Winnie-the-Pooh (book)

**Winnie-the-Pooh** is a children’s book published in 1926, written by English author A. A. Milne and illustrated by English artist E. H. Shepard. The stories take place in the imaginary Hundred Acre Wood and follow the adventures of a talking teddy bear named Winnie-the-Pooh, along with his companions Christopher Robin, Piglet, Eeyore, Owl, Rabbit, Kanga, and Roo. It is the first of two collections Milne wrote about these characters; the second is *The House at Pooh Corner* (1928).

Before this book, Milne and Shepard had worked together on the humor magazine *Punch* and, in 1924, created the poetry collection *When We Were Very Young*. That collection included a teddy bear that Shepard based on his own son’s toy. After the poetry book succeeded, Shepard encouraged Milne to write stories about Milne’s son, Christopher Robin Milne, and his stuffed animals. Those toys became the inspiration for the characters in *Winnie-the-Pooh*.

The book came out on October 14, 1926, and was both praised by critics and a commercial hit, selling 150,000 copies by the end of that year. Critics have often viewed the book as a rural paradise, free from real-world troubles and without deliberate hidden meaning. In more recent years, some have criticized the lack of positive female characters, noting that the only female figure, Kanga, is portrayed as a poor mother.

*Winnie-the-Pooh* has been translated into more than fifty languages. A 1958 Latin translation, *Winnie ille Pu*, was the first foreign-language book to appear on the *New York Times* Best Seller List and remains the only Latin book ever to do so. The stories and characters have been adapted into other media, most notably by The Walt Disney Company, starting with *Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree*, released on February 4, 1966, as a double feature with *The Ugly Dachshund*. The book is still under copyright in some countries, including the United Kingdom.

**Background and publication**

Before *Winnie-the-Pooh*, A. A. Milne was already a well-known writer. He contributed to *Punch*, published the mystery novel *The Red House Mystery* (1922), and worked as a playwright. He began writing children’s poetry after a fellow *Punch* contributor, Rose Fyleman, asked him to. Milne gathered his first verses for publication, and though his publishers were at first unsure about releasing children’s poetry, *When We Were Very Young* (1924) was a success. The illustrations were done by Shepard, who also worked at *Punch*.

Among the characters in that poetry book was a teddy bear Shepard modeled after one belonging to his son. After the book’s success, Shepard urged Milne to write stories about Milne’s young son, Christopher Robin Milne, and his stuffed toys. One of Christopher’s toys was a teddy bear he called “Winnie-the-Pooh.” Christopher got the name “Winnie” from a bear at the London Zoo named Winnipeg. “Pooh” was the name of a swan in *When We Were Very Young*. Milne used Christopher and his toys as the basis for a series of short stories, which were collected and published as *Winnie-the-Pooh*. The model for Pooh remained the bear belonging to Shepard’s son.

*Winnie-the-Pooh* was published on October 14, 1926, by Methuen & Co. in England and E. P. Dutton in the United States. Because it first appeared in 1926, the book entered the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2022. In Britain, the text’s copyright expires on January 1, 2027 (70 years after Milne’s death), while the illustrations’ copyright expires on January 1, 2047 (70 years after Shepard’s death).

**Stories**

Some of the stories in *Winnie-the-Pooh* were adapted by Milne from earlier writings in *Punch*, *St. Nicholas Magazine*, *Vanity Fair*, and other periodicals. The first chapter, for example, came from “The Wrong Sort of Bees,” a story published in the *London Evening News* on Christmas Eve 1925. Classics scholar Ross Kilpatrick argued in 1998 that Milne based this chapter on “Teddy Bear’s Bee Tree,” published in 1912 in *Babes in the Woods* by Charles G. D. Roberts.

The stories can be read separately. The plots do not carry over from one story to the next, except for Stories 9 and 10.

**“In Which We Are Introduced to Winnie the Pooh and Some Bees and the Stories Begin”:** Pooh is out of honey, so he tries to climb a tree to get some but falls, bouncing off branches. He meets Christopher Robin and floats up with a balloon, only to realize the bees are the wrong kind for honey. Christopher shoots the balloon with his gun, and Pooh slowly floats back down.

**“In Which Pooh Goes Visiting and Gets into a Tight Place”:** Pooh visits Rabbit and eats so much that he gets stuck in Rabbit’s doorway on his way out. Christopher Robin reads to him for a week, and after not eating, Pooh becomes thin enough to be pulled out by Christopher, Rabbit, and Rabbit’s friends and family.

**“In Which Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting and Nearly Catch a Woozle”:** After it snows, Pooh and Piglet follow increasing numbers of footprints around a stand of trees, thinking they belong to a dangerous creature. Christopher Robin points out that they are following their own footprints.

**“In Which Eeyore Loses a Tail and Pooh Finds One”:** Pooh sets out to find Eeyore’s missing tail and visits Owl. Owl suggests putting up posters and offering a reward, then asks Pooh what he thinks of his bell-rope. They realize Owl has accidentally taken Eeyore’s tail, and Christopher Robin nails it back on.

**“In Which Piglet Meets a Heffalump”:** Piglet and Pooh try to trap a Heffalump using honey as bait, but Pooh ends up stuck in the hole with the honey jar on his head. Piglet thinks Pooh is a Heffalump and calls Christopher Robin.