The Contradictions of A.A. Milne

Jan 30, 2014 | History, Illustrated Books, Literature

“I suppose that every one of us hopes secretly for immortality; to leave, I mean, a name behind him which will live forever in this world, whatever he may be doing, himself, in the next.”

It is easy enough to take tales of bears, piglets, owls and donkeys at face value, labelling a writer penning such stories as nothing more or less than a delightful children’s author.

Shephard's copy of Winnie the Pooh

First trade edition. Shepard’s own copy, inscribed by him on the day of publication on the verso of the title page, “Artist’s Copy, Ernest H. Shepard, Oct. 14th 1926″, and with his pencilled initials to the spine of the dust jacket. Provenance: from the collection of Pat McInally.

Take Pooh out of the equation, however, and A.A. Milne’s writing career reveals a personal evolution and contradiction in more ways than one. His 1917 book Once on a Time, a ‘fairy tale for adults’, while possessing  a familiar light hearted air and devotion to family – the likeable villain Countess Bevane was based on his wife –  was a different affair entirely, one which the author himself struggled to define:

“As you see, I am still finding it difficult to explain just what sort of book it is. Perhaps no explanation is necessary. Read in it what you like; read it to whomever you like; be of what age you like; it can only fall into one of the two classes. Either you will enjoy it, or you won’t. It is that sort of book.”

There is much to surprise here: a sharp wit and sense of satire for instance, which had previously been aired through countless Punch articles (in which he was first published in around 1904) and Cambridge university magazine Granta, which he contributed to while studying. The effort in character creation of significant depth, too, is very much at odds with Milne’s later (admittedly posthumous) association with Disney and all things Pooh.

Milne himself denied a target audience in the foreword – claiming to have written the story primarily for his wife – yet many critics believed the book to be too complex for younger readers. Either way, Once on a Time achieved remarkable levels of commercial and critical success. 

Original artwork for dustjacket of Once On a Time

Original artwork for the dust jacket of the 1925 reissue of Once On A Time, the first edition to be illustrated by Charles Robinson. Signed by the artist.

The contradictory nature of Milne’s life was evident in more than just fiction. Despite already defining himself as a pacifist, Milne volunteered in the First World War, becoming an Officer in the Signals Corps. During the Battle of the Somme, Milne fought alongside future Winnie-the-Pooh illustrator E. H. Shepard, a colleague from the more light-hearted days of Punch.

Milne was discharged after a year with trench fever, but was almost immediately recruited into the highly secretive propagandist branch MI7b. ’The Green Book’, a collection of his anti-(British) government propaganda writing, came to light nearly one hundred years after the war, in which he mocked the work he had been forced to undertake – writing anti-German propaganda that more often than not, had no basic truth to it.

In MI7b
who loves to lie with me
about atrocities.
And Hun Corpse Factories
come hither, come hither, come hither
here shall we see
No enemy
But sit all day and blather.

Even before The Green Book was discovered, Milne was already known as a voice of controversial ideas of moral justice, writing extensively across articles, essays and full tomes against violence, including his works Peace with Honour, and later War with Honour.

Peace With Honour

First edition, first impression. Inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, “For Athene – with that admiration of her intelligence – and love of herself – which prove the author of this book to be wise but not necessarily original, A. A. Milne”. We are aware of other books having been inscribed by Milne to “Athene” and it is likely she was a friend.

 

In their later years, both Milne and Shepard had grown tired of the bear’s success, with Shepard in particular being heard to refer to him as ‘that silly old bear’ on numerous occasions, resenting his close association with the books that he felt overshadowed the rest of his work.

Milne’s own brand of humour fell out of vogue in the early thirties, and the author struggled somewhat with the commercial demand for more Winnie-the-Pooh after the war, but nevertheless he lived a comfortable life in Kent – in the Ashdown Forest, East Sussex, that inspired the Hundred Acre Wood – until his death from a lingering illness in 1956.

His widow, Daphne, sold her rights to the Pooh characters to Stephen Slesinger, whose own widow later sold the rights to the Walt Disney Company, sparking the massive commercial revival of Winnie-the-Pooh, including a series of animated feature films from 1966 reimagining the anthropomorphic cartoon bear most memorable today.

Had his career not been eclipsed by a small yellow lover of ‘hunny’, Milne’s legacy would have perhaps lived on through his immutable sense of moral justice, his prolific and career-spanning satire, or perhaps his fame as a playwright. As it was he is best known for a Bear of Very Little Brain – a frustration and a joy all at once.

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