Winnie-the-Pooh, the storybook by A. A. Milne about the eponymous, much-loved teddy bear and his friends in the Hundred Acre Wood, first appeared in hardback on 14th October 1926. The bear himself, although at that stage unnamed, had made his debut in the 13th February 1924 issue of Punch, in a poem which was included later that year in the collection When we were very Young.
The Introduction and the start of Chapter I explain (sort of!) how Edward Bear got his new name.
From the very beginning, the illustrations (or ‘decorations’ as the title page says) were by another contributor to Punch, Ernest Howard Shepard (10 December 1879 – 24 March 1976), who also illustrated Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows. The map on the endpapers, however, says it was ‘drawn by me [Christopher Robin] and Mr Shepard helpd’.
The Department of Early Printed Books and Special Collections holds two copies of the first edition, at shelfmarks OLS B-7-195 and OLS B-7-696. The former is the Legal Deposit copy and the latter is part of the James Stephens Collection. This is the personal library of the novelist, poet and broadcaster which was presented by his daughter, Iris Wise, in 1990.
The title of this post is taken from Chapter III of Winnie-the-Pooh, in which Pooh and Piglet go hunting and nearly catch a Woozle. If you don’t know the story, now would be a good time to read it! Since writing the post, I have discovered that it is also the title of an anniversary tribute book of four stories by different authors influenced by A. A. Milne, and illustrated in the style of E. H. Shepard.