A. A. Milne was 33 years old when he created the fictional teddy bear Winnie the Pooh, which today celebrates the 100th anniversary of its 12/24/1925 publication as a children’s story in London’s Evening News. “Winnie” is named for a stuffed bear Milne had bought his son, Christopher Robin, at Harrod’s Department Store, and a bear they’d seen at the London Zoo. Milne went on to publish four volumes of Pooh books, all illustrated by E. H. Shepard. Milne explains the name in the first’s book’s opening chapter: “His arms were so stiff … they stayed up straight in the air for more than a week, and whenever a fly came and settled on his nose he had to blow it off. And I think – but I am not sure – that is why he is always called Pooh.” Proud of the books when he was young, the real Christopher Robin came to resent his father for exploiting his childhood. Read Who Cares? about the struggle for dignity at Woodruff Home for the Aged, “a lively place where old people go to die.” Learn more about the book and its characters, aged 9-90, in NOVELS.
Winnie the Pooh has been translated into many languages, including Latin
Woodruff Home for the Aged, a lively place where old people go to die
