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Friday 28 June 2019

Winnie-the-Pooh

Winnie-the-Pooh is a fictional teddy bear created by English author A. A. Milne for a series of books.


Milne named the character Winnie-the-Pooh after a teddy bear owned by his son Christopher Robin Milne. The writer bought the 18-inch-high toy bear from Harrods in London. It was a present in honor of Christopher Robin's first birthday on August 21, 1921.

Milne called the toy bear "Winnie" after a Canadian black bear he often saw at London Zoo. The animal had been born in Canada but brought to London in 1914 as the mascot of a Canadian regiment. A Canadian soldier, Harry Colebourn, named him Winnie after his hometown Winnipeg.

Harry Colebourn and Winnie, 1914

The other part of the name, "Pooh," was based on a swan Milne and his family met on holiday.

The children's book Winnie-the-Pooh, by A. A. Milne, was first published on October 14, 1926.
Other stuffed animal toys owned by Milne's son were also incorporated into the story. The picture below shows some of the original Winnie-the-Pooh stuffed toys. Clockwise from bottom left: Tigger, Kanga, Edward Bear ("Winnie-the-Pooh"), Eeyore, and Piglet


Winnie-The-Pooh characters each represent a different mental disorder -- Eeyore - Depression, Pooh - Addiction, Tiger - ADHD, Owl - OCD.

Eeyore's name is based off the British Cockney dialect version of the phrase "hee-haw".

The Hundred Acre Wood in the Pooh books is strongly based on Ashdown Forest in Sussex.

Winnie-the-Pooh was followed by The House at Pooh Corner (1928). Milne also included a poem about the bear in the children's verse book When We Were Very Young (1924) and many more in Now We Are Six (1927).

All four volumes were illustrated by E. H. Shepard. An ink drawing by Shepard of Winnie-the-Pooh playing Poohsticks with Piglet and Christopher Robin sold for more than £314,000 in 2014.

Pooh in an illustration by E. H. Shepard

The "real" Christopher Robin, of whom the "Winnie the Pooh" stories were inspired by, actually hated the books.

The first time Winnie the Pooh appeared in color was in 1932. He was drawn by Stephen Slesinger in his red shirt and featured on an RCA Victor picture record.

Parker Brothers introduced a 1933 board game called A.A Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh Game with the bear showcased in his red top.

Christopher Robin was credited with killing 28 Wehrmacht soldiers in World War II's Battle of the Bulge.

Christopher Robin in 1928

Winnie Ille Pu, the 1958 Latin translation of Milne's book, is the only book in Latin ever to appear on the New York Times Best Sellers list.

The hyphens in the original Winnie-The-Pooh name were dropped when Disney bought the rights to the characters.

17-year-old Kenny Loggins wasn't going to be able to record his song "House at Pooh Corner" because Disney was enforcing their copyright to Winnie the Pooh. Upset, he mentioned this to his girlfriend, only to find out her father was the CEO of the Disney corporation– he soon got permission.

A Disney movie about Pooh, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, was made in March 1977.


A live-action movie entitled Christopher Robin, was released in 2018. It explores A.A. Milne's creation of Winnie-the-Pooh.

The Winnie-the-Pooh media franchise has generated more revenue ($76 billion) than Marvel Cinematic Universe ($35 billion) and Harry Potter ($32 billion) combined.

Christopher Robin's toy bear is on display at the Main Branch of the New York Public Library in New York City. The other original Pooh animals can also be seen there; except for Roo who was lost around 1930.

Sources Daily Express, Beliefnet


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