A.A. Milne: The Man Behind Winnie-the-Pooh [Hardcover]

Ann Thwaite (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 22, 1990

A study of the life of A.A.Milne, from his childhood, when he was educated at his father's school Henley House and taught by H.G.Wells, through his early days on "Granta" and "Punch", to the flowering of his careeer in the 1920s and 1930s. Milne wrote a series of West End plays, including "Mr Pim Passes By", and numbered among his friends P.G.Wodehouse and J.M.Barrie. It was for his son, born in 1920, that Milne wrote the four great children's books of his maturity: "When We Were Very Young", "Now We are Six", "Winnie the Pooh" and "The House at Pooh Corner". Revealing Milne's complexity, this biography tells of his strong political feelings, his often difficult personal relationships, and how his successful children's books became an almost intolerable burden. Ann Thwaite was awarded the 1990 Whitbread Biography of The Year for this book.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this overly detailed life of Alan Alexander Milne (1882-1956), Thwaite ( Edmund Gosse ) chronicles the British writer's childhood, spent with devoted parents and his two older brothers; his schooling under his father, a progressive headmaster; the fame and frustrations that attended his early adulthood. The book includes quotes from the memoirs of Milne's son Christopher, H. G. Wells, P. G. Wodehouse and other contemporaries, both friends and critics. Milne was a successful playwright when, during the 1920s, he created the Pooh books, international bestsellers. Bitter over waning interest in his adult works, he resented the popularity of his tender, witty children's classics. Thwaite emphasizes Milne's touchiness, among other of his character traits, as she describes this uniquely gifted writer's changing relationships with family members. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The man behind Winnie-the-Pooh was a humorist, Punch editor, light versifier, and above all a playwright. Milne had a brief but very successful and prolific career as a dramatist before settling reluctantly for Pooh's glory. For this first Milne biography, Thwaite draws on both Milne's and his son Christopher Robin's memoirs, but also on unpublished letters and family memories, depicting his happy childhood, solidly middle-class background, ardent pacifism, and complex relations (obscured by an ingrained reticence) with his wife and son. Although the children's books play only a small (but central) role in this biography, their publishing history, reception, and critical evaluation are neatly summarized. There is just enough history to set Milne's work in its context. Sadly, Milne's charmed life eventually gave way to disappointment, but this even-tempered and readable biography will not disappoint.
-Patricia Dooley, Univ. of Washington Lib. Sch., Seattle
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 553 pages
• Publisher: Random House (August 22, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394587243
• ISBN-13: 978-0394587240
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #354,301 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive biography of A.A. Milne, February 6, 2002

By 

John Wheeler "Johanan Rakkav" (King David's Harp, Inc., Houston, TX. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A.A. Milne: The Man Behind Winnie-the-Pooh (Hardcover)

It really is too bad that all the good books seem to be out of print. When I saw this one on sale, I knew I had to grab it -- good, bad or indifferent, a book of this size that would give me so much information on one of my favorite authors had to be mine.

Little did I know what a treasure trove I'd found. A.A. Milne had written an autobiography, of course (in which he kept much of himself "buttoned up", so to speak), and his son Christopher (Robin) Milne had added to that in his own autobiographical trilogy; but no one had done a definitive biography. Ann Thwaite got Christopher's permission to try, but Christopher himself felt he would be of little help; all the relevant information seemed to have been destroyed by his mother. Happily, that was far from the case; much had been sold to the University of Texas at Austin and Trinity College in England, and many other family members and acquaintances were able to assist.

The result of Ms. Thwaite's massive efforts is a very detailed, yet very readable biography of a complex man. If there is a great deal of background on Christopher and the Pooh Books along the way, so much the better; but Alan Alexander Milne was a highly regarded writer and editor for Punch and a highly successful playwright long before his short interlude as an author for children. Ironically, it was the Pooh Books that made his fame -- and added an unwelcome burden to his son's life. Yet his natural and acquired pacifism is no less evident in his adult writings, especially in his works pleading for the abolition of war.

If you are a lover of the Pooh Books and want to learn about the man behind them, this is the book to beg, borrow, or...well, maybe someone will permit you to photocopy it. Not I. ....

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Pity, September 30, 2001

By 

Simon Thomas ([e-mail]) (Worcestershire, United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A.A.Milne: His Life (Hardcover)

It is a great pity that books like this go out of print: a pity that goes hand-in-hand with the subject. Of A. A. Milne's hundred or so plays, books and poetry, only five books remain in print. Four of them we all know, the fifth is 'Toad of Toad Hall', and adaptation of Graham's 'Wind in the Willows'. Few people realise that, during his life, Milne was most valued as a playwright. Thwaite realsied this, and that is perhaps why the book is no longer available, despite its brilliance. Twaite concentrates on his wonderful plays and adult books (which can be found if 2nd hand bookshops are searched long enough) with a sensitive yet hard-hitting analysis of the reclusive author. Nobody should be allowed to read the Winnie the Pooh books (brilliant as they are) without reading this. Milne would have wanted it. Superb book. I hope Ann reads this review!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Is Wit Vanity?, September 10, 2009

By 

theboombody (Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: A. A. Milne: His Life (Paperback)

When I started this book, I was amazed to find that much of A.A. Milne's correspondence in letters is actually kept in one of the libraries at the University of Texas in Austin, which isn't too far from me. I was initially planning on taking a trip over there to ask a librarian to see the letters, but this book is SO exhaustive, I don't really feel the need to see them anymore.

Despite its exhaustiveness, much about Milne remains unanswered. It's like the biography "His Excellency" of George Washington. While being a wonderul, lenghty, in-depth book, the biographical figure is just plain hard to pin down. Nobody can do it. But Mrs. Thwaite puts an unbelievable amount of effort into it, probably reading more to complete this work than I've read in my entire life. There's probably no greater expert you'll find on Pooh and his creator than this lady.

We see Milne's start as a child prodigy who cares only for his brother, follow him through his struggle to start a career after graduation, cheer as he gets lucky and lands his dream job, understand as he grows bored with his dream job and ventures into new fields, wonder how he manages to live through participation in a brutal war, marvel as he grows into a household name before even starting the Pooh books, smile in expectancy as we see his Pooh books outsell seemingly everything there is, grow weary with his thoroughly expressed political beliefs that seem so much less humorous than his writing, and sigh as he dies at the end of a writing career that has only declined since its long-ago peak.

I was inspired to read Ecclesiastes after reading this book. Milne's story really shows the vanity and ultimate unpredictability of the world. Even if you can read when you're two, and become a household name that will be remembered for generations, it doesn't really seem to matter in the end. All that praise Milne wanted for his later works just didn't happen, and everything he did earlier in his life couldn't change that fact. Whether this has anything to do with Milne's somewhat atheistic beliefs, I don't know. I do know that a lot of this biography is quite depressing. Imagine how Milne felt when he had to alter his whole pacifistic theory simply because a man as evil as Hitler could exist. He must have been so disappointed in humanity in order to lower his (very high) ideals like that.

Well, hopefully Blue and his son Billy Moon are somewhere out there in the universe now having a blast, despite the beliefs they had while previously living among us. I feel the need to always thank this man for Pooh, and I'd like to read Mr. Pim Passes By some day when I'm not so burnt out on Milne's name.