Winnie the Pooh: True Story Behind Goodbye Christopher Robin | Time
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Winnie-the– Pooh Day 18 January 2021 Winnie-the-Pooh Day is celebrated each year on 18 January, the birthday of author A. A. Milne. Alan Alexander Milne was a noted writer and playwright prior to the universal success he achieved with the publication of Winnie-the-Pooh. His son was Christopher Robin Milne, upon whom the character Christopher Robin is based. Background A. A. Milne was born in London in 1882. At school one of his teachers was H. G. Wells (The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds etc.). Milne studied Mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge. While at university, Milne edited and wrote for Granta (a student magazine) and this work led to him writing for the humour magazine Punch. He was a talented cricketer and played for two amateur teams, including the Authors XI that included teammates J. M. Barrie (Peter Pan), Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes) and P. G. Wodehouse (Jeeves and Wooster). He joined the army in WWI and served firstly as an officer in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, and then later (after recovering from a serious illness) switched to the Royal Corps of Signals. Injured at the Battle of the Somme he was invalided back to England in July 1916. After he recovered from his injuries, he was recruited into Military Intelligence to write propaganda articles for MI7. He had married Dorothy de Sélincourt in 1913 and their son, Christopher Robin Milne was born in 1920. During WWII Milne was a captain in the Home Guard in Hartfield & Forest Row. After the war he retired, suffering a stroke and undergoing brain surgery in 1952 that left him invalided. Milne died in 1956, aged 74. Writing After graduating from Cambridge in 1903 Milne wrote for Punch magazine and became an assistant editor in 1906. He was a prolific writer at this time, publishing 18 plays and three novels. His son was born in 1920 and four years later he published a collection of children’s poems When We Were Very Young, illustrated by artist (and fellow Punch employee) E. H. Shepherd. Milne also wrote film scripts at this time for the blossoming British film industry: The Bump; Twice Two; Five Pound Reward, and Bookworms. The British Film Archive has preserved some of these films. It is his two books about a boy names Christopher Robin, and a loveable bear that eventually brought Milne true fame. The animal characters in Winnie-the-Pooh, and The House at Pooh Corner were inspired by his son Christopher Robin’s stuffed toy animals. A teddy bear originally named Edward was renamed Winnie after the Canadian black bear that lived at London Zoo. Other toys – Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga, Roo and Tigger. Owl and Rabbit came Milne added to the mix from his own imagination. The real toys are now preserved and on display at the Central Public Library in New York. A. A. Milne, Christopher Robin Milne, and Winnie the toy bear in 1926. Christopher Robin Milne’s original toy animals on display in New York. The fictional Hundred Acre Wood derives from Five Hundred Acre Wood in Sussex where the Pooh stories are set. E. H. Shepherd spent time painting landscapes there so that the characters could be set in the landscape. E. H. Shepherd sketches for the book Winnie-the-Pooh 1929 onwards The succes of his childrens books was to become a source of considerable annoyance to Milne. One resaon he stopped wtiting children’s books, especially about Winnie-the-Pooh was the disgust he felt over the fame his son was exposed to. He did not want his son to grow to regret his connection to the stories when he was older. The rights to Milne’s Pooh books were left to four beneficiaries: his family, The Royal Literary Fund, Westminster School and the Garrick Club. After his death in 1956, and just a few weeks after his 74th birthday his widow sold her rights to the Pooh characters to Stephen Slesinger (US radio, TV and folm producer). When Slesinger died his widow sold the rights on again to the Walt Disney Company, which has since made many Pooh cartoon movies and shows, and produces Pooh merchandise. In 2001 the other beneficiaries sold their interest in the Estate to the Disney Corporation for $350m. In 2002 Winnie-the-Pooh merchandising products alone had annual sales of more than $5.9 billion. Disney had made a sound investment. In 2008, a collection of original E. H. Shepherd illustrations were sold at Sotherby’s, London. The sale made more than £1.2m. A memorial plaque in Ashdown Forest, unveiled by Christopher Robin Milne in 1979 commemorates the work of his father and E. H. Shepherd. A. A. Milne once wrote of Ashdown Forest: “In that enchanted place on top of the forest a little boy and his bear will always be playing”. Further information can be found at: A A Milne | Royal Signals Museum A.A. Milne - Poems by the Famous Poet - All Poetry Christopher Robin Milne - Wikipedia E.H. Shepard - Illustration History Pooh’s corners: magical stays in Ashdown Forest | Sussex holidays | The Guardian Winnie the Pooh: True Story Behind Goodbye Christopher Robin | Time If you love A. A. Milne’s Pooh books, you might just like these books: A Boy and a Bear in a Boat | BookTrust A boy, a mole, a fox and a horse: the recipe for a Christmas bestseller | Children and teenagers | The Guardian Fun activity ideas for little people: Why not create some ‘Hunny pot’ planters? You just need old plant pots, and some acrylic paints: If you have some paper plates you could have a go at making these: Follow this link to see if you can create an origami Winnie-the-Pooh (you may need help). The Winnie Pooh! How to make disney origami - YouTube .