13 Feb 2022
On This Day
13 February 2022 Cheryl

13 February 1924: Edward Bear makes his first appearance

Edward Bear, later Winnie-the-Pooh

“Rose Fyleman was starting a magazine for children. She asked me, I have no idea why, to write some verses for it,” records A.A. Milne, “I said that I didn’t and couldn’t.” That night Milne sat down and wrote “The Dormouse and the Doctor” which began his book of verse, When We Were Very Young. [1]

A short poem entitled “Teddy Bear” was published in Punch magazine on 13 February 1924.

The poem, written by Alan Alexander Milne, next appeared in a best-selling book of poetry entitled When We Were Very Young, illustrated by E.H. Shepard. The 38th poem, “Teddy Bear,” features a “Mr. Edward Bear,” who we now know would become the phenomenally popular Winnie-the-Pooh. In one of the illustrations, “Teddy Bear” is shown wearing a shirt that would later be coloured red in the Disney cartoon adaptation. The volume begins with an introduction entitled “Just Before We Begin”, which, in part, tells readers to imagine for themselves who the narrator is, and that it might be Christopher Robin.

The character was based on a teddy bear that Milne’s son, Christopher Robin, owned named Edward (the formal version of Teddy). As he grew older, Christopher Robin became very fond of an attraction at the London Zoo, a black bear named Winnie, making frequent trips with his father to visit the bear. As the story goes, Christopher Robin liked to feed a swan they had met while on holiday, and if it wouldn’t cooperate, the boy would say, “Pooh!” in frustration, with it eventually taking on the name Pooh. When it came time to rename his bear, he decided to go with a combination of his friend at the zoo and the swan.

A.A. Milne had several successful careers as a writer. He made his name as a comic writer for Punch, then went on to become a huge success as a playwright with five of his plays showing in London at the same time. He then became a writer of detective fiction, before moving to the country and writing verses for children. Milne did not wish to be remembered for his writing for children, but could not escape that fate. Nor could his son, whose life was ruined because he was Christopher Robin.