House of Gordon USA
A. A. Milne
Alan Alexander Milne was born in London on 18
January 1882. He grew up at Henley House School
which his father ran!
Did you know he went to Cambridge University where
he studied on a mathematics scholarship? So how did
he become a writer? Well while at Cambridge he was
the editor of the student paper Granta! He also
co-wrote several articles with his brother Kenneth
which appeared in Granta under the initials AKM (Alan
& Kenneth Milne). These came to the attention of the
editor at Punch, the leading humor magazine in Britain and they hired him!
He served in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment during WWI and later after a very serious illness
moved to the Royal Corps of Signals. And during WWII he served as a Captain in the Home Guard
(like our National Guard) in Hartfield & Forest Row. But he insisted on being plain 'Mr. Milne' to the
members of his platoon!
He wrote 18 plays and 3 novels between 1906 and 1925. But it was the appearance of the poem
Teddy Bear which signaled the character we best remember him for -- Winnie-the Pooh! One of
the illustrations for Teddy Bear showed Winnie-the-Pooh wearing a shirt which was later colored
red when reproduced on a recording produced by Stephen Slesinger. This is the way Disney
portrayed him and how we all have come to see the bear who kept Christopher Robin Milne
company on many an adventure!
The original Pooh toys were well loved and played with by the family dog as well as Christopher
Robin. The now live at the New York City Public Library! They first came to America on tour in 1947
and Milne provided a birth certificate to travel with them! His American publishers insured them for
$50,000 which in today's dollars would be over a half a million dollars! They stayed at Dutton
Publishers until they made a brief trip home VIP on a Concorde Jet in 1969. Then in 1987 they left
Dutton Publishers to make their home at New York City Public Library's Donnell Branch in the
Central Children's Room.
The Real
Winnie-the-Pooh, Kanga,
Piglet, Eeyore, and Tigger.
Eeyore's neck lost it's
stiffening and so his head
hangs down making him
look sad. Roo was lost in
an orchard in the 1930's.
Owl and Rabbit were
inspired by real animals at
Crotchford Farm where the
Milnes lived -- it is the real
Hundred Acre Woods!
Christopher Robin named his bear
Winnie-the-Pooh after his two favorite animals.
Winnipeg a Canadian Black Bear who was on
loan to the London Zoo from the Lt. Harry
Coleburn and the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade.
Winnipeg nicknamed Winnie was their mascot,
and they couldn't take her with them when they
went to fight WWI in France, so they loaned her to
the zoo. Later she was given to the London Zoo
as she had become the most popular animal!
Pooh, a black swan was the other animal to
inspire Christopher Robin. So his bear became
Winnie-the-Pooh -- the meant that HIS bear was a
boy because Winnie was a girl's name and
everyone knows that "THE" means it is a boy!
