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Winnie-the-Pooh was first introduced by author A.A. Milne 94 years ago in 1926. The much-loved character has never been far from the spotlight since then. From a 1977 film, to a 2011 animated movie Winnie the Pooh to a more recent version that revolves around his childhood friend Christopher Robin, several television series and more that’s become a Disney franchise, the honey (hunny)-loving bear even inspired the 1970 Kenny Loggins song House at Pooh Corner.
A. A. Milne’s Winnie-The-Pooh has been a classic for generations. Let’s take a look at some interesting facts about the character, its creator A.A. Milne and illustrator EH Shepard.
How did Winnie-the-Pooh come into being?
The book was published approximately 94 years ago in 1926, however, the beloved character was given by Milne to his son for his first birthday on August 21, 1921. That bear was originally named Edward. The name Winnie came from a brown bear that young Christopher Robin Milne visited in the London Zoo.
Is Winnie-the-Pooh a male bear or a female?
The character has always been referred to as a ‘he’ in the literary works and films. The bear who inspired the character was rescued by a veterinarian doctor from Canada, Harry Colebourn in 1914, who named it Winnipeg, after his hometown. The ‘Pooh’ part of the name came from a swan that the Milne family saw while on a holiday.
There was some speculation though that the lovable bear was based on a female black bear.
Christopher Robin
Up until the age of eight or nine, A.A. Milne’s son, Christopher Robin, who has also featured in the books, liked the fame his father’s works brought unto him. He was, however, bullied for it when he went to boarding school, which made him despise everything about the book and the character. He even found it hard to build a career for himself as a twenty-something eventually believing that A.A. Milne had used his son to earn his fame.
Hundred-Acre Wood, a real place?
Hundred-Acre Wood, the stretch of forest where Winnie the Pooh lives with his friends, wasn’t entirely based on fantasy. It is based on Ashdown Forest, a wooded area neighbouring the author’s home in Sussex, England.
AA Milne was taught by HG Wells (The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds)
A.A. Milne was best-known as the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh but he attended Cambridge’s Trinity College and secured a BA in Mathematics. In primary school, he was taught by British novelist HG Wells and he also played cricket alongside JM Barrie (Peter Pan), PG Wodehouse (multiple works) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes).
Winnie Ille Pu: The Latin translation
Despite being termed a ‘dead’ language, it’s possible to translate nearly anything into Latin. Winnie-the-Pooh’s Latin translation was published for the first time in 1960. The translator Alexander Lenard was also a poet, painter, musician and a physician, but he is best-known for Winnie Ille Pu. It’s also the only book to become a New York Times bestseller, where it remained for 20 weeks. It starts with, “Ecce Eduardus Ursus scalis nunc tump-tump-tump occipite gradus pulsante post Christophorum Robinum descendens.”
Winnie-the-Pooh: Exploring a Classic and other exhibitions
Author A.A. Milne and illustrator E.H. Shepard brought the Winnie-the-Pooh stories to life in the form of witty prose and playful drawings. Milne was inspired by his young son’s stuffed toys to create stories about a boy named Christopher Robin (his son’s first and middle names) and his beloved Winnie-the-Pooh, also known as Pooh Bear. Winnie-the-Pooh: Exploring a Classic, A collection of EH Shepard’s original drawings (which fetched around £1.3 million) and several exhibitions and related auctions have made these works more accessible to fans of the works.
Taoism in Pooh’s world
What could a simple, profound children’s book have to do with a complex branch of philosophy? An American author called Benjamin Hoff wrote The Tao of Pooh in 1982 which was intended to interpret philosophy for readers in the West using excerpts from the Winnie the Pooh books. Winnie-the-Pooh himself personifies the principles of wu wei, the Taoist concept of effortless doing, and p’u, the concept of being open to, but unburdened by experience. It is also a metaphor for human nature. In contrast, characters like Owl and Rabbit over-complicate problems, often over-thinking to the point of confusion. Eeyore, the adorable but deeply depressed donkey, pessimistically complains and frets about existence, unable to just be. Hoff regards Pooh’s simple-minded nature, unsophisticated worldview and instinctive problem-solving methods as conveniently representative of the Taoist philosophical foundation.
Here are a few heartwarming quotes by A.A. Milne, spoken by the lovable Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends:
“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”
“Some people care too much. I think it’s called love.”
“How do you spell ‘love’?” – Piglet
“You don’t spell it… you feel it.” – Pooh
“Sometimes,’ said Pooh, ‘the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.”
“One of the advantages of being disorganized is that one is always having surprising discoveries.”
“The things that make me different are the things that make me.”
“Don’t underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.”
“If there ever comes a day when we can’t be together, keep me in your heart. I’ll stay there forever.”
“Friendship,” said Christopher Robin, “is a very comforting thing to have.”
“Pay attention to where you are going because without meaning you might get nowhere.”
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