Winnie the Pooh Day

Winnie the Pooh – Remembering Alan Alexander Milne

Everybody wants to be remembered in this world. An artwork or invention, when recognized throughout generations is the true immortality that people hope to achieve. Immortality lies in the hearts of men. Who would have thought that the character Winnie the Pooh, would not only entertain children but would sing to the hearts and touch the lives of adults?

A Father’s Love
Alan Alexander Milne’s love for his child, Christopher Robin, brought life into the character of Winnie the Pooh. He is a Scottish boy who spent his childhood life in London. His father worked as a preparatory school master. He finished his schooling at Westminster School and at Trinity College in Cambridge. His writing skills and talent he attributed to his great mentor HG Wells whom he described as a great friend and writer.

It was in 1913 that Alan married Dorothy Daphne de Selincourt. They had a son named Christopher Robin whom he loved and who inspired him to write poems and stories. His first book on Winnie the Pooh appeared in 1926 The Bear with Very Little Brain. It was followed by Now We Are Six in 1927. In 1928, he published The House at Pooh Corner. These books were phenomenally successful. He was not satisfied, however, for he would have preferred writing detective books.

Writing children’s books was not his forte. He wrote plays and detective novels like The Red House Mystery. He also wrote essays, short stories, poems and plays and he was also a dramatist and a novelist. It’s Too Late Now was published in the year 1939. He was not indeed a children’s book writer. Instead, he read books for his kids written by Wodehouse. Wodehouse equally returned the compliment as he described Alan as his favorite author.

Winnie the Pooh Took the World by Storm
Over the years, Alan’s books were sold in millions of copies. It was translated and published in almost all the languages worldwide. The books were sought after both by the young and adults alike. Winnie the Pooh’s character did not only touch children’s imaginations. Adults sought the simplicity of Winnie’s character, which captures the children in our hearts.

It was 1952 when he was struck by an ailment and needed to undergo brain surgery. Although he survived the operation, it had left him invalid. He retired in Sussex and spent the rest of his life there. In 1956, he died of his illness.

It was only in 1966 that Walt Disney animated the character Winnie the Pooh. The real bear given by Alan to his son still exists today and was preserved in the Children’s Living Room of the New York Library.

Celebrating Winnie the Pooh Day on January 18th is not only an opportunity to relive the works of Alan Alexander Milne. Celebrating the birthday of Winnie the Pooh actually gives people a chance to relive again the friends of Winnie like Tiger, Eeyore, Piglet, Roo and Christopher Robin. What more could be greater than a work whose outcome could touch and spark millions of imaginations around the world. Perhaps this classic work has produced so many copies and yielded a lot of translations because people wanted to capture the most important thing in their lives – Love.