Notes For August 21st, 2018
This Day In Literary History
On August 21st, 1920, Christopher Robin Milne was born in London, England. His father was the famous English writer A.A. Milne, who began his career as a playwright, writing over 25 plays. When his son was a year old, he received a teddy bear as a present.
Christopher Robin would name his teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, after two real-life animals he encountered: Winnie, a Canadian black bear he saw at the London Zoo, and Pooh, a swan he saw while on vacation.
Christopher Robin's growing collection of stuffed animals, which included a piglet, a tiger, a donkey, and a kangaroo, inspired his father to try his hand at writing children's stories.
His son's teddy bear, Winnie-the-Pooh, would be the main character, and the animals' human friend, a young boy, would be named after Christopher Robin.
In 1925, A.A. Milne bought a country estate, Cotchford Farm in Hartfield, East Sussex, which would serve as the inspiration for Pooh's home, the Hundred Acre Wood.
Winnie-the-Pooh would first appear in a series of short stories published in magazines and newspapers, including Vanity Fair and the London Times.
In 1926, A.A. Milne published a short story collection in book form, called Winnie-the-Pooh, portions of which were adapted from the earlier stories.
It would be followed by a second story collection, The House At Pooh Corner (1928). Both books were illustrated by Ernest Shepard, who used the real Christopher Robin and his stuffed animals as models for the illustrations.
In 1966, Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends made their film debut in an animated Disney featurette, Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree.
The short proved to be so popular that Disney made two more featurettes, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968) and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too! (1974).
Three years later, Disney cast Pooh in his first feature-length animated film, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977), which would become an all-time classic.
More movies followed, and the Winnie-the-Pooh franchise would include a TV series, animated TV specials, numerous toys, and even video games.
The enduring, beloved character and his forest friends continue to win new generations of fans, both young and old alike. And it all began over ninety years ago, with a little boy named Christopher Robin and his stuffed animals.
As for the real Christopher Robin, though he loved his father's writings, his fictional namesake caused him a great deal of hardship when he started boarding school, making him the target of bullies. He would have a lifelong love-hate relationship with the character.
Though boarding school was a dreadful experience for him, (causing him to drop the name Robin) Christopher Robin Milne was an excellent student with a particular talent for mathematics and would earn a math scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge.
During World War II, Milne abandoned his studies to enlist in the British Army, but failed the medical examination. With some help from his father, he was able to serve his country as a sapper (military engineer) in the Royal Engineers.
After his father died in 1956, Christopher Robin Milne would not accept any of the royalties for Winnie the Pooh. He wrote several autobiographical books. The first, The Enchanted Places, was published in 1974 and dedicated to his beloved nanny, Olive Brockwell.
Miine died in 1996 at the age of 75. For some time, he had been suffering from a degenerative disease called myasthenia gravis. Years later, two feature films were made about him, Goodbye, Christopher Robin (2017) and Christopher Robin (2018).
Goodbye, Christopher Robin is a British made biographical drama about Christopher Robin's relationship with his father. Christopher Robin is a Disney fantasy film that blends computer animation and live action.
In this children's movie, Christopher Robin has grown up and lost his imagination, only to be reunited with Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, and his other friends in the Hundred Acre Wood.
Quote Of The Day
"The Old Testament is responsible for more atheism, agnosticism, disbelief — call it what you will — than any book ever written; it has emptied more churches than all the counter-attractions of cinema, motor bicycle and golf course." - A.A. Milne
Vanguard Video
Today's video features a full cast reading of A.A. Milne's first Winnie the Pooh short story collection. Enjoy!
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