Click on the arrow to purchase the first two classic Winnie-the-Pooh books!
Winne-the-Pooh. Iconic. Classic. A legend around the world. Pooh Bear has been kept cozy in the hearts of young and old. As I sit here, I sipping my coffee from a Pooh Bear mug clothed in a pale yellow Pooh jacket. I love that little wise bear who is always on the search for honey and he looks pretty good for being 100 years old!
Pooh’s adventures began when a trapper killed a mother bear and instead of destroying her baby cub, he decided to sell her. Thankfully a veterinarian and solder, Lt Harry Colebourn bought the little bear and raised and trained her. He named her Winnipeg after his hometown in Canada. Winnie for short. He took the cub with him when he went to England and before he was shipped out, he left her with the London Zoo. There she was safe and taken care of and he had all good intentions of coming back for her until he saw how much everyone loved her. She was friendly and gave children rides and Lt Colebourn let her there to live her life in peace and happiness.
One of Winne’s fans was a little boy named Christopher Robin Milne whose father, A.A. Milne, was an author. Christopher loved the bear at the London Zoo and renamed a gifted teddy bear he recieved on his first birthday Winnie…Winnie the Pooh. Pooh came from the name of a friend’s swan. A. A. Milne began to write stories about Christopher’s stuffed animal and a few other stuffies in his collection. He set them all in the 100 Acre Wood which was based on a local area they would enjoy that was near their home. A. A. Milne decided to share those stories with the world and published Winnie-the-Pooh in October 1926. Two years later he published a second book, The House at Pooh Corner.
Milne’s wife continued to develop characters after his death and rights were eventually sold to Stephen Slesinger in 1930 who began to market Winnie-the-Pooh merchandise. In 1961, the licensing rights were sold to Walt Disney Productions and the rest is history.
Have you read the original books? Buy a copy for your own home and have a little family reading time to celebrate 100 years of Pooh Bear!