Who wrote Winnie the Pooh? A man who wanted to go down in the history of English literature as a serious writer, but went in and stayed as the creator of a hero that everyone has known since childhood - a plush bear with a head full of sawdust. Alan Alexander Milne created a series of stories and poems about a teddy bear, writing stories for his son, Christopher Robin, who also became the hero of the book.
Many of Milne’s characters got their names thanks to very real prototypes - his son’s toys. Perhaps the most confusing is the story of Winnie himself. Winnipeg is the name of the bear, who lived in the London Zoo, Christopher's favorite. Milne brought his son to the zoo in 1924, and three years before that, the boy received a bear as a present for his first birthday, before that epoch-making meeting of the nameless. He was called Teddy, as is customary in English-speaking countries. But after meeting a living bear in her honor, the toy was named Vinnie. Gradually, Winnie made friends: a loving father bought new toys for his son, Piglet gave the boy neighbors. Such characters as Owl and Rabbit, the author came up with the course of events in the book.
The first chapter of the teddy bear story appeared on the eve of Christmas 1925. Winnie the Pooh and his friends stepped into a life that happily continues to this day. More specifically, about Vinnie Milne wrote two prose books and two collections of poems. Prose collections are dedicated to the writer's wife.
But the answer to the question of who wrote Winnie the Pooh will be incomplete if you do not mention another name. Ernest Shepard, the cartoonist Punch magazine, as well as Milne, a World War I veteran. He became a real co-author of the writer, creating the images of toy heroes as they are represented by generations of children.
Why is the book about the teddy bear and his friends so popular ? Probably because many of these stories, told one after the other, resemble fairy tales that loving parents tell their children. Often such tales are simply invented at night. Of course, not all parents have such a gift that Milne possessed, but this special atmosphere of the family, where the child is surrounded by love and care, is felt in every line of the book.
Another reason for this popularity is the amazing language of the tale. The author of "Winnie the Pooh" plays and amuses himself with words: here are puns, and parodies, including advertisements, and funny idioms, and other philological delights. Therefore, the book is loved not only by children, but also by adults.
But again, there is no definitive answer to the question of who wrote Winnie the Pooh. Because “Winnie the Pooh” is a magic book, it was translated by the best writers of different countries, considering it an honor to help young fellow citizens get acquainted with the funny characters of a fairy tale. For example, the sister of the poet Julian Tuvim Irena translated the book into Polish. There were several translations into Russian, but the text of Boris Zakhoder, which was published in 1960, became classic, and millions of Soviet children began to repeat cries and chants after the bear Vinnie.
Another story is the film adaptation of a fairy tale. In the West, the Disney studio series is known, which, incidentally, was not very popular with the main character of the book - Christopher Robin. And the Soviet cartoon of Fyodor Khitruk with amazing voice acting, where the characters speak the voices of E. Leonov, I. Savina, E. Garin, is still much more popular in the post-Soviet space.
The one who wrote "Winnie the Pooh" was never able to free himself from the arms of a teddy bear, but it was this book that brought him immortality.