The first Winnie-the-Pooh book was published on 14 October 1926. Here are 10 facts about Winnie the Pooh:
The inspiration for Winnie came from two Bears, one real, one a toy. The toy was a first birthday present from AA Milne to Christopher Robin on his first birthday, 18 inches high from Harrods department store, and it could growl. This bear was originally called Edward, but Christopher Robin re-named him after visiting a real bear called Winnie at London Zoo.
Winnie was a female Canadian black bear who’d been adopted as a cub by Harry Colebourn, a vet from Winnipeg, Canada, in 1914. He found the bear cub on the platform of a railway station. Colebourn was a member of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade, and Winnie became the brigade’s mascot. When the brigade went to France to start playing an active role in WWI, Colebourn decided it would be safer for Winnie to live at London Zoo and decided to loan her to the zoo for the duration of the war. When Coleburn returned after the war, however, he saw how happy Winnie was at the zoo and decided to leave her there permanently. Hence she was there when AA Milne took his son to the zoo.
The “Pooh” part of the name comes from a Swan that Milne and his son came across while on holiday and called it Pooh.
Winnie-the-Pooh has been translated in over 50 languages, including Czech, Finnish, Yiddish, Afrikaans, Catalan, Thai, Esperanto and Latin. The Latin translation, Winnie ille Pu, is the only book in Latin ever to make it onto the New York Times bestseller list.
Two years before getting a story all his own, Pooh made an unnamed, cameo appearance in A.A. Milne's 1924 collection When We Were Very Young: "A bear, however hard he tries/Grows tubby without exercise."
Although AA Milne is no longer with us, other writers have added to the stories and continue to add new characters, for example, Penguin, added for Pooh’s 90th anniversary 2016 by Brian Sibley, who said: "The thought of Pooh encountering a Penguin seemed no more outlandish than his meeting a Kangaroo and a Tiger in a Sussex wood, so I started thinking about what might have happened if, on a rather snowy day, Penguin had found his way to Pooh Corner."
Pooh is also a Disney character and stars in several animated films. The actor Sterling Holloway provides his voice.
It has been suggested that Winnie the Pooh’s surname is Sanders, because that’s what the sign above his door says. Milne refuted this, saying that just happened to be what the sign said, which led to speculation Pooh’s home might have had a previous owner named Sanders.
Winnie the Pooh narrowly missed being made the patron of a children’s playground in Tuszyn, a small town in Poland. He was rejected, however, because he didn’t wear Trousers or pants and is therefore half naked and not an appropriate role model for children. Not all parts of Poland necessarily agree. There is a street in Warsaw, Ulica Kubusia Puchatka, named after Winnie-the-Pooh. It has a stone tablet of Winnie walking hand-in-hand with Piglet.
Winnie the Pooh and his friends, that is, Christopher Robin’s original stuffed toys, now reside in the New York Public Library in a bullet proof case which is constantly monitored for temperature and humidity, because they are pretty old and fragile now. On 14 October, or 18 January (Winniw the Pooh Day) you can send Winnie the Pooh a birthday card, care of the Library.
Character birthday
Steve was approached by Superwil about the experiment. He was unwilling at first, but when he befriended a young boy who had lost an arm to cancer, realised that if he took part in the experiment he might benefit people like his new friend.
Steve was fitted with incredibly strong lifting arms which could extend 11mv in length and lift anything up to the size of a small space craft. In their retracted mode, they were adapted for everyday use and appear to the casual observer like ordinary hands and arms.
His wife Lucy is a distant cousin of Ivory's, who he met at Target and Ivory's wedding.
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