A History of Pooh, by Julie Schaeffer

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Pooh, who had just put his paw into the tenth pot of honey, left it there, just to be on the safe side, and asked: "What about Christopher Robin?"
"The Rumour, Pooh. Do you suppose he has come back?" - Return to the Hundred Acre Wood

To celebrate the publication of the first new Winnie-the-Pooh book in 80 years, here is a very short History of Pooh:

The oddly name (but beloved) bear known as Winnie-the-Pooh received his name from the real Christopher Robin, author A.A. Milne's son, who named his teddy bear after animals he saw at the London Zoo.

Milne first wrote about a teddy bear who was "short and fat" in his 1924 book of poems, When We Were Very Young. The bear that we know and love as Winnie-the-Pooh had his debut a year later in a story Milne wrote for the Christmas edition of the British newspaper, the Evening Standard. This story later became the first chapter of Winnie-the-Pooh. Milne only wrote one more Pooh book after that, The House at Pooh Corner.

But that didn't stop the Pooh popularity! A lot more happened to Pooh after Milne published The House at Pooh Corner in 1928. For example, did you know Pooh's red shirt first appeared on a Winnie-the-Pooh record in 1932? It wasn't original to the Milne books. Further Pooh stories got their start in the 1960's when Disney purchased the rights to Pooh and began to make cartoons. Since then numerous short and full length films have been made about Pooh and his friends.

Pooh has also been quite popular with academics. In addition to finding international popularity around the world, Pooh has also been translated into more obscure languages such as Latin and Yiddish. Pooh and Piglet have also been revealed as great philosophers in the Tao of Pooh and the Te of Piglet.

This year, the big news in Poohland started when David Benedictus was given the green light by Milne's estate to write a new Pooh book, Return to the Hundred Acre Wood. Much secrecy has surrounded this release but today is the day! On October 5^th, 2009 Return to the Hundred Acre Wood publishes worldwide and you can meet new characters like Lottie the Otter and most importantly, revisit old friends.

And we've got some goodies for all you Pooh fans! You can read the first chapter from Return to the Hundred Acre Wood and watch a video of award-winning audiobook narrator fave, Jim Dale in action here.

For more history of Pooh and a picture of the original Winnie, go here.

Posted by: Julie Schaeffer, Online Content Coordinator

Julie Schaeffer, Return to the Hundred Acre Wood, A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh, David Benedictus, Dutton