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Vintage books by A.A. Milne offer a wonderful way to connect with one of our perennial favourite authors of children’s literature, but not many know Milne was also a successful playwright and author of political polemics and even popular detective fiction!
The creator of Winnie-the-Pooh, and the self-described Bear of Very Little Brain’s many friends in Hundred Acre Wood, was born on the 18th of January 1882. Unkindly described by a literary critic in later years as ‘metaphorically locked in the nursery’, A.A. Milne’s own childhood was by all accounts actually very outdoorsy, with unusual freedom allowed for adventures in the countryside and London alike.
Milne studied mathematics at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he also wrote for the student publication Granta. His light and natural writing style therein caught the attention of the satirical magazine Punch, for whom he became a regular contributor of humorous essays and poems, eventually becoming Assistant Editor for the periodical.
It was also whilst working at Punch that Milne met the illustrator Ernest H. Shepard, coming together in 1923 to forge one of the greatest collaborations in children’s literature of all time. Now, one hundred years later, the characters they created are still as adored as they ever were. Millions of books in fifty different languages have been sold around the world. The first editions of A.A. Milne’s ‘Christopher Robin’ books have become increasingly sought after, especially in their original dust-jackets, and can sell for several thousand pounds. However, it is possible to find attractive vintage editions of all of A.A. Milne’s books without having to break the bank, and we reflect on some of our favourite ones from the Country House Library bookshelves here.
A.A. Milne's first book (except for a 1905 venture which he subsequently disowned out of sheer embarrassment), originally published by Methuen in 1910. The title A Day’s Play punned on Kipling’s 1898 anthology, A Day’s Work, and brought together Milne’s various contributions to Punch magazine. An uncommon find, and an excellent addition to any lover of Milne’s writing!
A further collection of humorous tales, this series of sketches was originally collected in 1912, and opens with a befuddled visitor to an unnamed coastal resort resisting the attempts of his host Archie to wake him for an early morning bath! An attractive edition, bound in the publisher's "Monogram Edition" format, with the author's initials gilt-stamped to the cover within a geometric device.
Where it all began! This was the first book to reveal the collaboration between A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard, and features an unnamed narrator widely accepted to be Christopher Robin, as well as a cameo appearance by a certain bear... Originally published in November 1924, the charming collection of poems and prose for children was a huge success, leading to the publication of three more uniform titles in quick succession and establishing Milne as a household name. This vintage edition of When We Were Very Young is an early one, bound and printed to the same style as the first printing of 1924. Scarce.
A series of 12 short stories by A.A. Milne which he described as 'a fanciful elaboration of each picture' to accompany the delightful illustrations by Henriette Willebeek le Mair, who had originally been commissioned by the Colgate company to produce a series of illustrations for magazine advertising. The stories perfectly capture the thoughts and imagination of children as they discover and learn about the world. This third edition is an affordable way of acquiring a wonderful piece of 20th century children's literature.
A great vintage Penguin compilation of Milne's plays for adults, showcasing his skill as a playwright. A.A. Milne is best remembered in the theatrical context for his dramatised extract from Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows, Toad of Toad Hall (1929), but even outside the "children's" genre he was a very successful writer of plays, a medium he found exciting. His plays also remunerated him handsomely (in 1924 he was earning £2000 a year from the amateur rights alone).
In 1925 A.A. Milne was asked to write a Christmas story for the London Evening News. He decided to write down a bedtime story he had told his son Christopher Robin about a teddy bear they'd acquired from Harrods in 1921, which by then had adopted the name 'Winnie-the-Pooh'; 'Winnie' after a black Canadian bear in the Zoo...'Pooh' for more ineffable reasons. The story formed the first chapter of Winnie-the-Pooh (1926). The stories revolved around Christopher Robin and other characters drawn from his toy cupboard, which also formed the basis for Shepard's illustrations, as featured in this splendid BCA edition from 1977.
A. A. Milne's second book of verse for young readers, a timeless evocation of childhood as seen through the eyes of the six-year-old Christopher Robin, accompanied by his beloved bear Winnie-the-Pooh and their friends. This attractively dust-jacketed vintage hardback edition would complement any child's library,
Milne's second book of stories relating to Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends, the title taken from one of the stories which sees Pooh and Piglet build a house for Eeyore. A publishing phenomenon upon its release, The House at Pooh Corner is significant for the introduction of Tigger and 'poohsticks', but also as a sort of 'coming of age' tale, with Christopher Robin gradually moving away from his toys and embracing the prospect of school and the joys of learning. This edition features the charming illustrations by E.H. Shepard.
"It's colossal. The sort of book I shall buy and re-read every six months or so." - P.G. Wodehouse, writing about Two People
An excellent example of Milne's ability to write for an older age group, though the fact it was a best-seller in both the UK and US was inevitably in large part due to his success with the Christopher Robin books. This love story is a deft and effervescent insight into the function & form of modern marriage, drawing with surprising honesty upon the author's own experiences. This is the first US edition, published at the same time as the UK first edition.
"An autobiography of extraordinary tact as well as candour" - The Times
The first volume of Christopher [Robin] Milne's bitter-sweet autobiography. Recalling his early childhood, this book features 'the enchanted places' where he used to play in Sussex, including the Hundred Acre Wood, Galleon's Lap and Poohsticks Bridge, which were part of the real world surrounding the Milne home at Cotchford Farm. The book was the inspiration for Disney's 2018 film Christopher Robin, starring Ewan McGregor.
A.A. Milne struggled for many years with the popularity of his books featuring Winnie-the-Pooh and co., as he was an intellectual and diverse author, but eventually seems to have become reconciled with it. Christopher Milne unfortunately found it harder to escape from the shadow of Pooh bear, suffering bullying at school for the version of himself portrayed in the books, and feeling in later years that his father had exploited his childhood. The Christopher Robin books however remain true classics of children's literature, and Milne's other writings offer a variety of pleasure to a broad range of readers, notably perhaps his anti-war polemics, in these dark days. We would also recommend his murder-mystery The Red House Mystery (1922), of which US crime writer Raymond Chandler famously wrote: "The detective in the case is an insouciant amateur named Anthony Gillingham... The English police endure him with their customary stoicism, but I shudder to think what the boys down at the Homicide Bureau in my city would do to him..." - but which readers & critics less keen on hard-boiled violence are generally much more enthusiastic about!
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