Author Focus: A.A. Milne

A.A. Milne was an English writer best known for his children's books based on his character Winnie the Pooh. He was born Alan Alexander Milne on January 18th, 1882, in London, England, to John Vince Milne, a private school headmaster, and Sarah Marie Milne. He had two older brothers. A.A. Milne was educated at Henley House School, then Westminster School in London, and eventually the University of Cambridge's Trinity College. While at Cambridge, he realized that he wanted to pursue a writing career and began writing for the magazine Punch. He served in World War I, and after returning to London he met and married Dorothy de Selincourt. They had a son, named Christopher Robin.

One of A.A. Milne's teachers at Henley House School where his father was headmaster was H.G. Wells, the famous author who went on to write The War of the Worlds.
While at Cambridge A.A. Milne edited and wrote for Granta, the student magazine.
A.A. Milne played on an English cricket team with two authors who also became famous: Arthur Conan Doyle and J.M. Barrie.
A.A. Milne became a contributor to Punch magazine after graduating from Cambridge, and also became assistant editor.
While working at Punch, A.A. Milne wrote a total of three novels and 18 plays.
In 1913 A.A. Milne and Dorothy de Selincourt married and had a baby boy in 1920. Christopher Robin Milne would become the inspiration for A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh series.
In 1924 A.A. Milne published a collection of his children's poems titled When We Were Very Young. The poems were illustrated by a cartoonist from Punch magazine.
In 1925 A.A. Milne moved his family to a country home in Hartfield, East Sussex, named Cotchford Farm.
A.A. Milne created the character Winnie the Pooh after his son's stuffed bear and a swan. The stuffed bear was originally named Edward, but was renamed after the Canadian black bear Winnie that was left in London's zoo after World War I. The name Pooh came from a swan.
All the characters in A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh books were inspired by toys that his son Christopher Robin played with, including Tigger, Roo, Kanga, Eeyore, and Piglet.
The stuffed animals that belonged to Christopher Robin, and which inspired the Winnie the Pooh books, are on display in New York.
Winnie the Pooh was first published in 1926. In 1928 The House at Pooh Corner was published.
In 1958 Winnie the Pooh won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award.
A.A. Milne published a variety of works including novels, non-fiction, magazine articles, short story collections for children and adults, poems, poetry collections, and many plays and screenplays.
A.A. Milne died on January 31st, 1956, at the age of 74. In 1952 he had suffered from a stroke, and brain surgery had left him an invalid up until the time of his death.
The rights to the Winnie the Pooh book characters were eventually sold to Walt Disney Company and Winnie the Pooh went on to become one of their most valuable fictional characters. By 2005 Winnie the Pooh had generated more than $6 billion in that year alone.