Biography. Milne Alan Alexander: biography, career, personal life Brief biography of Milne

Milne Alan Alexander(1882-1956) - prose writer, poet and playwright, classic of twentieth-century literature, author of the famous " Winnie the Pooh».

Biography

Scottish by birth Alan AlexanderMilne spent his childhood in London. Since childhood I dreamed of becoming a writer.

Milne grew up in a family where children were encouraged to be creative, from a young age he composed funny poems and showed an aptitude for the exact sciences.

He studied at a private school, owned by his father. Then he entered Westminster School, and then Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied mathematics.

His early education was largely determined by the influence of his youth teacher J. Wells - much later Milne wrote of Wells as "a great writer and a great friend." He continued his education at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. Subsequently, he presented the handwritten original of his book “ Winnie the Pooh" and "The House at Pooh Edge" in the College Library.

During his student years, while a student at Cambridge, he fulfilled his long-time dream by becoming the editor of the magazine Granta, for which he wrote poems and stories, and his first literary experiences were published in the humorous magazine Punch.

As a result, Milne completely abandoned his studies and moved to London, where he began working at Punch magazine.

A month after his twenty-fourth birthday, Milne began working for Punch as assistant editor until the outbreak of the First World War.

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.

A born pacifist, Milne was drafted into the Royal Army and served in France.

His famous anti-war work, An Honorable Peace, was published in 1934. This book found a huge response in interwar times, and in 1924 Meffin published the famous stories Milna"When We Were Very Young", some of which had previously been published in Punch and were well known to the magazine's regular readers.

By that time, Milne had written several funny plays, one of which, Mister Pym Passed (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 colossal success of the book of poems, 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 he wrote Winnie the Pooh. 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.

Two years later, in 1926, the first version of Winnie the Pooh appeared. 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. Milne it seemed 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 was 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 actually wrote a detective story, The Mystery of the Red House, which was published by Meffin in 1939 along with 25 other plays, short stories and an autobiography. Milna"It's too late now."

Milne has 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" The history of the creation of this book is indeed full of mysteries and contradictions, but the fact remains that 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.

First chapter Pooh"In Which We Meet Winnie the Pooh and the Bees for the First Time" was first published in a London evening newspaper on December 24, 1925, and broadcast on BBC Radio on Christmas Day by Donald Calfrop. Winnie the Pooh was first published by Meffin in October 1926, and has been for many years Milnovsky books are recognized classics of children's bookshelves and Disney cartoons.

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, Christopher Robin, preferring to raise Christopher on the works of his favorite writer, Wodehouse. Wodehouse subsequently returned Milne this compliment, saying that " Milne- his favorite children's writer."

Wodehouse's books continued to live in the house Milna and after his death. Christopher Robin read these books to his daughter Claire, whose bookshelves in her room were literally bursting with books by this children's writer. Christopher wrote to his friend Peter: “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 (London's literary and artistic club) - and he simply did not pay attention to everything else... Except, perhaps, life itself." Christopher Robin first read poems and stories about Winnie the Pooh 60 years after their first appearance, when I heard Peter's recordings on record.

The adventures of Winnie the Bear are loved by both adults and children. Conducted in 1996 A poll 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 since 1924 to 1956 exceeded 7 million. As you know, when sales exceed a million, publishers stop counting them.

Since 1968, the Muffin publishing house has sold 500,000 copies annually, with 30 percent sold in “new countries”—Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand. By 1996, about 20 million copies had been sold, published only by Muffin. This does not include publishers in the United States, Canada, or non-English-speaking countries.

In 1960, Winnie the Pooh was brilliantly translated into Russian Boris Zakhoder. Anyone who speaks two languages ​​can attest 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.

Each of the characters in the book is about Winnie the Pooh has a memorable character and charm, and the ending of the book “The House on the Edge of Pooh” is poignantly 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 the book. Milna « Winnie the Pooh" This film, just under half an hour long, follows the adventures of a boy named Christopher Robin and his beloved teddy bear. Winnie the Pooh, seen in films and on television by millions of children. Bringing Heroes to Life Milna 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 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 ones) 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 addition to the world famous Winnie the Pooh, Alexander Alan Milne 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 successful, and after it Milne returned to his home in Sexes, where he spent the rest of his life reading. After a long illness, he died in 1956, on January 31.

Soon after the release Winnie the Pooh» A.A. Milne wrote in The Nation: “I think that each of us secretly dreams of immortality. In the sense that his name will survive the body and will live in this world, despite the fact that the person himself has passed on to another world.” When Milne died, no one had any doubt 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, the favorite teddy bear Milna was sold in London at Bonham's auction to an unknown buyer for £4,600. (Approximately $7400).

Interesting facts from life

At the school where Alan Milne studied, H. G. Wells taught.

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.

Winnie the Pooh's official date of birth is August 21, 1921, which is the day Christopher Robin Milne turned one. On this day, Milne gave his son a teddy bear (which, however, received the name Pooh only four years later).

Christopher Robin's toys, which became the prototypes of the book's characters (except for Little Roo, who has not survived), have been in the USA since 1947 (given there by Milne the Father for an exhibition, and after his death acquired by the Dutton publishing house), until 1969 they were kept in the publishing house, and currently on display at the New York Public Library. Many Britons believe that this vital part of the country's cultural heritage should return to its homeland. The issue of toy restitution was even raised in the British Parliament (1998).

One of the most famous translations of the Pooh books into foreign languages ​​is Alexander Lenard's translation into Latin called Winnie ille Pu. The first edition was published in 1958, and in 1960 Latin Pooh became the first non-English book to appear on the New York Times bestseller list. On the cover of a number of publications, Vinnie is depicted in the garb of a Roman legionnaire with a short sword in his left paw.

Winnie the Pooh is depicted on postage stamps of at least 18 countries (including the USSR Post Office in 1988, a stamp dedicated to the history of the Soviet cartoon). The Canadian series of four stamps also deserves special mention, where one stamp depicts Lieutenant Harry Colborne with a Winnipeg bear cub, on the other - little Christopher Robin with a teddy bear, on the third - the heroes of Shepard's illustrations, on the fourth - Disney's Pooh against the backdrop of Walt Disney World in Florida.

Bibliography

Winnie the Pooh

Winnie the Pooh

House on Pukhovaya edge (The House at Pooh Corner)

Translated into Russian - without two chapters of the original - under the general title “Winnie-the-Pooh and all-all-all” by B.V. Zakhoder; Some newer translations retain the division into two books.

Poetry

When we were very little

Now we're six

Fairy tales

Prince Rabbit

Princess Nesmeyana

An ordinary fairy tale

Stories

The truth is in the wine

Christmas story

Amazing story

Mr. Findlater's Dreams

Christmas grandfather

Before the flood

Table near the orchestra

Exactly at eleven

Portrait of Lydia

Novels

Lovers in London (1905)

Once upon a time, a long time ago... (eng. Once on a Time, 1917)

Mr. Pim (eng. Mr. Pim, 1921)

The Red House Mystery, 1922

Two (English Two People, 1931)

A very short-lived sensation (eng. Four Days Wonder, 1933)

Chloe Marr (eng. Chloe Marr, 1946)

Film adaptations of works, theatrical performances

List of Disney films about Winnie the Pooh:

Short cartoons

1966: Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree (Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree)

1968: Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day

1974: Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too! (Winnie the Pooh, and with him Tigger)

1981: Winnie the Pooh Discovers the Seasons

1983: Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore (Pooh and a holiday for Eeyore)

Full-length cartoons

1977: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (“The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh”; combines the first three short cartoons)

1997: Pooh's Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin

1999: Seasons of Giving

2000: The Tigger Movie

2002: A Very Merry Pooh Year

2003: Piglet’s Big Movie

2004: Springtime with Roo (Spring days with baby Roo)

2005: Pooh’s Heffalump Halloween Movie (Winnie the Pooh and Halloween for the Heffalump)

2007: My Friends Tigger & Pooh: Super Sleuth Christmas Movie

2009: My Friends Tigger & Pooh: Tigger and Pooh And A Musical Too

TV series

Welcome to Pooh Corner (Welcome to Pooh Corner, Disney Channel, 1983-1995)

The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, ABC, 1988-1991)

The Book of Pooh (Puhova Book, Disney Channel, 2001-2002)

My Friends Tigger & Pooh (My Friends Tigger & Pooh, Disney Channel, 2007-)

Holiday Specials

1991: Winnie the Pooh & Christmas Too! (Winnie the Pooh and Christmas)

1996: Boo! To You Too! Winnie the Pooh (Boo! You too! Winnie the Pooh)

1998: A Winnie the Pooh Thanksgiving

1998: Winnie the Pooh, A Valentine For You

Animated films produced in the USSR and Russia:

Winnie the Pooh. USSR, 1969.

Winnie the Pooh is coming to visit. USSR, 1971.

Winnie the Pooh and Care Day. USSR, 1972.

Why I like the elephant (from the almanac “Merry Carousel”, No. 15): Based on the poem by A. A. Milne. USSR, 1983.

Royal sandwich: Based on the poem by A. A. Milne, translated by S. Ya. Marshak. USSR, 1985.

Nikopeyka: Based on a children's poem by A. A. Milne. Russia, 1999.

Known as the literary father of Winnie the Pooh. The stories about the little bear “with sawdust in his head” became one of the writer’s biggest victories, but, at the same time, the most terrible defeat in his life. “In seventy thousand words I said goodbye to all my previous work,” he lamented. But first things first.

Alan Milne was born in 1882 in London, and attended a private school where his father was headmaster. Among the teachers of the young Milne was Herbert Wells. However, we have no information that the famous science fiction writer had any influence on the literary career of his student.

Milne later attended Westminster School and then the elite Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied mathematics. Despite his studies in exact sciences, the young man decided to make a living through literature. After graduating from Cambridge, he joined Punch magazine and soon became assistant editor. Until 1922, Milne managed to write 18 plays and three novels, including the detective story “The Mysteries of the Red House.”

It became a lifelong trauma for him. In 1914, the writer went to Flanders. According to journalist Barry Gun, he decided to take this step only because his adored wife really liked the officers in uniform who flooded London. Dorothy, or Daphne to her family, always wanted to be proud of her husband. Although Alan Milne spent relatively little time at the front, he did take part in major battles, such as the famous Battle of the Somme, which is more often referred to simply as "the massacre". After the war, the writer returned as a convinced supporter of peace and for a long time cherished the dream of pacifist work. The book "Peace with Honor" was published in 1931. This, however, did not stop Alan Milne from becoming captain of the British Home Defense Force in 1939. He explained his step by saying that the fight against Hitler, the “Antichrist” and “crusader against God,” is a just cause.

In the 1920s, Milne became one of the first screenwriters of the young British cinema. He has four films to his credit, copies of which are now kept at the British Film Institute. All the writer’s work before the appearance of stories about Winnie the Pooh were continuous, mostly successful, literary experiments. It was he who replaced the heavy satire of the pre-war Punch with light and subtle humor. But satire became too small for him, and at a time when his agent and publisher insisted that he should continue to write cartoons and quirky essays for Punch, Milne took up detective novels. A couple of years later, these same people assured that detectives were his calling. Alan Milne could find his audience in any genre. Everything changed when the first book of stories about Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh was published.

This is not to say that changes happened overnight. In 1924, four years after the birth of his son Christopher Robin, Milne published a collection of children's poems, When We Were Little, illustrated by Ernest Sheppard. The collection of stories "Children's Gallery", which included stories about Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Tigger and others, appeared a year later. As Alan Milne himself said, he didn’t have to invent anything, he simply watched his own son and his games.

Christopher Robin himself gave his father ideas for future stories. The first complete book about the bear cub and his friends was published in 1926, and the second in 1928. The success turned out to be unprecedented, but Milne didn’t want to write more about Vinnie, and his son had already grown up. Alas, after the appearance of books for children, the author began to be looked at exclusively as a children's writer. Critics criticized his other works in advance, and readers demanded a continuation. Like Arthur Conan Doyle, who was captured by Sherlock Holmes, Alan Milne found himself in the clutches of a teddy bear that he himself created. Until the end of their lives, both the writer and his son hated Vinny. The first for the fact that this character stole his career, the second for his stolen childhood.

There was one more person who regretted “getting involved” with Winnie the Pooh - Ernest Sheppard. He, a brilliant cartoonist and fearless war correspondent, was also perceived until the end of his life only as the author of illustrations for children's books.

It is likely that neither the Milnes nor Sheppard were able to appreciate what is obvious to modern readers. In the period between the two world wars, when empires collapsed and families disintegrated, they created a tale free of politics and hints of personal trauma. A fairy tale in which it is warm and cozy, like in a child’s room, and that is why readers all over the world love it.

Alan Alexander Milne (1882-1956) - prose writer, poet and playwright, classic of twentieth-century literature, author of the famous "Winnie the Pooh".
English writer, Scottish by birth, Alan Alexander Milne spent his childhood in London. He studied at a small private school, owned by his father, John Milne. One of his teachers in 1889-1890 was Herbert Wells. Then he entered Westminster School, and then Trinity College, Cambridge, where from 1900 to 1903 he studied mathematics. 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, goddaughter of magazine editor Owen Seaman (said to be the psychological prototype of Eeyore), and the marriage produced one son, Christopher.
A born pacifist, Milne was drafted into the Royal Army and served in France. He later wrote a book, Peace with Honor, in which he condemned the war.
In 1926, the first version of Little Bear with Sawdust in his Head (in English - Bear-with-very-small-brains) - "Winnie the Pooh" - appeared. 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.
Before the publication of the books about Winnie the Pooh, Milne was already a fairly famous playwright, but the success of Winnie the Pooh has acquired such proportions that Milne's other works are now practically unknown. Worldwide sales of Pooh Bear books translated into 25 languages, 1924 to 1956. exceeded 7 million, and by 1996 about 20 million copies had been sold, and only by the publishing house Muffin (this figure does not include publishers in the USA, Canada and non-English-speaking countries). A 1996 poll conducted by English radio showed that the book about Winnie the Pooh took 17th place in the list of the most striking and significant works published in the twentieth century. That same year, Milne's beloved teddy bear was sold at Bonham's London auction to an unknown buyer for £4,600.
In 1952, Milne underwent brain surgery, after which he spent four years until his death at his estate in Cotchford, Sussex.

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 ones) were released.

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Alan Alexander Milne (Alan Alexander Milne) - 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 at 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, like I used to want to run away from Punch, like 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 this 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 (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 survive the body and will live in this world, despite the fact that the person himself 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.