It was 83 years ago this week that A.A. Milne’s classic Winnie-the-Pooh first hit bookshelves everywhere. Even if you think Disney’s Pooh is passé (I myself am not a fan), you have to admit that the original story is a classic. Here are a few facts about one of the world’s most famous bears.
1. All of the animals portrayed in the story were inspired by Christopher Robin Milne’s (A.A. Milne’s son) stuffed animals, except for two: Owl and Rabbit, whom Milne and illustrator Ernest Shepard created to round out the menagerie. Sadly, Christopher Robin lost the Roo stuffed animal (the baby kangaroo) in an apple orchard in the 1930s, so it’s not with the display of original plush dolls (pictured).
2. It’s kind of surprising that as many of the stuffed animals lasted as long as they did – not only were they well-loved by Milne’s son, but they were also apparently well-loved by the family dog. I can tell you that if my dachshunds had gotten a hold of those they would have ripped all of the stuffing out of them and then turned the “carcass” inside out, so we should be thankful that the Milnes didn’t own wiener dogs.
3. There’s been some speculation over the years that Pooh’s last name is Sanders, as in “Winnie-the-Pooh Sanders,” because he has the name “Sanders” written over the door of his house. As far as we know, this isn’t true. After stating the Pooh lived under the name of Sanders, the book clarifies, “It means he had the name over the door in gold letters and Pooh lived under it.” Most experts take this to mean that the previous resident was named Sanders and merely left his mark on the abode. We don’t know who the mysterious Mr. Sanders was; however, there is one unconfirmed explanation: a real-life man by the name of Frank Sanders had a printing press that printed some of Milne’s work and was a friend of the man who illustrated the Pooh books.
4. Winnie the Pooh is a pretty big deal in Russia – he starred in three animated short stories in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s – but he looks much different than both the animated Disney version and the version illustrated by Ernest Shepard. That’s the Russian Pooh to the left.
5. Winnie-the-Pooh is the original spelling. Disney took out the hyphens when they made their animated series. Obviously those were huge successes, thus the spelling without the hyphens became more commonly known.
6. A first edition Winnie-the-Pooh book can go for anywhere from $700 for a book in decent condition to nearly $5,000 for a “presentation copy” signed book.
7. Hundred-Acre Wood is a real place in England. It’s based on a place called Ashdown Forest in East Sussex. Many of the landmarks found in the Pooh books can be found there, including Poohsticks Bridget, Galleon’s Lap (called Gill’s Lap in real life), Roo’s Sandpit and Heffalump Trap. In fact, in 2001, a 10-year-old boy took the “fake” map drawn by Ernest Shepard and navigated his way around Ashdown Forest for a documentary.
8. Winnie-the-Pooh has been released in many languages, including Esperanto and Latin. The Latin version (Winnie ille Pu) actually made it on to the New York Times bestseller list in 1960, making it the first-ever foreign language book to make it to the list. To this day, it’s the only Latin book that has ever charted.
9. The real Christopher Robin didn’t much appreciate his fame. When he went away to school, his schoolmates taunted him and recited passages from his father’s stories to him, which made the younger Milne quite embarrassed of his association with the tribe of stuffed animals. He later wrote an autobiography about how difficult his life was, saying, “It seemed to me almost that my father had got where he was by climbing on my infant shoulders, that he had filched from me my good name and left me nothing but empty fame”. Maybe it’s because my father has never written one of the most beloved children’s books of all time about me, but to me, Christopher Robin’s statement sounds a little, um… selfish? Spoiled? Ungrateful? What do you think?
10. You can read about how Winnie-the-Pooh got his name here (and about a few other children’s lit characters that had real-life counterparts). The original Pooh bear was purchased at Harrod’s and was named Edward Bear.
Are you a fan? Or are you totally sick of the Pooh overload Disney has forced down everyone’s throats in recent years? Whether you love the pudgy guy or would rather see him develop a nasty honey allergy, let us know in the comments.
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I greq up on all the Winnie the Pooh books! I am not a fan on the new Winnie on Disney or the direction they took it. However, when I still have my collection of the small hardcover books.
posted by Molly on 10-12-2009 at 5:06 pm
I liked the books as a kid and enjoyed the Disney stuff while Sterling Holloway did the voices. Later they tried to, I don’t know.. improve it? It was good when it was simple.
posted by Lee on 10-12-2009 at 5:28 pm
Can’t stand Pooh stuff. To me, it is right up there with parents wearing tweety bird shirts.
However, the son is an ingrate.
posted by PiedrasPR on 10-12-2009 at 5:47 pm
Love the books! Read them when I was younger and again with my daughter not long ago.
I like the original Disney animated movie, but I agree that maybe they’ve gone a bit overboard since then. But that’s pretty much typical Disney.
I’m not sure that Christopher Milne is selfish or ungrateful. He does say “seemed to me” as in perhaps he was more appreciative later in life but at the time, as a kid, he resented the attention the book got him. I can’t say for sure since I haven’t read his autobiography.
A.A. Milne himself was disappointed that the Pooh books and his children’s poetry (“trifles” he called them) had gotten so much attention while his other work hadn’t.
If you ever have a chance you should check out the book “Once on a Time” and the play “The Ugly Duckling” by A.A. Milne.
posted by Nerak on 10-12-2009 at 6:09 pm
Imagine yourself in an English boarding school, seperated from your parents and thrown in with a bunch of kids who mercilessly persecuted any child who was in any way different, and then judge Christopher.
Love the original books, not crazy about most of Disney’s efforts in recreating that world, especially in taking the heffulumps and changing them from honey fueled nightmares into real, but misunderstood, creatures inhabiting Pooh’s “real” world.
posted by Pam on 10-12-2009 at 6:24 pm
I think Nerak makes a good point–for a kid, all the taunting would be especially horrible, but it sounds like eventually Christopher Milne got over it.
I don’t know… this list oscillated violently between the positively adorable to the depressingly horrible. I do love the Russian Winne-the-Pooh–I found it a while ago and watched in abstract fascination. Of course I don’t know a word of Russian, making it even more surreal.
posted by Allison on 10-12-2009 at 6:28 pm
Heffalumps and woozles…
posted by Izzi on 10-12-2009 at 6:30 pm
I’m w/ Pam.
Walk a mile in Christopher Robin’s shoes. Kids can be cruel, and when everyone gangs up on you, and judging by the success of W-T-P, everyone could have joined in the reindeer games mocking him. Had to be lonely.
I just hope he cashed in on dad’s residuals. The best revenge is living well. And by revenge, I mean revenge on his taunters, not his father.
posted by Jonny on 10-12-2009 at 8:23 pm
I enjoy the Pooh books and actually like the original Disney movies too. I think they strived as much as possible to be like the books but, as noted above, Disney isn’t usually content to leave well enough alone and the whole thing spun out of control. The less said about the contemporary (computer-animated) Pooh the better. They even replaced Christopher Robin! *ptui*
posted by Mother Chat on 10-12-2009 at 8:25 pm
supposedly baby pigs weren’t called piglets until the popularity of the book.
posted by Victoria on 10-12-2009 at 8:38 pm
I love Winnie the Pooh.
posted by Mel on 10-12-2009 at 9:37 pm
I love Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, and Eeyore most of all. I think they are too commercialized, but what isn’t now? I can think of two things “Calvin and Hobbes” and “The Far Side”, because their creators kept them very close. I think Christopher Robin had good reason to be resentful while in school, but once out of it, he should have realized what a gift his father left him.
posted by gckittehmom on 10-12-2009 at 10:32 pm
Stacy it is really NOT up to you to cast aspersions and resort to name calling when it comes to the “real” Christopher Robin. You have ZERO first hand experience with regard to his life and what it must have been like. Why not just give us the facts as they were presented instead of editorializing and arrogantly suggesting how readers should feel. The quotes from his autobiography were illuminating and raise more questions than you have answered. Trash talk has no place on Mental Floss, I come here to be enlightened not manipulated
posted by Jessie on 10-12-2009 at 11:01 pm
I LOVE WINNIE THE POOH!!!
I read all the books and watched all of disney’s movies. I used to watch the show too. But I absolutely hate the computer animated version. The thing is, though, as time changes things change. Kids these days love 3D animation. They came into the world watching it. But if you are older, you will most likely prefer the more original version. I’m only 21 so I know I wasn’t around for the ORIGINAL pooh stories and stuff and I never liked the original drawings either. But that’s because of the time period I was born in. I grew up on the Disney version and I adore it!
And as for Chris Robin…wat a spoiled brat. But I do understand where he’s coming from…
posted by Candice on 10-12-2009 at 11:37 pm
Huh? The Far Side isn’t too commercialized? Are you sure you’re not thinking of something else? Because The Far Side, behind maybe (and I mean maybe) Garfield. Anything there is, Larson has signed off on a TFS cartoon emblazoned on it.
posted by Jeff K. on 10-12-2009 at 11:42 pm
My favorite character has always been Eeyore because he’s gloomy and seems to have lost his tail. I guess he gets away with it because he’s a cute donkey. If he were a person I’d tell him to get over it and stop with the gloominess already.
posted by Rachel on 10-13-2009 at 12:11 am
I have an old copy of A.A. Milne’s book with the illustrations- I plan on making my nursery “classic pooh” when I have a baby. Today’s pooh doesn’t do much for me. I much prefer the old style drawings.
posted by Erica on 10-13-2009 at 12:58 am
I love classic Winnie-the-pooh and even enjoyed the saturday morning cartoon for a while.
But I hate hate hate the direction disney has gone with it of late, especially replacing Christopher Robin.
posted by Merinda on 10-13-2009 at 12:59 am
I loved Pooh when I was small. I haven’t seen any of the recent things Disney has done with it, but Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day is an enduring classic.
posted by Kelsey on 10-13-2009 at 8:51 am
And the rain, rain, rain came down, down, down so Piglet started bailing.
posted by KJ on 10-13-2009 at 9:07 am
I make sure my grandchildren have the original stories which were read to me as a child, I wanted read to me when sick as a teenager, and I Love reading to them. Even with all the Disney overload, they too Love the stories as written.
posted by Susan on 10-13-2009 at 1:14 pm
Jessie, wow, take a deep breath. If trash talk has no place on Mental_Floss, you should probably take most of that back. Stacy didn’t tell anyone how to feel, she just speculated and then asked readers to share their own feelings.
I agree with everyone else–old school Pooh rocks, Disney sucks. I didn’t know they had replaced Christopher Robin, so now I’m feeling even more resolute that my future children shall not be exposed to Disney-fied Winnie-the-Pooh.
posted by Fruppi on 10-13-2009 at 3:06 pm
I’m honestly a bit confused about why some people seem to think that Christopher was ungrateful or spoiled. I don’t know much of his life, but so far as I know he didn’t exactly live a life of luxury as a result of his father’s writing. Going through school, especially boarding school, and having peers constantly torment you is a daily hell for many kids every day. Being known for his collection of stuffed animals and his father’s stories about him must have made his childhood particularly hellish. For those who think badly of him for commenting on that fact, I am genuinely interested – not in starting a flame war – but in finding out why you have that opinion. Please post.
posted by Kyle on 10-13-2009 at 3:20 pm
“but to me, Christopher Robin’s statement sounds a little, um… selfish? Spoiled? Ungrateful? What do you think?”
I think that sounds like a question that could only be asked by someone who has been given to by Winnie the Pooh. But when you’ve experienced a cost, when those beloved stories had a real tangible cost in your life, you might see it differently.
So no- not spoiled. Just honest.
posted by Bob Hyatt on 10-13-2009 at 3:20 pm
Not to nitpick, but a note on where the original stuffed animals are now located would be nice.
Also, even though it wasn’t written by A.A. Milne, I loved “The Tao of Pooh.”
Oh yeah – lighten up, Jessie! (Sheesh, what’s with the rudeness on the mental_floss boards lately?)
posted by Steve from San Diego on 10-13-2009 at 5:09 pm
Why don’t we all just take it for what it is.
Winnie-the-Pooh is a well loved character that has brought millions of children joy. We all grew up with him and the gang from the 100 acre woods. The original books brought not only the author a lot of money but also his son. If he wants to feel negative about what his father did for him, then so be it.
As for the Disney version, do you really think that the books would have been as popular nowadays without Disney putting his prospective on it?
I don’t think so. Go Disney!
posted by Julie on 10-15-2009 at 12:34 pm
Think about it. The kid had to deal with his father publishing stories about his stuffed animals. That not only implies that he has stuffed animals, but also that he talks to them. How mortifying!
posted by Carli on 10-18-2009 at 7:12 pm
@ steve
Unless they’ve been moved, they are on display, housed behind bullet proof glass, at the New York City Public Library. I remember there was a stink around 97-98 because England wanted them back, but they had actually been legally willed to the NY or something like that. I distinctly remember getting very ticked at the anchorman on the story because he pronounced it “EYE-yore” instead of “EE-yore”
posted by Hastings on 10-19-2009 at 2:42 pm
My toddler studied the list of prefixes and suffixes at the back of the Esperanto edition.
posted by Ian Fantom on 12-9-2009 at 7:12 pm