The Real Winnie the Pooh: A.A. Milne’s Story Behind the Bear

This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people, coming to you from the city where the West begins, Fort Worth, Texas. Winnie the Pooh is as American as apple pie. Unfortunately, most people only know Disney’s Pooh, not the original. Let’s take a listen to this story and find out.

Alan Alexander Milne, or A. A. Milne, began writing humorous pieces as a schoolboy and continued to do so while attending Cambridge. In 1903, he left Cambridge and went to London to write. Although he was broke by the end of his first year, he persevered and supported himself until 1906, writing detective stories and plays. In 1913, he married his wife, Daphne, and two years later, though a pacifist, went to France to serve in World War I. In 1920, the couple’s only son, Christopher Robin, was born, and they purchased a farm in Sussex. A nearby forest inspired the Hundred Acre Wood, where Winnie the Pooh’s adventures would be set. When Christopher Robin was about a year old, he received a stuffed bear as a present. The child soon accumulated a collection of similar animals, which inspired Milne to begin writing a series of whimsical stories about the toys. Christopher Robin’s actual stuffed toys are now under glass in the New York Public Library, where 750,000 people visit them every year. Milne published two volumes of poetry that would inspire his two Pooh books. When We Were Very Young became the first and was published in 1924. That was followed by Now We Are Six in 1927, read by the official voice of the Pooh books, the great Peter Dennis. Christopher Robin said this about Dennis:

“Peter Dennis has made himself Pooh’s ambassador extraordinary, and no bear has ever had a more devoted friend. So if you want to meet the real Pooh—the bear I knew, the bear my father wrote about—listen to Peter.”

“Winnie the Pooh” by A. A. Milne. Dedicated to her. Hand in hand we come, Christopher Robin and I, to lay this book in your lap. Say you’re surprised. Say you like it. Say it’s just what you wanted, because it’s yours. Because we love you.

“Winnie the Pooh” was published in 1926, and “The House at Pooh Corner” in 1928. Ernest Shepherd marvelously illustrated the books, using Christopher Robin and his animals as models. In the last Pooh book, “The House at Pooh Corner,” Milne writes the final dialogue between Pooh and a maturing Christopher Robin in a way that only an adult could connect with.

Christopher Robin, who was still looking at the world with his chin in his hands, called out, “Pooh?”
“Yes?” said Pooh.
“When I’m—when, ah, Pooh?”
“Yes, Christopher Robin?”
“I’m not going to do nothing anymore? Never again? Well, not so much.”
Pooh waited for him to go on, but he was silent again.
“Yes, Christopher Robin?” said Pooh helpfully.
“Pooh, when I’m, you know, when I’m not doing nothing, will you come up here sometimes? Just me?”
“Yes, Pooh.”
“Will you be here too?”
“Yes, Pooh, I will be. Really, I promise I will be, Pooh.”
“That’s good,” said Pooh.
“Pooh, promise you won’t forget about me ever, not even when I’m a hundred?”
Pooh thought for a little. “How old shall I be then? Ninety-nine?”
Pooh nodded. “I promise,” he said, still with his eyes on the world.
Christopher Robin put out a hand and felt for Pooh’s poor Pooh. Said Christopher Robin earnestly: “If I, ah, if I’m not quite, ah…” He stopped and tried again. “Pooh, whatever happens, you will understand, won’t you?”
“Understand what?”
“Oh, nothing!” He laughed and jumped to his feet. “Come on!”
“Where?” said Pooh.
“Anywhere,” said Christopher Robin.
So they went off together. But wherever they go, and whatever happens to them on the way, in that enchanted place on the top of the forest, a little boy and his Bear will always be playing.

After Milne’s death in 1956, the rights to the Pooh characters were sold to the Walt Disney Company, which has made many Pooh cartoon movies, a Disney Channel television show, as well as Pooh-related merchandise. It is very important to note that the Pooh characters in Milne’s books have only superficial commonalities with Disney’s repackaged product. All the complexity and wonderful character development is replaced with an all-smiling, all-the-time bland band of one-dimensional Disneyfied ripoffs.

He’s just Pooh Bear. Winning pos.

Forbes magazine ranked Winnie the Pooh the most valuable fictional character. In 2002, Winnie the Pooh merchandising products alone had an annual sales of more than $5.9 billion. In 2005, Winnie the Pooh generated $6 billion, a figure surpassed by only Mickey Mouse. For too long, Winnie the Pooh has been relegated to children’s bookshelves and Disney children’s cartoons. But what you probably don’t know is that A. A. Milne didn’t write the stories and poems for children. He intended them for the child within you and countless millions of others.

And a terrific job on the production, editing, and storytelling by our own Greg Hangler. And my goodness, what a story! And for anyone who’s ever heard the originals, read the originals, they reveal so much about the human character. By the way, those toys that Christopher Robin played with in 1920 were at the New York Public Library. The story of Winnie the Pooh and A. A. Milne’s creation, here on Our American Stories. Lee Javiv here again, and I’d like to encourage you to subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or wherever you get your podcasts. Every story we are here is uploaded there daily, and your support goes a long way to keeping the great stories you love from this show coming again. Please subscribe to the Our American Stories podcast at Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or wherever you get your podcasts.