A.A. Milne
MILNE, A. A. Winnie-the-Pooh. First Edition, First Impression, 1926. Finely Bound in Green Morocco with Christopher Robin and Pooh Design after E. H. Shepard.
MILNE, A. A. [Alan Alexander]. Winnie-the-Pooh. With Decorations by Ernest H. Shepard. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1926. First edition, first impression.
A beautiful copy of one of the most beloved books in twentieth-century children’s literature, bringing together A. A. Milne’s stories of Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Rabbit, Owl and Christopher Robin with the illustrations of Ernest H. Shepard, whose drawings have become inseparable from the world of the Hundred Acre Wood.
Octavo. Finely bound in full green morocco, the covers ruled in gilt with delicate gilt corner ornaments; spine with five raised bands, richly gilt-decorated compartments and titles lettered in gilt; turn-ins elaborately gilt; marbled endpapers; all edges gilt; hand-sewn silk headbands. The upper board is decorated with a carefully executed onlaid and gilt-tooled design of Christopher Robin walking with Winnie-the-Pooh, after Shepard’s original illustration.
Particularly pleasing is the way the binding responds to the character of the book. The deep green morocco evokes the woodland setting of Pooh’s adventures, while the restrained gilt decoration and the central image of Christopher Robin and Pooh give the volume warmth and immediacy without overwhelming Shepard’s quiet, familiar world. It is an elegant presentation of a book whose enduring appeal lies as much in companionship and gentleness as in its humour.
The volume retains Ernest H. Shepard’s celebrated double-page map of the “100 Aker Wood,” “drawn by me and Mr Shepard helpd,” with Pooh Bear’s house, Piglet’s house, Owl’s house, the Bee Tree and the places associated with the adventures that follow. In this finely rebound copy, the original map is preserved within the volume after the marbled binding endpapers.
First published in 1926, Winnie-the-Pooh established the central cast of characters inspired by the toys of Milne’s son, Christopher Robin Milne, and by the landscape of Ashdown Forest. Milne’s prose and Shepard’s illustrations created a literary world of exceptional charm: immediately accessible to children, yet filled with wit, affection and gentle observation that have allowed the book to remain admired by adult readers and collectors alike.
This first edition, first impression is of particular desirability as the first appearance in book form of the original Pooh stories. The combination of an important early issue with an accomplished pictorial fine binding makes this an especially attractive copy for a collector of children’s literature, illustrated books or distinguished modern bindings.
A superb presentation of Milne and Shepard’s enduring classic, preserving the original illustrated world of Winnie-the-Pooh within a finely crafted binding inspired by its most cherished characters.
