Wood was modeled after the Five Hundred Acre Wood in East Sussex that Milne lived on the edge of.
Milne became annoyed with the success of the books. He felt amazement and disgust over the fame his son was exposed to. Later his son came to resent what he saw as his father’s exploitation of his childhood.
After his death he left the rights to the Pooh books to four beneficiaries. Eventually all the beneficiaries sold the rights to Disney. Disney has since made many Pooh movies, a Disney channel television show and Pooh related merchandise.
The bulk of Milne’s papers are housed at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. The original manuscripts are archived at Trinity College, Cambridge.
Besides the Pooh books which he is best known for he wrote several novels including:
The Red House Mystery a detective novel
and Once on a Time.
He also wrote non-fiction, articles for Punch the humor magazine and other newspapers, story collections and poetry for children and adults, as well as numerous screenplays and plays.
Sources for the quote and photos is Wikipedia
and Amazon
Sources for the quote and photos is Wikipedia
and Amazon
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