A. A. Milne

Alan Alexander Milne was born in Kilburn, London, to Sarah Marie and John Vine Milne, a schoolmaster. He attended Westminster School and then Trinity College, Cambridge, where he edited the undergraduate magazine Granta and contributed to Punch. After graduating in 1903, he worked as a freelance journalist and joined the staff of Punch in 1906, becoming assistant editor. His early writing included humorous essays and light verse, and he published his first novel, Lovers in London, in 1905. During the First World War, Milne served as a signals officer in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, and his war experiences informed his later anti-war play The Peaceful Inn (1925).¹

Milne's children's books, inspired by his son Christopher Robin and his stuffed animals, brought him international fame. When We Were Very Young (1924) and Now We Are Six (1927) are collections of poetry that capture childhood whimsy and imagination. The two prose books, Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928), introduced the bear of little brain and his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood, illustrated by E. H. Shepard. The character Winnie-the-Pooh was named after a real bear at London Zoo, and the stories were adapted into Disney films and countless merchandise. Milne, however, felt that these works overshadowed his other writing and once remarked that he was 'pigeon-holed' by them.²

Christopher Robin

Milne's son, whose toys inspired the characters.

Hundred Acre Wood

The fictional forest setting of the Pooh stories.

E. H. Shepard

Illustrator of the original Pooh books.