What Milne wrote for children. In the clutches of Winnie the Pooh and his own wife: two troubles of Alan Milne

Alan Alexander Milne is a prose writer, poet, playwright, classic of English literature of the twentieth century, author of the famous “Winnie the Pooh”.

Milne was born in the London district of Kilburn on January 18, 1882. Scots by origin, Alan Alexander Milne spent his childhood in London, where his father John Vine Milne owned a small private school. His early education was largely determined by the influence of his youth teacher H.G. Wells - much later Milne wrote about Wells as "a great writer and a great friend." He continued his education at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He subsequently donated the original handwritten copy of his book “Winnie the Pooh” and “The House on Pooh Edge” to the College Library. As a student at Cambridge, where he studied mathematics from 1900 to 1903, he wrote notes for the student newspaper Grant, and his first literary efforts were published in the humorous magazine Punch. At the age of 24, Milne began working for Punch as an assistant editor until the outbreak of the First World War, in which he took part.

In 1913 Alan Milne married Dorothy Daphne de Selincote, and from this marriage one son was born, Christopher Robin Milne. A born pacifist, Milne was drafted into the Royal Army and served in France. The war made a strong impression on the young writer. She became the reason why Milne, who was not particularly interested in politics, thought about what was happening in the world. His famous anti-war work, An Honorable Peace, was published in 1934. The book found a huge response in the interwar times, and in 1924 Maffin published Milne's famous When We Were Young stories, some of which had previously appeared in Punch and were well known to regular readers of the magazine.

In 1926, the first version of Sawdust Bear (in English - “bear with very small brains”) “Winnie the Pooh” appeared. The idea of ​​writing this book was suggested to Milne by his wife and little Christopher. The history of the creation of the fairy tale is full of mysteries and contradictions, but the most important thing is that it has become one of the most popular children's books. 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. It seemed to Milne 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 remained 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 did write a detective novel, The Mystery of the Red House, which was published only in 1939, along with 25 other plays, short stories and Milne's autobiography, Too Late. Milne 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. 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.

The first chapter of Pooh, "in which we first meet Winnie the Pooh and the bees", was first published in a London evening newspaper on December 24, 1925, and broadcast on BBC radio on Christmas Day by Donald Calfrop. 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, preferring to raise Christopher on the works of his favorite writer, Wodehouse. Wodehouse subsequently returned the compliment to Milne, saying that "Milne is his favorite children's writer."
Wodehouse's books continued to live in Milne's house after his death. Christopher Robin read these books to his daughter Claire, whose bookshelves in her room were literally bursting with books by this writer. Christopher wrote to his friend Peter (an actor): “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 - and he simply did not pay attention to everything else... Except, perhaps, life itself.” Christopher Robin first read the poems and stories about Winnie the Pooh 60 years after they first appeared, when he heard Peter's recordings on record.
The adventures of Winnie the Bear are loved by both adults and children. A 1996 sociological survey 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 from 1924 to 1956 exceeded 7 million. As you know, when sales exceed a million, publishers stop counting them.
In 1960, Winnie the Pooh was brilliantly translated into Russian by Boris Zakhoder. Anyone who speaks Russian and English can confirm 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.
In addition to the world famous Winnie the Pooh, Alan Milne is 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 a success and Milne returned to his home in Sussex, where he spent the rest of his life reading. After a long illness, he died on January 31, 1956.
Shortly after the release of Winnie the Pooh, Milne wrote in The Nation: “I think that each of us secretly dreams of immortality... In the sense that his name will outlive the body and will live in this world, despite the fact that he himself a person has passed on to another world.” When Milne died, no one doubted 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, Milne's beloved teddy bear was sold in London at an auction organized by the house of Bonham to an unknown buyer for £4,600.

Note:
The third photo is the famous photograph by Howard Coster, which depicts Alan Milne with his son Christopher Robin (who became the prototype for Christopher Robin from the Pooh stories) and Edward the bear (who inspired Milne to create Winnie the Pooh). Sepia, matte print, 1926. The original is kept in the National Portrait Gallery in London.

British writer Alan Aleksander Milne has remained in the history of literature and in the grateful memory of readers as the author of stories about a teddy bear with “sawdust in his head.”

Himself Alan Milne considered a serious playwright and short story writer. Caught in such a paradoxthe writer worked and lived, there are many more interesting facts in his biography.

January 18, 1882 in London in The family of private school director John Vine and his wife Sarah Marie Milne welcomed their third son.- Alan Alexander.

Education Alan attended Westminster School and then Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied mathematics. It's interesting that pThe teacher at the school where Milne studied was the world famous Herbert Wells, whom the writer considered both a teacher and a friend. IN student magazine "Grant",Together with his brother Kenneth, Alan Milne will begin to publish the first articles under the initials AKM.

In 1903 Alan Alexander Milne moves to London, where his biography will be connected with his true calling - literature.Since 1906, the writer has been published in Punch magazine, and laterhis humorous poems and essays are beginning to appear in other publications.

In 1915, Alan Milne left to serve as an officer in the British army. At the Battle of the Somme writer was injured . After recovery, he works in the military intelligence propaganda service and writes patriotic articles. IN 1919 in With the rank of lieutenant, he is demobilized from the army.

During the war Milne wrote his first play, but success came only after 1920, when comedies appear in theaters and are favorably received by critics and the public. At the same time, 4 films were shot based on his scripts. In 1922 Milna a detective story called “Secrets of the Red House” comes out.

In 1913, on the eve of the war, Alan Milne married Dorothy de Selkencourt. Personal life and military service of the writer went unbroken , Milne's name is becoming increasingly famous. In a in August 1920 at the Milns The long-awaited son is born - Christopher Robin. In 1924, Alan Milne published a collection of children's poems, When We Were Young, and in 1925 - buys a house in Hartfield. His writing bBy this time, the literature had been replenished with 18 plays and 3 novels.

Along with the novels, short stories for children “Children's Gallery” are published. Later Milne will use them when writing his most popular work. Biography Alana Milne began to change in 1926. It was from this time that readers began to perceive him exclusively as a children's writer - thanks to the fairy tale “Winnie the Pooh”.

Milne's son Christopher there were toys: a teddy bear, Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga and Tigger. Writernamed the hero of his tale “Winnie” after seeing a Canadian black bear from Winnipeg at the zoo. The word "Pooh" came from a swan he met while on vacation. This is how Winnie the Pooh turned out. Three more characters - Owl, Rabbit and Roo - were created solely from 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 Milne universal fame and money, but, oddly enough, fame and success make the writer go crazy didn't get dizzy.

Having doubts about his literary talent, Alan Milne , whose biography and work in the minds of readers are now firmly connected with Winnie the Pooh, tried to break out of the existing stereotype of a children's writer. Butcharming heroes did not let go of their creator.

The book about Winnie the Pooh was publishedinsane circulations during the writer's lifetimetheir number exceeded7 million copies. It has been translated into all foreign languages ​​of the world. Cartoons were created based on it. The fairy tale began to live an independent life, eclipsing everything that Alan Milne worked on further.

Life goes on. On the one hand, the writer is grateful to fate and loved ones for creating the book, but on the other hand, he does not introduce his son to it in childhood.Christopher Robin first became acquainted with the book sixty years after its creation.

Since 1931, Alan Alexander Milne will write a lot . But his books will no longer meet with such an enthusiastic reception as the simple-minded, slightly selfish Winnie the Pooh. 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 Line” 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 creativity with indifference and indifference. Alan Alexander Milne found himself hostage to his charming hero, who immortalized his name.

Why is Winnie the Pooh so attractive?

The story Milne told fired off like a firework, a volley of cheerfulness and cheerfulness. 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. Plush Vinnie is an optimist who greets every day with pleasure.Problems and suffering are alien to him. He is a glutton and a gourmet. When the Rabbit offers to choose what he will eat: bread with honey or bread with condensed milk, then, following the rules of good upbringing, Winnie, who has a sweet tooth, leaves only honey and condensed milk. This, like many other things, becomes funny and funny.

The little bear has sawdust in his head, but he does not lose heart, tirelessly composing noisemakers and chants. Winnie the Pooh at any moment he is ready for adventures to help his friends, to pretend that he is a cloud, to go to the bees for honey. Kind and funny fantasies are constantly born in his “smart” little head. Other characters are charming: the pessimistic Donkey, the learned Owl, the well-mannered Rabbit, the shy Piglet. They all expect praise and admiration, take it very seriously andto yourself and to friends.

The author's ease and good-natured smile make up the unique flavor of the whole story, which tells about friendship and mutual assistance that manifest themselves when the heroes find themselves in humorously difficult situations.

The creator of one of the favorite children's characters lived and worked in this house. Alan Alexander Milne.

The sale of this historic house is being handled by the international real estate agency Savills. The Milne home is called Cochford Farm. It is located in the town of Ashdown Forest in Sussex. The house was built in the 15th century, and the Milne family moved into it in 1925.

The writer's son Christopher Robin Milne spent his childhood in this house, and the teddy bear is named after one of Christopher Milne's real toys.

The house has six bedrooms. It is located on a vast estate of several hectares. In the garden near the house you can see a monument to Christopher Robin, as well as solar panels depicting the main characters of Milne’s story: Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, Rabbit and Owl. All these statues were created by order of Dorothy Milne, the writer's wife.

The Cochford Farm estate was previously owned by The Rolling Stones founder Brian Jones. Three years after purchasing the estate, the musician died.

Alan Alexander Milne was born in 1882 in Kilburn, London.
He was the third and youngest son of John (John Vince Milne) and Sarah Marie Milne (née Heginbotham).

His father, John Milne, ran a small private school, Henley House School, famous for the fact that H.G. Wells taught there (in 1889-1890). All the Milnov children studied within its walls at one time.

Milne attended Westminster School and then the famous Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied mathematics, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1903.

At the university, Milne begins to write poetry and stories and soon becomes editor of the student magazine Grant. He usually wrote with his brother Kenneth, signing notes with the initials AKM.
Milne's work was noticed, and in 1906 the British humor magazine Punch began collaborating with him, and Milne subsequently became an assistant editor there. Writes articles, short stories, feuilletons.

Through his work at the magazine, Milne met Dorothy "Daphne" de Sélincourt (1890-1971). She was the goddaughter of Milne's chief, Owen Seaman (who is said to be the psychological prototype of Eeyore). One day, going to Dorothy's birthday party, Owen invited a young journalist with him.

In 1913 Milne married Dorothy, and from this marriage one son, Christopher, was born.

Christopher Robin with his mother Dorothy Milne

In 1925 Milne bought his home, Cotchford Farm, and the family settled there.
When his son was three years old, Milne began writing poems about and for him.

Alan Alexander Milne dreamed of earning fame as a great detective writer and wrote plays and short stories. But when, on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1925, the first chapter of Pooh, “in which we first meet Winnie the Pooh and the bees,” was published in the London evening newspaper and broadcast on BBC radio, the first step was taken towards Milne’s recognition as a classic of children’s books.

Milne was convinced that he wrote neither children's prose nor children's poetry. He spoke to the child inside each of us. By the way, he never read his Pooh stories to his son, Christopher Robin, although he acknowledged the decisive role of his wife, Dorothy, and son in the writing and the very fact of the appearance of Winnie the Pooh.

Alan Alexander Milne with his son Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh 1920s

Christopher Robin's room, 1920s

In 1924, Alan Milne first came to the zoo with his four-year-old son Christopher Robin, who truly became friends with the bear Winnie, even feeding her sweet milk. Three years earlier, Milne bought an Alpha Farnell teddy bear (see photo) from Harrods and gave his son a teddy bear (see photo) for his first birthday. After the owner met Winnie, this bear received a name in honor of his beloved bear. The boy even came up with a new name for him - Winnie Pooh. The former Teddy got the word Pooh from a swan whom Christopher Robin met when the whole family went to their country house at Cotchford Farm in Sussex.

By the way, this is next to the very forest that is now known to the whole world as the Hundred Acre Wood.

Why Pooh? Yes, because “because if you call him and the swan doesn’t come (which they love to do), you can pretend that Pooh said just like that...”. The toy bear was approximately two feet tall, had a light coloring and often had missing eyes.
Christopher Robin's real-life toys also included Piglet, Eeyore without a Tail, Kanga, Roo and Tigger. Milne invented the Owl and the Rabbit himself.

The toys that Christopher Robin played with are kept in the New York Public Library. In 1996, Milne's beloved teddy bear was sold at Bonham's London auction to an unknown buyer for £4,600.

The very first person in the world who was lucky enough to see Winnie the Pooh was Punch magazine cartoonist Ernest Sheppard. It was he who first illustrated Winnie the Pooh. Initially, the teddy bear and his friends were black and white, and then they became colored. And his son’s teddy bear posed for Ernest Sheppard, not Pooh at all, but “Growler” (or Grumpy).

Artist Ernest Howard Shepard (1879-1976), who illustrated the book. 1976

Shepard Christmas card, Sotheby's. 2008

In total, two books were written about Winnie the Pooh: Winnie-the-Pooh (the first separate edition was published on October 14, 1926 by the London publishing house Methuen & Co) and The House at Pooh Corner (House on Pooh Corner, 1928). In addition, Milne's two collections of children's poems, When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six, contain several poems about Winnie the Pooh.

The entire “childhood” period of Milne’s work covers only a few years, from 1921 to 1928. He no longer returns to children's themes: Christopher Robin has grown up, and together with his matured son, the world of childhood leaves Milne's life. All that he subsequently created for children was a dramatization based on the book “The Wind in the Willows” by Kenneth Grahame.

Alan Alexander Milne, 1948

Adult Christopher Robin with his bride, 1948

In 1961, Disney acquired the rights to Winnie the Pooh. Walt Disney slightly modified Shepard's famous illustrations that accompanied Milne's books and released a series of Winnie the Pooh cartoons. According to Forbes magazine, Winnie the Pooh is the second most profitable character in the world, second only to Mickey Mouse. Winnie the Pooh generates $5.6 billion in revenue every year
On April 11, 2006, a star for Winnie the Pooh was unveiled on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

At the same time, Milne's granddaughter, Claire Milne, living in England, is trying to get her teddy bear back. Or rather, the rights to it. So far unsuccessful.

In 1960, Winnie the Pooh was brilliantly translated into Russian by Boris Zakhoder and published with illustrations by Alice Poret.

Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh

English writer, Scottish by birth, Alan Alexander Milne spent his childhood in London, where his father worked at a school.

English playwright, poet, storyteller, author of classic books of English children's literature: “When We Were Little” (1924; collection of poems), “Now We Are Six” (1927), “Winnie the Pooh” (1926) and “The House at Pooh Edge” "(1928; Russian retelling by B. Zakhoder entitled "Winnie the Pooh and all-all-all", 1960).

Milne grew up in a family where children were encouraged to be creative, wrote funny poems from a young age, showed an aptitude for the exact sciences, and entered Trinity College, Cambridge to study mathematics.

During his student years, he fulfilled his long-time dream by becoming the editor of Granta magazine, for which he wrote poems and stories. As a result, Milne completely abandoned his studies and moved to London, where he began working at Punch magazine.

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. By that time, Milne had managed to visit the war and write several funny plays, one of which, “Mr. Pym Passed By” (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 enormous success of the book of poetry, 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 Winnie the Pooh was written. All the characters in the book (Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger, Kanga and Roo) except Rabbit and Owl were found in the nursery (now the toys that served as prototypes are 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.

Each of the characters has a memorable character and charm, and the ending of the book “The House on the Edge of Pooh” is achingly 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 Milne's book, Winnie the Pooh. This film, just under half an hour long, tells the adventures of a boy named Christopher Robin and his favorite toy bear, Winnie the Pooh, and has been seen in films and on television by millions of children. By bringing Milne's characters to life 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 Reitherman, 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 of 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. All this was done for one 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) 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 London.

From 1906 to 1914 he was assistant to the publisher of Punch magazine.

During the First World War he served in the British Army.

In 1917, he published the fairy tale Once on a Time, and in 1921, the comedy play Mr. Pim Passed By, which became one of the most popular dramatic plays. works of the author. The play was performed in Manchester, London and New York in the 1920s.

In 1920, Alan Milne and his wife Dorothy had a son, Christopher Robin. From the stories and poems Alan wrote for his child, a book of children's poems, When We Were Very Young, was born in 1924, which three years later had a sequel, Now We Are Six). In the book "When We Were Little" a poem about a Teddy Bear appears for the first time. Both editions were illustrated by Ernest Howard Shepard, the artist who drew the famous image of Winnie the Pooh.

Some of the poems later.

In 1934, Milne, a pacifist, published the book Peace With Honour, which called for peace and renunciation of war. The book became a source of serious controversy.

In the 1930s, Milne wrote the novels Two People (1931), Four Days Wonder, 1933. In 1939 he wrote his autobiography, It's Too Late Late Now). Milne's last novel, Chloe Marr, was published in 1946.

In 1952, the writer suffered a stroke. On 31 January 1956, Alan Alexander Milne died at his home in Harefield in Sussex.

The copyright for the Winnie the Pooh books was owned by four beneficiaries - Alan Milne's family, the Royal Foundation for Literature, Westminster School and the Garrick Club. After the writer's death, his widow sold her share to the Walt Disney Company, which produced the famous cartoons about Winnie the Pooh. In 2001, the other beneficiaries sold their shares to Disney Corporation for $350 million.

The writer's son Christopher Robin Milne (1920-1996) became a writer, following in his father's footsteps, and wrote several memoirs: "Enchanted Places", "After Winnie the Pooh", "The Hole on the Hill".

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources