CARRYING a solitary balloon, a small bear with a big heart entered our lives 100 years ago.
Winnie-The-Pooh made his first proper appearance in a British newspaper in the story The Wrong Sort Of Bees on Christmas Eve 1925.
The tale, which inspired one of the best-loved characters in children’s literature, was written by AA Milne.
A book about the honey-loving bear was published in 1926, and an incredible 50million copies have been sold. It went on to be named one of the Top Ten kids’ books ever written.
The stories were translated into some 72 languages — including Latin — and a sequel, The House At Pooh Corner, followed in 1928.
But it was Pooh’s debut in the London Evening News a century ago that would transform the lives of Milne, book illustrator EH Shepard and Milne’s son Christopher Robin, whose imaginary adventures featured in the tales.
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Pooh had been mentioned before, in a collection of the writer’s poems called When We Were Very Young, but only as Teddy Bear or Mr Edward Bear.
However, when Christopher Robin got a toy bear from Harrods and called it Winnie, after a famous Canadian grizzly he loved to visit at London Zoo, a legend was born.
The young boy also had toys Tigger, Eeyore, Kanga and Piglet, who became Pooh’s friends in the fictional Hundred Acre Wood.
James Campbell, author of The Men Who Created Winnie-The-Pooh: The Lives Of AA Milne and EH Shepard, told The Sun: “When Milne published When We Were Very Young, illustrated by Shepard, it became very clear there was a real interest in the bear.
“It was six years after the end of the First World War, then we’d had this terrible Spanish flu. People felt it was OK to start enjoying themselves again and this is when Pooh entered the public consciousness.”
Despite being a pacifist, Milne heeded Lord Kitchener’s rallying cry for troops and served in the First World War. He joined the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in 1915 and spent four months on the Somme.
But Milne, a second lieutenant, was involved in a disastrous attack which left 60 dead before being evacuated with trench fever in November 1916.
He only ever wrote two books about Pooh, who was illustrated in vibrant yellow and wearing a red shirt when he first appeared in colour in 1932.
The bear later got a Disney makeover, losing the hyphens from his name. Merch sales generated billions.
James said of Milne’s decision not to write more stories: “He was very clear he didn’t want to go on. The publishers were very upset. They offered packets of money, but he was adamant.
“He was a successful playwright, writing articles for magazines and newspapers and publishing novels. These books were a sideline.”
Sadly, Christopher Robin, whose Winnie teddy is on display at the New York public library along with his other stuffed toys from the books, grew to resent the character and his father because of the huge fame their stories brought him.
He was taunted at school and claimed his childhood had been exploited. Later, he became estranged from both his parents.
Such a sad end for a family who brought so much joy to so many children the world over.
- Winnie-the-Pooh is now available in a collectable 100th anniversary hardback edition, published by HarperCollins.
