Nearly 100 Years of Winnie the Pooh

Celebrating All Things Pooh During Author A.A. Milne's Birthday Month

When I was little, just hearing the first strains of the theme song to the television movie The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was enough for me to settle into a content, watchful mood as I waited to enjoy the familiar tales of a sweet bear and his friends in their woodland home.

This was long before I'd watch the more bright and often hilarious Pooh movies of the 1990s with my kiddos. One of my favorite memories is laughing out loud with my son when he was about three as we watched Piglet dressed up as Cupid for a Valentine's Day production scream "Cupid!" as he "flew" down a clothesline over and over in one of the fun Pooh Valentine's Day movies.

A Brief History of Pooh

Winnie-the-Pooh was first featured by another name in a poem by British author A.A. Milne in his 1924 collection When We Were Very Young. Based on a well-loved toy that belonged to Milne's young son, the original Christopher Robin, the literary bear went through a name change when Christopher Robin renamed his toy after seeing a bear named Winnie (short for Winnipeg, the live bear's hometown) at a zoo.

In December 1925, a London newspaper ran Milne's children's story, "The Wrong Sort of Bees," which featured the character of Winnie-the-Pooh, who'd become the subject of many stories Milne told his son. The next October, Milne's classic story collection, Winnie-the-Pooh, was published to international acclaim.

Since then, the famous but oh-so-humble bear has been featured in countless books and movies.

Pooh in Print

Now We Are Six, a Milne poetry collection published in 1927, featured multiple mentions of Pooh, and the following year Milne's second classic story collection, The House at Pooh Corner, was published.

Since then, multiple Winnie the Pooh treasuries have served up Pooh stories in collectible editions, and official sequels to Milne's collections like Return to the Hundred Acre Wood and The Best Bear in All the World, have been published.

In the decades since the Walt Disney Corporation acquired rights to Winnie the Pooh content (and removed the hyphens from Pooh's full name) in the 1960s, numerous other children's books have been published featuring Winnie the Pooh and friends. Among the hundreds of Pooh books now available are Milne's original two classic collections as well as numerous other options, including those in two series, My Friends Tigger and Pooh and Book of Pooh. Individual titles include:

• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
• Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too
• Nursery Time with Winnie the Pooh
• The Magical Pop-Up World of Winnie-the-Pooh
• Winnie-the-Pooh's ABCs
• Winnie-the-Pooh's Friendship Book

Pooh on Screen

Winnie the Pooh has also made plenty of appearances through the years on both small and big screens. Pooh movies include:

• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
• The Tigger Movie
• Piglet's Big Movie
• Pooh's Heffalump Movie
• The Book of Pooh: Stories from the Heart
• Tigger & Pooh and a Musical Too

Other seasonal favorites include:

• A Very Merry Pooh Year
• Un-Valentine's Day/A Valentine for You
• Spookable Pooh and Frankenpooh
• Winnie the Pooh's Seasons of Giving

And popular Pooh television series include Growing Up with Winnie the Pooh and My Friends Tigger & Pooh.

Lastly, of course ThriftBooks has a special bond to Winnie I have to mention, with him being the Novel Knockout 2020 champion last March, beating out 63 other characters for the top spot and cementing his legend status.

However you choose to share the magic of Winnie the Pooh with the Pooh fans in your life, I'm fairly certain it will leave you—and them—with fond Pooh memories like those I cherish. Enjoy!

About the Author: Karen DeGroot Carter of Denver is the author of the novel ONE SISTER'S SONG. Her short fiction has been recognized in national competitions, and she's had fiction, poetry, and articles published in various print and online outlets. Visit http://karendegrootcarter.com for more.

Read more by Karen DeGroot Carter