Alan Alexander Milne (/mɪln/; 18 January 1882 – 31 January 1956) was an English writer best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh, as well as children's poetry. Milne was primarily a playwright before the huge success of Winnie-the-Pooh overshadowed his previous work. He served as a lieutenant in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in the First World War and as a captain in the Home Guard in the Second World War.
Milne was the father of bookseller Christopher Robin Milne, upon whom the character Christopher Robin is based. It was during a visit to London Zoo, where Christopher became enamoured with the tame and amiable bear Winnipeg, that Milne was inspired to write the story of Winnie-the-Pooh for his son. Milne bequeathed the original manuscripts of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories to the Wren Library at Trinity College, Cambridge, his alma mater.
Links to Peel[]
A.A. Milne's books for children were very popular in the twentieth century, especially with middle-class families such as Peel's. It seems that the DJ retained enough affection for the Winnie-The-Pooh stories to read a couple of them in the final week of the Perfumed Garden. He may have identified with Pooh, the "bear of little brain" who nonetheless has his own kind of wisdom, although in later years his producer John Walters compared him to another character from the Pooh stories, the pessimistic and ever-complaining donkey Eeyore.[1]
A.A. Milne also wrote for adults, including regular contributions to Punch magazine in the 1920s and 1930s; on his show of 11 April 1992 Peel mentioned how he grew up with the magazine and still enjoyed his collection of bound volumes of Punch from that era.
Milne's books had a more general influence on some of the artists Peel played on his programmes. This was an example of how children's literature was an inspiration for psychedelic rock and folk artists in the late 1960s and beyond. The United States Of America's "Cloud Song" was based on a poem by Milne, whose lines "How sweet to be a cloud/Floating in the blue" were also quoted by Mike Heron at the start of his song "Little Cloud", featured on the Incredible String Band's album The 5000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion.
The ISB's Robin Williamson also quoted Milne, from his poem Vespers ([3]) ("Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!/Christopher Robin is saying his prayers."), in the track "The Mountain Of God", whose other lyrics are a collage of lines taken from hymns and the Bible. Melanie recorded a setting of the entire poem, under the title "Christopher Robin (Is Saying His Prayer)", on her debut LP in 1968.
In 1970, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band had a US hit with "House At Pooh Corner", a song by Kenny Loggins named after Milne's 1928 book. In 1974, Steeleye Span issued an LP entitled Now We Are Six, named after a 1927 book of children's poetry by Milne; it was their sixth LP and with the addition of drummer Nigel Pegram (ex-Gnidrolog) they were now a six-piece band. But as time passed, Milne's work began to seem dated and of its time - apart from Winnie-The-Pooh, which achieved international fame, and, along with the author's other famous works for children, was eventually acquired by the Disney Corporation.
External Links[]
References[]
- ↑ Walters compared the DJ to Eeyore in a student magazine in 1989: "Everybody’s having honey while he’s in some damp corner of a field, alone and ignored, with nothing but thistles.".[1] See also, Kershaw, Andy (2011). No Off Switch: An Autobiography. Serpent's Tail. ISBN 1846687446. Ch 29: No Thistles For Eeyore: Life With John Peel.[2]