Now We Are Six, A.A Milne. First Edition, 1927. Peter Harrington Rare Books

Now We Are Six, A.A Milne. First Edition, 1927. London: Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1927. You can view our first edition of Now We Are Six here. Presented by Pom Harrington, owner of Peter Harrington Rare Books. Octavo. Original full vellum with yapp edges, gilt lettered front cover, untrimmed. Housed in a custom made blue cloth chemise and quarter blue morocco slipcase. Illustrated throughout by Ernest H. Shepard. Slipcase a little used. An exemplary copy, largely unopened. First and limited edition, number 4 of 20 large-paper copies printed on Japanese vellum and signed by the author and illustrator; the most luxurious and exclusive format in which Milne’s Pooh books were issued. Following the success of When We Were Very Young Milne began planning a second book of poetry for children. In a January 1926 letter to his brother Ken he included it as number one in a list of “things which ought to be done”: “A book of verses (about 15 done to date) to appear in 1927 or 1928” (Thwaite p. 293). By the time that Winnie-the-Pooh was published in late 1926 half the poems for this third book were already complete. Published on 13 October 1927, it took only two months for Now We Are Six to eclipse the sales records of the previous two books. Full of Milne’s charming verse, this collection is also notable for including Shepard’s timeless illustrations from the world of Pooh and Piglet.