A(lan) A(lexander Milne (1882 - 1956 )

His principal fame came from the four children's books he wrote about a stuffed bear named Winnie-the-Pooh.

His Life:

Alan Alexandra Milne (Alan) born January 18th, 1882 was bought up in London in his farther's School, Henley House, with his brothers David Barrett Milne and Kenneth John Milne. While studying there he found inspiration in one of his teachers, H.G. Wells, who himself would go on to be a famous writer and a close friend to Alan. Years later, Milne described Wells as "a great writer and a great friend."

He continued his education at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. While an undergraduate at Cambridge he edited Granta for a year -- his first literary efforts were published in the humourous magazine Punch, where a month after his twenty-fourth birthday he started work as Assistant Editor, remaining there until the outbreak of the First World War.

In 1913, Milne married Dorothy Daphne de Selincourt and they had one son, Christopher. Although a noted pacifist, Milne enlisted in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and served in France. His famous denunciation of war entitled Peace With Honour was published in 1934. His writings met with great success between the wars and, in 1924, Methuen published When We Were Very Young, a collection of verses, many of which had already been eagerly read by his regular readers when they first appeared in Punch.

Two years later saw the introduction of the Bear of Very Little Brain inWinnie-the-Pooh. A second book of verses, Now We Are Six, appeared in 1927 and, in 1928, the final volume of the quartet arrived, The House At Pooh Corner. It had seemed to Milne at the time that he should be writing something meatier, like a detective story, which would hopefully earn £2,500! Even after the phenomenal success of Pooh, he was still to remain doubtful and wrote "I wanted to escape from them as I once wanted to escape from Punch as I have always wanted to escape. In vain ..."

A.A. Milne always acknowledged that it was his wife, Daphne, and his young son, Christopher Robin, who inspired him to write the poems and stories. History has a strange way of mixing fact and fiction, but, whatever the origins, the four Pooh books printed in over twenty-five languages have taken their rightful place in the hearts and on the bookshelves of many millions of people.

Milne prefered to amuse Christopher with the works of P.G. Wodehouse, one of Milne's favourite authors. Wodehouse's works continued to live long in the Milne household after his death, as Christopher frequently read the stories to his daughter, Clare and her bedroom shelves contain many of his novels.

In a letter to Peter, Christopher wrote, "My father did not write the books for children. He didn't write for any specific market; he knew nothing about marketing. He knew about me, he knew about himself, he knew about the Garrick Club -- he was ignorant about anything else. Except, perhaps, about life."

In 1952, Milne underwent an operation of the brain, which left him an invalid. He survived the operation and returned to his home at Cotchford Farm in Sussex, where he spent the rest of his life reading and in country pursuits. After a long illness, he died on 31st January, 1956.

His Books:

When We Were Very Young, the first of A.A. Milne's four world-famous books for children, introduced Christopher Robin to innumerable friends, and has probably been read more widely than any other book of verse for children published in our time.

For sheer delightfulness the children's rhymes of A.A. Milne are in a class by themselves, with their charm, humour, and understanding, to say nothing of their irresistible rhythms.

A story collection for children by A.A. Milne, published in 1926. Milne wrote the episodic stories of Winnie-the-Pooh and its sequel, The House at Pooh Corner (1928), for his young son Christopher Robin, whose toy animals were the basis for the characters and whose name was used for the young boy who appears in the tales as the benign master of the animals. The main character, Winnie-the-Pooh (sometimes called simply Pooh or Edward Bear), is a good-natured, honey-loving bear who lives in the Forest surrounding the Hundred Acre Wood. His companions are Eeyore, a gloomy gray donkey; Tigger, a frisky tiger; Piglet, a timid pig; Owl, a pontificating bird; the meddlesome Rabbit; and Kanga, an energetic kangaroo whose inquisitive baby, Roo, lives in her pouch.

A.A. Milne's second collection of poems has a different tone than his first; a little sly, a tad more mature, as befits little bookworms that have graduated from When We Were Very Young. Now Milne gives us the delightfully funny "Sneezles" (Christopher Robin had wheezles and sneezles, they bundled him into his bed), and the hilarious good girl Jane ("Well, what did they think that I went there to do? And why would I want to be bad at the zoo? And would I be likely to say if I had?") accompanied by Ernest Shepard's great pen and ink drawings (check out his picture of Jane trying to climb into the bears' cage in the zoo). Kids of all ages (and yes, that includes old coots over 30 like you and me) love reading and listening to the poems in this book. Highly recommended.

Ten adventures of Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger, Piglet, Owl, and other friends of Christopher Robin.

This from a fan: "This classic is listed under the age group of four to eight, and as a Poohphile I am quite appalled that it is. Winnie the Pooh books have such wit, wisdom, and humor that gets better every time I read them. Their not just for children, they are for everyone. Over the years, Christopher Robin, Winnie the Pooh, Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger, Kanga, and Roo have become some of my dearest chums. I once heard someone say, or perhaps I read it, that "books are like dear friends, and who has too many friends?" I am quite inclined to agree with that statement. This book is a dear friend of mine and I hope that you shall make it yours."