winnie the pooh, the “bear of very little brain”, is still a bear with a lot of fame. In fact, the Pooh is honored every January 18, also known as Winnie the Pooh Day. That particular date was chosen because it is the birthday of Alan Alexander Milne (A.A. Milne), author of Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh’s Corner (1928).
Without Milne, Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and the rest of the gang would never have seen the light of day. In honor of the creator of Pooh, let’s take a look at five fascinating facts about the man behind the honey-loving bear.
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1. winnie the pooh really existed
Milne didn’t encounter a real bear, accompanied by a group of animal friends, wandering through the hundred-acre forest, but almost every character in his books had real-life counterparts. Christopher Robin, Pooh’s human sidekick, was named for him by Milne’s own son, Christopher Robin Milne (who was less than enthusiastic about his inescapable association with popular books as he grew older). winnie the pooh was christopher’s teddy bear.
Christopher Milne also played with a stuffed pig, a tiger, a couple of kangaroos, and a downtrodden donkey (the owl and rabbit were invented solely for the books). and the hundred-acre forest bears much resemblance to the ash forest, where the milnes had a nearby home.
today, the original toys that inspired milne (and his son) can still be seen in the new york public library. (all except roo, i.e. lost in the 1930s).
2. milne wrote much more than ‘winnie-the-pooh’
although he went to cambridge to study mathematics, milne began to focus on writing while still a student. After earning his degree from him in 1903, he pursued a writing career and was soon producing humorous pieces for Punch magazine. milne took over the duties of assistant editor at punch in 1906.
Following his service in World War I, Milne became a successful playwright (along with original plays, he wrote adaptations, such as Turning the Wind into the Willows in the hit Toad in the Toad’s Hall). Milne was also the author of a popular detective novel, The Red House Mystery (1922).
However, once his Winnie the Pooh books burst onto the scene, Milne’s name became forever associated with children’s writing. now her other works are largely forgotten.
3. milne worked for a secret propaganda unit
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during the first world war, milne saw action as a soldier, including at the battle of the somme. When illness left him unfit for the front, his talent for writing led him to join a secret propaganda unit, MI7B, in 1916.
by this time, the growing number of victims of the first world war had diminished public support and an anti-war movement was growing. The goal of Milne’s propaganda unit was to bolster support for the war by writing about British heroism and German meanness.
despite being a pacifist, milne followed the orders he was given. but at the end of the war, he was able to express how he felt about the job. before the group disbanded, he prepared a farewell pamphlet for himself, the green book. it contained contributions from many mi7b writers, and milne’s sentiments can be seen in these lines of verse:
“in mi7b,
who loves sleeping with me
about atrocities
and there are corpse factories.”
4. got into a fight with p.g. wooden house
When he was young, Milne was friends with the author p.g. Wodehouse, creator of the unflappable butler Jeeves. the two even joined j.m. barrie, the man behind peter pan, on a celebrity cricket team. However, Wodehouse made a decision during World War II that Milne could not forgive.
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wodehouse was living in france when the german army swept through. he was arrested and sent to live in a civilian internment camp. But when the Germans realized who they had captured, they took Wodehouse to a luxury hotel in Berlin and asked him to record a series of broadcasts about his internment. Wodehouse, much to his later regret, agreed.
In the talks, which were broadcast in 1941, Wodehouse maintained a light and inconsequential tone that was not well received during the war. Among his harshest critics was Milne, who wrote to the Daily Telegraph: “The irresponsibility of what the newspapers call ‘an authoritative humourist’ can be carried too far; naivety can be taken too far. wodehouse has received many licenses in the past, but I imagine that now they will take the license away.”
(Some speculated that Milne’s main motivator was not anger but jealousy; at the time, Wodehouse was still receiving literary praise while Milne was only seen as the creator of Winnie the Pooh.)
The rift continued even after the war ended, with Wodehouse declaring at one point: “nobody could be more anxious than I…for alan alexander milne to trip on a loose cord and break his bloody neck.”
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5. milne was unhappy in his later years
with his stories about winnie the pooh, milne brought joy to the lives of many people. unfortunately, his own life later was less than happy. Although he continued to write plays, novels, and other pieces in the 1930s and 1940s, Milne could not match his earlier success. he also didn’t like being pigeonholed as a children’s writer.
Things were no brighter on the family front: As an adult, Christopher Milne harbored resentment toward his father; In his autobiography, he wrote that he felt that Milne “had stolen my good name and left me with nothing but the empty fame of being his son.” During Milne’s later years, Christopher rarely saw his father.
In the fall of 1952, Milne had a stroke. he was confined to a wheelchair until his death in 1956.
his last years were not happy ones, but milne once remarked that “a writer wants more than money for his work: he wants permanence”. Thanks to Winnie the Pooh’s enduring popularity, they granted it.
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