A.A. Milne: Six Facts You Might Not Know About the Man Behind Winnie-the-Pooh

Although A. A. Milne is best known for everyone’s favorite honey-obsessed bear, he also wrote several collections of poetry for children and adults. In honor of National Poetry Month, here’s a little bit more about him. You can also read some of his poems on the Poetry Foundation website. 

1. H.G. Wells was one of his teachers in primary school.

2. Despite his later occupations as a writer, poet, and playwright, Milne graduated Trinity College, Cambridge, with a B.A. in mathematics.

3. He played cricket with fellow authors J.M. Barrie and Arthur Conan Doyle.

4. Following his time served in WWI, he wrote both Peace with Honour (1934) and War with Honour (1940), which somewhat contradicted each other. His pacifistic nature as well as his experience in the war led him to write the first, but his realization that Hitler had to be taken down led him to write the latter.    

5. Many of the locations of the fictional Hundred Acre Wood derive directly from Five Hundred Acre Wood in Ashdown Forest and now serve as popular tourist spots.

6. Although not yet named, Winnie-the-Pooh’s debut was actually in Milne’s poem “Teddy Bear” which appeared in Punch magazine in 1924.

Sources: 

http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35031

http://www.express.co.uk/travel/articles/442/Happy-Birthday-Pooh

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-11380115

http://www.nypl.org/about/locations/schwarzman/childrens-center-42nd-street/pooh

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8662375.stm