Alan Milne short biography. Biography Why the Milnes didn't like Winnie the Pooh

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.

Alan Alexander Milne- English writer, author of stories about the “bear with sawdust in his head” - Winnie the Pooh.

Milne was born January 18, 1882 in London, where he spent his childhood. He attended a small private school owned by his father. One of his teachers in 1889-1890 was Herbert Wells.

In 1892 he entered Westminster School, and then Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1904. 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.

Milne served in the First World War as an officer in the British Army. He later wrote a book, Peace with Honor, in which he condemned the war.

In 1920, Milne's only son was born, Christopher Robin Milne.

In 1926, the first version of Little Bear with sawdust in his head appeared - “Winnie the Pooh”. 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.

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 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 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.

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