Books

First edition, first impression, of Milne's first collection of stories featuring the famous bear. Christopher Robin's stuffed bear, bought at Harrods for his first birthday, was known initially as Edward or Edward Bear. It was renamed Winnie-the-Pooh after two real animals: a favourite bear cub at London Zoo, "Winnie", and a friend's swan, which Robin christened "Pooh". The toy inspired the "Teddy Bear" poem in When We Were Very Young (1924) and a story Milne contributed to the London Evening News, "The Wrong Sort of Bees", which later provided the basis of the first chapter in Milne's follow-up book, Winnie-the-Pooh (1926). This story collection was an immediate success and garnered even more enthusiastic reviews than its poetic predecessor. One critic wrote, "when the real Christopher Robin is a little old man, children will find him waiting for them. It is the child's book of the season that seems certain to stay" (Thwaite, p. 317). Octavo. Original green cloth, spine lettered in gilt, front cover with vignette of Pooh and Robin enclosed with gilt rule, yellow map endpapers, top edge gilt. Line drawings throughout by E. H. Shepard. Spine a touch darkened, else bright, minor edge rubbing, usual tanning of endpapers, contents clean. A near-fine copy. Payne IIA. Ann Thwaite, A. A. Milne: His Life, 1990.

Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear, is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by English author A.A. Milne. The first collection of stories about the character was the book 'Winnie-the-Pooh' (1926), and this was followed by 'The House at Pooh Corner' (1928). Milne also included a poem about the bear in the children's verse book 'When We Were Very Young' (1924) and many more in 'Now We Are Six' (1927). All four volumes were illustrated by E.H. Shepard.