October is the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of the A.A. Milne story Winnie the Pooh, which was first published in 1926. Here at WashU Libraries we hold a first edition copy of the original Winnie-the-Pooh short story collection: ten stories focused on the endearing and internationally acclaimed cast of friendly animals in the Hundred Acre Woods. This edition from the Meissner Collection still holds the original endpapers and cover to retain the look of the first publication, while in a more decorative and stronger binding.

Milne and Shepard

Pooh’s story starts with Milne’s real son, Christopher Robin, and his stuffed animal versions of the beloved characters: a bear, piglet, kangaroo, a baby kangaroo, donkey, and a tiger. Christopher Robin’s original bear was named Winnie, whom he named after the popular Canadian black bear at the London Zoo, Winnipeg. It was author A. A. Milne and the illustrator Ernest Shepard who crafted the original character designs together, who also decided to include rabbit and owl in the final lineup. Milne published the original Winnie the Pooh on October 14, 1926, with a follow-up titled “The House at Pooh Corner” in 1928, both with illustrations by Shepard.  

Milne was a successful independent author, publishing short stories often in the English periodical, Punch. It was Shephard who would come to encourage Milne to turn his bedtime stories into the published works they eventually collaborated on. Ernest Shepard’s work was also featured in Punch, where he met A. A. Milne. He ended up working for Punch for almost fifty years on their staff. His illustrations can be found elsewhere in our collection, featured in other Winne the Pooh books and the 1920s Punch comics found in the Dowd Illustration Research Archive.

Enduring Legacy

Milne’s words and Shepard’s illustrations are inextricably linked and universally loved, with more than forty-five million copies sold in the United States alone as of today. But it was a hit from the start, with more than 50,000 copies sold in the first few months of publication in England. At a time when children’s literature was expanding in the market, the 1926 story is an enduring tale of friendship, love, and humor that appealed to folks across the globe and continuously for the past hundred years. The Julian Edison Department of Special Collections holds a rebound first edition of the beloved Winnie the Pooh story, which can be seen in person by appointment at the Olin Library in Special Collections.