In the clutches of Winnie the Pooh and his own wife: two troubles for Alan Milne. Milne Alan Alexander: biography, career, personal life Writer Milne biography
Milne Alan Alexander(1882-1956) - prose writer, poet and playwright, classic of twentieth-century literature, author of the famous " Winnie the Pooh».
Biography
Scottish by birth Alan AlexanderMilne spent his childhood in London. Since childhood I dreamed of becoming a writer.
Milne grew up in a family where children were encouraged to be creative, with youth he composed funny poems and showed aptitude for exact sciences.
He studied at a private school, owned by his father. Then he entered Westminster School, and then Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied mathematics.
His early education was largely determined by the influence of his youth teacher J. Wells - much later Milne wrote of Wells as "a great writer and a great friend." He continued his education at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. Subsequently, he presented the handwritten original of his book “ Winnie the Pooh" and "The House at Pooh Edge" in the College Library.
During his student years, while a student at Cambridge, he fulfilled his long-time dream by becoming the editor of the magazine Granta, for which he wrote poems and stories, and his first literary experiences were published in the humorous magazine Punch.
As a result, Milne completely abandoned his studies and moved to London, where he began working at Punch magazine.
A month after his twenty-fourth birthday, Milne began working for Punch as assistant editor until the outbreak of the First World War.
In 1913 he married Dorothy de Selincourt, goddaughter of magazine editor Owen Seaman (said to be the psychological prototype of Eeyore), and his only son Christopher Robin was born in 1920.
A born pacifist, Milne was drafted into the Royal Army and served in France.
His famous anti-war work, An Honorable Peace, was published in 1934. This book found a huge response in interwar times, and in 1924 Meffin published the famous stories Milna"When We Were Very Young", some of which had previously been published in Punch and were well known to the magazine's regular readers.
By that time, Milne had written several funny plays, one of which, Mister Pym Passed (1920), was a success.
When his son was three years old, Milne began to write poems about him and for him, devoid of sentimentality and accurately reproducing children's egocentrism, fantasies and stubbornness.
The colossal success of the book of poems, illustrated by Ernest Shepard, prompted Milne to write the fairy tales Prince Rabbit (1924), The Princess Who Couldn't Laugh and The Green Door (both 1925), and in 1926 he wrote Winnie the Pooh. All the characters in the book (Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, Kanga and Roo) except Rabbit and Owl were found in the nursery (the toys that served as prototypes are now kept in the Teddy Bear Museum in the UK), and the topography of the Forest resembles the area around Cotchford, where the family Milna spent the weekend.
Two years later, in 1926, the first version of Winnie the Pooh appeared. The second part of the stories “Now there are six of us” appeared in 1927 and, finally, the final part of the book “The House on the Pooh Edge” was published in 1928. Milne it seemed that he had written something like a well-selling detective story, because his book immediately earned two and a half thousand pounds. Even after the dizzying success of Winnie the Pooh Milne was in doubt about his literary talent. He wrote: “All I wanted was to run away from this fame, as I used to want to run away from Punch, as I always wanted to run away... However...”
In 1922 he actually wrote a detective story, The Mystery of the Red House, which was published by Meffin in 1939 along with 25 other plays, short stories and an autobiography. Milna"It's too late now."
Milne has always acknowledged and repeatedly gratefully emphasized the decisive role of his wife, Dorothy, and his son, Christopher, in the writing and the very fact of the appearance of " Winnie the Pooh" The history of the creation of this book is indeed full of mysteries and contradictions, but the fact remains that books about Pooh Bear have been translated into 25 languages and have taken their place in the hearts and on the shelves of millions of readers.
First chapter Pooh"In Which We Meet Winnie the Pooh and the Bees for the First Time" was first published in a London evening newspaper on December 24, 1925, and broadcast on BBC Radio on Christmas Day by Donald Calfrop. Winnie the Pooh was first published by Meffin in October 1926, and has been for many years Milnovsky books are recognized classics of children's bookshelves and Disney cartoons.
The irony is that Milne was convinced that he wrote neither children's prose nor children's poetry. He spoke to the child inside each of us. He never read his Pooh stories to his son, Christopher Robin, preferring to raise Christopher on the works of his favorite writer, Wodehouse. Wodehouse subsequently returned Milne this compliment, saying that " Milne- his favorite children's writer."
Wodehouse's books continued to live in the house Milna and after his death. Christopher Robin read these books to his daughter Claire, whose bookshelves in her room were literally bursting with books from this children's writer. Christopher wrote to his friend Peter: “My father understood nothing about the specifics of the book market, knew nothing about the specifics of sales, he never wrote books for children. He knew about me, he knew about himself and about the Garrick Club (London's literary and artistic club) - and he simply did not pay attention to everything else... Except, perhaps, life itself." Christopher Robin first read poems and stories about Winnie the Pooh 60 years after their first appearance, when I heard Peter's recordings on record.
The adventures of Winnie the Bear are loved by both adults and children. Conducted in 1996 A poll conducted by English radio showed that this book took 17th place in the list of the most striking and significant works published in the twentieth century.
Worldwide sales of Winnie the Pooh since 1924 to 1956 exceeded 7 million. As you know, when sales exceed a million, publishers stop counting them.
Since 1968, the Muffin publishing house has sold 500,000 copies annually, with 30 percent sold in “new countries”—Australia, South Africa, New Zealand. By 1996, about 20 million copies had been sold, published only by Muffin. This does not include publishers in the United States, Canada, or non-English-speaking countries.
In 1960, Winnie the Pooh was brilliantly translated into Russian Boris Zakhoder. Anyone who speaks two languages can attest that the translation was done with exquisite precision and ingenious ingenuity. In general, Vinnie has been translated into all European and almost all world languages.
Each of the characters in the book is about Winnie the Pooh has a memorable character and charm, and the ending of the book “The House on the Edge of the Pooh” is poignantly lyrical. The wild success of the Winnie the Pooh books (they were translated into twelve languages and sold about fifteen million copies) eclipsed everything else Milne wrote: the detective novel The Mystery of the Red House (1922), the novels Two (1931) and Chloe Marr (1946), essays, plays and autobiographical book It's Too Late (1939).
In 1966, Walt Disney released the first animated film based on the book. Milna « Winnie the Pooh" This film, just under half an hour long, tells the adventures of a boy named Christopher Robin and his favorite teddy bear. Winnie the Pooh, seen in films and on television by millions of children. Bringing Heroes to Life Milna Through animation, Disney and his team of artists sought to preserve the style of Ernst Shepard's original drawings, which were as beloved as the stories themselves. The film was directed by Wolfgang Reiterman, who also directed Disney's The Sword in the Stone, The Jungle Book, Robin Hood and The Aristocats.
Famous Hollywood actor Sterling Holloway voiced the role Winnie the Pooh, and Sebastian Cabot read the text behind the scenes. The director's ten-year-old son, Bruce Reiterman, spoke for Christopher Robin. Composers Richard and Robert Sherman, who won an Oscar for their score for Mary Poppins, wrote five songs for the Pooh film. It's all made for one thing animated film lasting 26 minutes. Without a doubt, Winnie the Pooh and the Bee Tree has achieved widespread acclaim only because a treasure of a worldwide children's classic has been transferred with the utmost care into another form. In subsequent years, several animated sequels (including television ones) were released.
In 1969-1972 in the USSR, the Soyuzmultfilm film studio released three cartoons directed by Fyodor Khitruk, “Winnie the Pooh”, “Winnie the Pooh Comes to Visit” and “Winnie the Pooh and the Day of Worries”, which won the love of the children's audience of the Soviet Union.
In addition to the world famous Winnie the Pooh, Alexander Alan Milne known as a playwright and short story writer. His plays were successfully performed on the professional stage in London, but are now staged mainly in amateur theaters, although they still attract full houses and arouse the interest of the public and the press.
In 1952 Milne became seriously ill... He had to undergo severe brain surgery. The operation was successful, and after it Milne returned to his home in Sexes, where he spent the rest of his life reading. After a long illness, he died in 1956, on January 31.
Soon after the release Winnie the Pooh» A.A. Milne wrote in The Nation: “I think that each of us secretly dreams of immortality. In the sense that his name will survive the body and will live in this world, despite the fact that the person himself has passed on to another world.” When Milne died, no one had any doubt that he had discovered the secret of immortality. And this is not 15 minutes of fame, this is real immortality, which, contrary to his own expectations, was brought to him not by plays and short stories, but by a little bear cub with sawdust in his head.
In 1996, the favorite teddy bear Milna was sold in London at Bonham's auction to an unknown buyer for £4,600. (Approximately $7400).
Interesting facts from life
At the school where Alan Milne studied, H. G. Wells taught.
As a student, he wrote notes for the student newspaper Grant. He usually wrote with his brother Kenneth, and they signed the notes with the name AKM.
Winnie the Pooh's official date of birth is August 21, 1921, which is the day Christopher Robin Milne turned one. On this day, Milne gave his son a teddy bear (which, however, received the name Pooh only four years later).
Christopher Robin's toys, which became the prototypes of the book's characters (except for Little Roo, who has not survived), have been in the USA since 1947 (given there by Milne the Father for an exhibition, and after his death acquired by the Dutton publishing house), until 1969 they were kept in the publishing house, and currently on display at the New York Public Library. Many British people believe that this is the most important part cultural heritage countries must return to their homeland. The issue of toy restitution was even raised in the British Parliament (1998).
One of the most famous translations of books about Pooh into foreign languages- translation by Alexander Lenard into Latin under the title Winnie ille Pu. The first edition was published in 1958, and in 1960 Latin Pooh became the first book not published English, which made the New York Times bestseller list. On the cover of a number of publications, Vinnie is depicted in the garb of a Roman legionnaire with a short sword in his left paw.
Winnie the Pooh is depicted on postage stamps of at least 18 countries (including the USSR Post Office in 1988, a stamp dedicated to the history of the Soviet cartoon). The Canadian series of four stamps also deserves special mention, where one stamp depicts Lieutenant Harry Colborne with a Winnipeg bear cub, on the other - little Christopher Robin with a teddy bear, on the third - the heroes of Shepard's illustrations, on the fourth - Disney's Pooh against the backdrop of Walt Disney World in Florida.
Bibliography
Winnie the Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh
House on Pukhovaya edge (The House at Pooh Corner)
Translated into Russian - without two chapters of the original - under the general title “Winnie-the-Pooh and all-all-all” by B.V. Zakhoder; in some latest translations The division into two books has been preserved.
Poetry
When we were very little
Now we're six
Fairy tales
Prince Rabbit
Princess Nesmeyana
An ordinary fairy tale
Stories
The truth is in the wine
Christmas story
Amazing story
Mr. Findlater's Dreams
Christmas grandfather
Before the flood
Table near the orchestra
Exactly at eleven
Portrait of Lydia
Novels
Lovers in London (1905)
Once upon a time, a long time ago... (eng. Once on a Time, 1917)
Mr. Pim (eng. Mr. Pim, 1921)
The Red House Mystery, 1922
Two (English Two People, 1931)
A very short-lived sensation (eng. Four Days Wonder, 1933)
Chloe Marr (eng. Chloe Marr, 1946)
Film adaptations of works, theatrical performances
List of Disney films about Winnie the Pooh:
Short cartoons
1966: Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree)
1968: Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day
1974: Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too! (Winnie the Pooh, and with him Tigger)
1981: Winnie the Pooh Discovers the Seasons
1983: Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore (Pooh and a holiday for Eeyore)
Full-length cartoons
1977: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (“The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh”; combines the first three short cartoons)
1997: Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin
1999: Seasons of Giving
2000: The Tigger Movie
2002: A Very Merry Pooh Year
2003: Piglet’s Big Movie
2004: Springtime with Roo (Spring days with baby Roo)
2005: Pooh's Heffalump Halloween Movie ( Winnie the Pooh and Halloween for Heffalump)
2007: My Friends Tigger & Pooh: Super Sleuth Christmas Movie
2009: My Friends Tigger & Pooh: Tigger and Pooh And A Musical Too
TV series
Welcome to Pooh Corner (Welcome to Pooh Corner, Disney Channel, 1983-1995)
The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, ABC, 1988-1991)
The Book of Pooh (Puhova Book, Disney Channel, 2001-2002)
My Friends Tigger & Pooh (My Friends Tigger & Pooh, Disney Channel, 2007-)
Holiday Specials
1991: Winnie the Pooh & Christmas Too! (Winnie the Pooh and Christmas)
1996: Boo! To You Too! Winnie the Pooh (Boo! You too! Winnie the Pooh)
1998: A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving
1998: Winnie the Pooh, A Valentine For You
Animated films produced in the USSR and Russia:
Winnie the Pooh. USSR, 1969.
Winnie the Pooh is coming to visit. USSR, 1971.
Winnie the Pooh and Care Day. USSR, 1972.
Why I like the elephant (from the almanac “Merry Carousel”, No. 15): Based on the poem by A. A. Milne. USSR, 1983.
Royal sandwich: Based on the poem by A. A. Milne, translated by S. Ya. Marshak. USSR, 1985.
Nikopeyka: Based on a children's poem by A. A. Milne. Russia, 1999.
British writer Alan Aleksander Milne remains in the history of literature and the memory of readers as the author of stories about a teddy bear with sawdust in his head, and a number of poems. He considered himself a serious playwright and short story writer. Milne Alan Alexander lived his life under this paradox, whose biography will be discussed below.
Early years and education
In the family of the director of a private school in London, John Vine and Sarah Marie Milne, a third son, Alan Alexander, was born on January 18, 1882. A. A. Milne was educated at Westminster School and then at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied mathematics. At the same time, together with his brother Kenneth, he published articles under the initials AKM in the student magazine Grant. In 1903, Milne Alan Alexander moved to London, whose biography will now be connected with his true calling - literature.
War and the beginning of literary activity
Since 1906, he has been published in Punch magazine, and humorous poems and essays have been published in other magazines since 1914. In 1915, A. A. Milne left to serve as an officer in the British army. He was wounded at the Battle of the Somme. After recovery, he works in the military intelligence propaganda service and writes patriotic articles. He was demobilized with the rank of lieutenant in 1919. During the war, he wrote his first play, but success came after 1920, when comedies appeared in theaters, favorably received by critics and the public. At the same time, 4 films were shot based on his scripts. In 1922, he published a detective story called “Secrets of the Red House.”
Marriage and literature
In 1913, on the eve of the war, A. Milne married Dorothy de Selkencourt. The personal life and military service of the writer, whose name was Milne Alan Alexander, went inextricably. His biography was replenished with 18 plays and 3 novels by 1925. And earlier his son was born (August 1920). In 1924, A. Milne published a collection of children's poems, When We Were Young, and bought a house in Hartfield in 1925.
At the same time, short stories for children “Children's Gallery” were published, which he later used when writing his most popular work. Life and creativity went in parallel. So far Milne Alan Alexander, whose biography began to change in 1926, had every reason to be satisfied. It was from this time that he began to be perceived as exclusively a children's writer.
Cult fairy tale "Winnie the Pooh"
A. Milne's son had toys: Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga and Tigger. Below is their photo.
They are now in New York. 750 thousand people visit them annually to see them. Milne named the hero of his tale "Winnie" after seeing a Canadian black bear from Winnipeg at the zoo. “Pooh” comes from a swan that the writer met while on vacation. This is how Winnie the Pooh turned out. Three more characters - Owl, Rabbit and Roo - were created solely thanks to the writer's imagination. In 1926, the first version of Winnie the Pooh was published. The following year, the sequel “Now We Are Six” was published, and a year later the finale appeared - “The House on the Pooh Edge.”
The first book immediately brought worldwide fame and money. The writer was not dizzy from fame and success. Being in doubt about his literary talent, Milne Alan Alexander, whose biography and work in the minds of readers were tightly connected with Vinnie, tried to break out of the existing stereotype of a children's writer. But the charming heroes did not let him go. The book was published in insane editions; its number exceeded 7 million copies during A. Milne’s lifetime. It was translated into all foreign languages. Cartoons were created based on it. She began to live an independent life, eclipsing everything that A. Milne worked on further.
Life goes on
On the one hand, A. Milne was grateful to his wife and son for creating the book, but on the other hand, he did not introduce his son Christopher Robin to it. Milne read to his son the works of his friend P. G. Wodehouse, whose work he admired. And the adult son then, in turn, raised his daughter Claire on the stories and tales of the amazing humorist Wodehouse.
From 1931 onwards, Alan Alexander Milne wrote a lot. His books will not meet with such an enthusiastic reception as the simple-minded, slightly selfish Vinnie. In 1931 the novel “Two” was published, in 1933 - “A Very Short-lived Sensation”, in 1934 - the anti-war work “Honorable Peace”, in 1939 - “Too Late” (an autobiographical work), in 1940-1948 . - poetic works“Behind the Front Lines” and “Norman Church”, in 1952 - a collection of articles “Year after Year”, in 1956 - the novel “Chloe Marr”.
The writer worked hard, and critics and readers greeted this work with indifference and indifference. Alan Alexander Milne found himself hostage to his charming hero, who immortalized his name.
Why is Vinnie so attractive?
The story told by A. Milne fired like a fireworks, a volley of cheerfulness and vivacity. There is no struggle between good and evil, but there is a slight irony with which the author observes his characters, whom he settled in a fairy-tale forest, very reminiscent of the surroundings of his own home. Time in a fairy tale is frozen and does not change. Robin, the owner of the toys, is always 6 years old, Winnie is 5, Piglet is terribly old - 3 or 4 years old! Plush Vinnie is an optimist who greets every day with pleasure.
Problems and suffering are alien to him. He is a glutton and a gourmand. When the Rabbit invites him to choose what he will eat: bread with honey or with condensed milk, then, following the rules of good upbringing, Winnie with a sweet tooth refuses three items of food, leaving only honey and condensed milk. This is where it gets funny. The little bear has sawdust in his head, but he makes noisemakers and chants. He is ready at any moment to help his friends or pretend that he is a cloud and go to the bees for honey. Good fantasies are constantly born in his “smart” little head. Other characters are also charming: the pessimistic Donkey, the learned Owl, and the shy Piglet. They all expect praise and take themselves very seriously.
Recent years
During the 2nd World War, A. Milne's son Christopher tried to join the army, but did not get into it for medical reasons. He later married his cousin, which upset his parents. A. Milne gave birth to a granddaughter, Claire, who suffers from cerebral palsy. The father occasionally met with his son, but the mother did not want to see him. A. A. Milne himself died after a severe brain illness (which began in 1952) in 1956 at his home in Hartfield.
Alan Alexander Milne: interesting facts
- The teacher at the school where A. Milne studied was G. Wells, whom the writer considered both a teacher and a friend.
- On his first birthday, the writer gave his one-year-old son a Teddy bear, whom he named Edward. Only in the book did he turn into Vinnie and was a year younger than its main character.
- The book has been translated into 25 languages, including Latin.
- The number of records sold with the recording of the book exceeded 20 million copies.
- Christopher Robin himself first became acquainted with the book sixty years after its creation.
- His father sent his toys to the USA. They can be viewed at the New York Public Library.
- Images of Vinny appeared on stamps from 18 countries, including the USSR, after the release of the cartoon.
- A series of stamps from Canada, one depicts the lieutenant with Winnipeg Bear, the second - Christopher with a teddy bear, the third - the heroes of the classic illustrations for the book, and finally the fourth - Winnie from the Disney cartoon.
Alan Alexander Milne was born in London on January 18, 1882. The boy was lucky with his parents; they were well-educated and well-mannered people.
Alan's father had his own private school, and it was there that the future writer went. What is noteworthy is that one of the teachers there was Herbert Wells, a world famous writer.
The family was very fond of creativity and art and strongly encouraged the development of children in this area. Already from early years Milne wrote poetry, and during his student years he and his brother wrote articles for the university newspaper Grant.
After leaving school, Alan entered Westminster School, and then to Cambridge to study mathematics. Despite his creative inclinations, the young man had quite good success in the exact sciences.
After writing notes and newspaper articles for a student publication, Milne was noticed and invited to London to work for the famous humor magazine Punch. It was a real success, especially for such a young journalist.
Personal life
Milne's future wife noticed the young man during his student years. In 1913, Alan Milne and Dorothy de Selincourt were married. The newlyweds were forced to separate a year after the wedding. The First World War began and Milne volunteered to go to the front as an officer in the British Army. He took little part in the war effort; for the most part Milne worked in the propaganda department.
After some time, he wrote the book “Peace with Honor,” where he directly condemned the war and everything connected with it.
In 1920, the couple had a son, Christopher Robin. And in 1925, Milne bought a house in Hartfield and moved his family there.
Alan Milne lived quite a long and successful life. The writer died in 1956 from a serious brain disease.
Literary activity
Milne's first serious literary success was the stories he wrote during the war. The author gained popularity and began to be called one of the most successful playwrights in England.
But, undoubtedly, the cheerful klutz bear nicknamed Winnie the Pooh brought worldwide fame to the writer. As Milne later stated, he did not specifically conceive the fairy tale, but simply transferred funny stories about his son’s toys to paper.
Christopher was given toys, and his father, a writer, before bed, instead of reading fairy tales, invented and told his son stories about the funny adventures of his toy friends.
In addition, the family often staged children's plays featuring Christopher's toys. That's exactly how I was born good fairy tale about the adventures of Winnie, who was recognized and loved by children all over the world.
What’s noteworthy is that fairy-tale characters appeared in the book exactly in the order in which their prototype toys appeared in the life of Milne’s son. And the forest in which the heroes lived was very reminiscent of the forest in which the Milne family loved to walk.
The first chapters of the book about the adventures of a funny little bear were published in a newspaper in 1924. Readers were delighted with the tale and began to ask for a continuation of the story. And in 1926, the first book about Winnie the Pooh and his friends was published.
After the book was published, Alan Milne fell into crazy fame. The fairy tale was translated into many languages, it was constantly republished and filmed.
Walt Disney made a full-length cartoon about the cheerful bear Winnie.
In Russia, Soyuzmultfilm also released its own version of this tale. The audience loved the cartoon, and it became a classic of the children's genre.
However, Alan Milne himself suffered greatly from this work. The fairy tale story literally closed the writer’s path to the world of serious literature, and all his subsequent works had neither success nor recognition from literary critics.
Almost all of Milne's stories, poems and plays were forgotten, unable to withstand competition with children's fairy tales. Although the author himself did not consider himself a children's writer.
What is noteworthy is that Milne’s son also suffered from this beloved fairy tale. As a child, the boy was fairly bullied by his peers and did not allow him to live in peace.
Despite this, Alan Milne has forever entered the golden fund of literature and to this day, parents read stories to their children about a funny little bear and his friends.
Alan Alexander Milne (1882-1956) - prose writer, poet and playwright, classic of twentieth-century literature, author of the famous "Winnie the Pooh".
English writer, Scottish by birth, Alan Alexander Milne spent his childhood in London. He studied at a small private school, owned by his father, John Milne. One of his teachers in 1889-1890 was Herbert Wells. Then he entered Westminster School, and then Trinity College, Cambridge, where from 1900 to 1903 he studied mathematics. As a student, he wrote notes for the student newspaper Grant. He usually wrote with his brother Kenneth, and they signed the notes with the name AKM. Milne's work was noticed, and the British humor magazine Punch began to collaborate with him, and Milne subsequently became an assistant editor there.
In 1913 Milne married Dorothy Daphne de Selincourt, goddaughter of magazine editor Owen Seaman (said to be the psychological prototype of Eeyore), and the marriage produced one son, Christopher.
A born pacifist, Milne was drafted into the Royal Army and served in France. He later wrote a book, Peace with Honor, in which he condemned the war.
In 1926, the first version of Little Bear with Sawdust in his Head (in English - Bear-with-very-small-brains) - "Winnie the Pooh" - appeared. The second part of the stories, "Now We Are Six," appeared in 1927, and the final part of the book, "The House on Pooh Edge," appeared in 1928. Milne never read his own Winnie the Pooh stories to his son, Christopher Robin, preferring to raise him on the works of the writer Wodehouse, beloved by Alan himself, and Christopher first read poems and stories about Pooh Bear only 60 years after their first appearance.
Before the publication of the books about Winnie the Pooh, Milne was already a fairly famous playwright, but the success of Winnie the Pooh has acquired such proportions that Milne's other works are now practically unknown. Worldwide sales of Pooh Bear books translated into 25 languages, 1924 to 1956. exceeded 7 million, and by 1996 about 20 million copies had been sold, and only by the publishing house Muffin (this figure does not include publishers in the USA, Canada and non-English-speaking countries). A 1996 poll conducted by English radio showed that the book about Winnie the Pooh took 17th place in the list of the most striking and significant works published in the twentieth century. That same year, Milne's beloved teddy bear was sold at Bonham's London auction to an unknown buyer for £4,600.
In 1952, Milne underwent brain surgery, after which he spent four years until his death at his estate in Cotchford, Sussex.
(1882-1956) English writer
Millions of children and adults all over the world are familiar with a cute bear named Winnie the Pooh. A fairy tale about him and his friends - Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, Rabbit and others - was written by Alan Alexander Milne. There is another one in the fairy tale main character- this is the little son of the writer Christopher Robin, who became not only a participant in this amazing fairy tale, but, strange as it may seem, one of its authors. And Winnie the Pooh was involved in the history of creating a fairy tale about himself and his friends. After all, this already pretty shabby teddy bear was the most favorite toy of the little boy Christopher Robin, who did not part with it throughout his childhood.
So Winnie the Pooh became a member of the Milne family and the main actor fairy tales In the end, he became so famous that he eclipsed the fame of even his creator, who is now known only because he came up with the fairy tale about Winnie the Pooh.
Alan Alexander Milne really did not create anything more significant, despite the fact that he had other works.
He came from a family that was as proud of its ancestry as aristocrats are proud of their noble origins. All members of this family were quite extraordinary people, although they were not distinguished by their birth. Milne's great-grandfather was a mason and his grandfather a Presbyterian minister. He worked as a missionary in Jamaica, then returned to England and founded thirteen schools there,
after which he began to preach again. During his life, he never managed to save even the slightest decent amount to help his son get out into the world. He generously distributed everything he earned to poor people.
The writer's father had a hard time. He worked as an accountant at a confectionery factory, as a mechanic's assistant, and then as a teacher's assistant. In the end, he still entered the university, and after graduation he founded his own school. It was very good educational institution. At one time, the future famous writer Herbert Wells worked there as a teacher. He and Alan Milne's father remained friends all his life. Wells later recalled Milne in his book An Essay on Autobiography.
Milne Sr. tried to give his son Alan Alexander a good education. Alan studied at Westminster School and graduated from the mathematics department of Cambridge University. During his studies, he edited the university magazine Granta and published his own humorous essays there. Literary work Milne liked mathematics more, so after graduating from university he decided to devote himself to literature. However, it was not easy to publish my works in any serious publication. It happened that editors did not even read the manuscripts that Milne delivered to the editorial offices of magazines.
Therefore, he did not believe his own eyes when one day he saw his parody “The Return of Sherlock Holmes” published in the magazine “Vanity Fair”.
And yet, the works of Alan Alexander Milne, although not often, appeared in magazines, and his name became famous. In 1906, he became editor of Punch magazine and thus was able to publish his works freely. Things were finally looking up for him. Milne got married and soon published his humoresques about sports from Punch magazine as a separate book.
During the First World War he served in a reserve signal battalion, then went to the front, but fell ill and was returned to England. For some time Alan Milne was an instructor at a boot camp, then worked in the propaganda department of the War Ministry, from where he was demobilized after the war with the rank of lieutenant.
Even during the war, he began to engage in drama. First he wrote a play for the amateur troupe of the signal battalion, and then began to create plays for professional theaters. After the war Milne becomes famous writer and playwright. His comedies were successful in theaters, and the detective novel “The Mystery of the Red House” was even considered a classic.
In 1920, a son, Christopher, was born into the family of Alan Milne. When the boy was one year old, he was given a teddy bear, who was named Winnie the Pooh. Then Christopher got a toy donkey, Eeyore, and a pig, Piglet. Later this company was supplemented by Kanga and Tiger, and Milne invented Owl and Rabbit for the fairy tale.
Christopher was growing up, and real performances were played out in the nursery, in which all family members took part - father, mother, little son and his toys, which in the fairy tale behaved like living beings.
Alan Alexander Milne began writing children's books for his son. At first it was poetry, and then “Winnie the Pooh” appeared. It turned out like this.
At the very beginning of the twenties, a friend of Alana Milne opened a children's magazine and asked Milne to write several poems for it. The writer refused, but still began to think about what he could write. As a result, the poem “Sonya and the Doctor” and other poems appeared, which were published as a separate book in 1924.
And then Milne remembered all the fairy tales that he had told his son and began to write them down. In 1926, the first book “Winnie the Pooh” was published, which included ten stories about the bear cub and his friends.
In 1927 it appeared new book children's poems by Alan Milne, and in 1928 - the book “The House on Pooh Edge”, which included ten more stories about Winnie the Pooh. Thus, the first book about this wonderful bear cub was published when Christopher was three years old, and the last one when he was already eight years old. In 1925, Milne purchased a large rural house with services and a large forest of 200 hectares - Cochford Farm, where the fairy tale mainly took place.
Alan Alexander Milne wrote other works for his son. He published a collection of “Stories about Christopher Robin”, “A Book to Read about Christopher Robin”, “Birthday Stories about Christopher Robin” and even such an entertaining book as “The Alphabet of Christopher Robin”. In addition to these, he wrote other short children's works.
However, Alan Milne no longer wrote about Winnie the Pooh. He even got angry when they asked him about it, and said: “If a person once wrote about a policeman, they will demand that he write only about policemen all his life.”
Everything was explained by the fact that Christopher grew up and Milne stopped writing fairy tales for him. But for some reason he didn’t want to compose them for other children. But this was the writer’s mistake, because his other works were no longer successful.
In 1938 it suffered a complete failure theatrical production based on Milne's play Sarah Simple. After that, he stopped writing for the theater. Gradually, readers cooled down to the writer’s humorous works, and Punch magazine, where Milne was again invited to work, even refused his services. In 1939, Alan Alexander Milne wrote his autobiography, but, after short-term success, it too was forgotten.
Alan Milne's literary fortunes left him when he was only forty-eight years old. Soon his name began to be mentioned only as the author of Winnie the Pooh. He is still known in this capacity to this day.
“Winnie the Pooh and All-All-All” is a typical family fairy tale, the kind parents usually come up with for their young children. Moreover, it reflected cases and situations that actually happened in the Milne family, only they were acted out by the animated toys of Christopher Robin and himself.
The son of the writer Christopher Milne, to whom one of the most remarkable children's works is dedicated, became a shopkeeper. At first he was engaged in grocery and haberdashery trade, and then opened a bookstore and began to prosper. At the age of 54, he published his own book, “Enchanted Places,” in which he talked about his childhood.
Then he published another book - “The Road Through the Trees”, where he again talked about his life, but as an adult. True, both of these books were not particularly successful and were interesting only because their author was involved in the creation of a wonderful fairy tale about Winnie the Pooh bear and his friends.
