Milne alan alexander biography for children. Milne Alan Alexander

Alan Alexander Milne (Alan Alexander Milne) - prose writer, poet, playwright, classic of English literature of the twentieth century, author of the famous Winnie the Pooh.

Milne was born in the London Borough of Kilburn on January 18, 1882. A Scot by birth, Alan Alexander Milne spent his childhood in London, where his father John Milne (John Vine Milne) owned a small private school. His early education was largely determined by the influence of youth teacher HG Wells - much later, Milne wrote of Wells as "a great writer and a great friend." He continued his education at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. Subsequently, he donated the handwritten original of his book Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner to the College Library. As a student at Cambridge, where he studied mathematics from 1900 to 1903, he wrote notes for the student newspaper Grant, and his first literary experiments were published in the humorous magazine Punch. At the age of 24, Milne began working at Punch as an assistant editor until the outbreak of World War I, in which he took part.

In 1913, Alan Milne married Dorothy Daphne de Selincot, from this marriage one son, Christopher Robin Milne, was born. A born pacifist, Milne was drafted into the Royal Army and served in France. The war made a strong impression on the young writer. She was the reason why Milne, who was not particularly interested in politics, thought about what was happening in the world. His famous anti-war work The Honorable Peace was published in 1934. This book found a huge response in the interwar period, and in 1924 Muffin published Milne's famous stories "When We Were Very Young", some of which had previously been published in Punch and were well known to regular readers of the magazine.

In 1926, the first version of Bear with sawdust in his head (in English - "a bear with very small brains") "Winnie the Pooh" appeared. The idea for this book came to Milne from his wife and little Christopher. The history of the creation of the fairy tale is full of mysteries and contradictions, but the most important thing is that it has become one of the most popular children's books. The second part of the stories "Now there are six of us" appeared in 1927 and, finally, the final part of the book "The House on the Downy Edge" was published in 1928. It seemed to Milne that he had written something like a well-selling detective story, because his book immediately earned two and a half thousand pounds. Even after the dizzying success of Winnie the Pooh, Milne remained in doubt about his literary talent. He wrote: "All I wanted was to run away from this fame, like I used to want to run away from Punch, like I always wanted to run away... However..."

In 1922, he did write a detective novel, The Mystery of the Red House, which was not published until 1939, along with 25 other plays, short stories, and Milne's autobiography, Too Late. Milne has always acknowledged and repeatedly gratefully emphasized the defining role of his wife Dorothy and his son Christopher in the writing and the very fact of the appearance of Winnie the Pooh. Pooh Bear books have been translated into 25 languages ​​and have taken their place in the hearts and on the shelves of millions of readers.

The first chapter of Pooh, "in which we first meet Winnie the Pooh and the bees," was first printed in the London Evening Paper on December 24, 1925, and broadcast on BBC Radio on Christmas Day by Donald Calfrop. The irony is that Milne was convinced that he did not write children's prose or children's poetry. He spoke to the child within each of us. He never read his Pooh stories to his son, preferring to raise Christopher on the works of his favorite writer, Wodehouse. Wodehouse subsequently returned this compliment to Milne, saying that "Milne is his favorite children's writer".

Wodehouse's books continued their life in Milne's house after his death. Christopher Robin read these books to his daughter Claire, whose bookshelves in her room were literally bursting with books by this writer. Christopher wrote to his friend Peter (actor): “My father knew nothing about the specifics of the book market, knew nothing about the specifics of sales, he never wrote books for children. He knew about me, he knew about himself and the Garrick Club - and he just ignored everything else ... Except, perhaps, life itself. Christopher Robin first read the poems and stories about Winnie the Pooh 60 years after they first appeared, when he heard Peter's recordings on a record.

The adventures of Winnie the Bear are loved by both adults and children. In 1996, a public opinion poll conducted by English Radio showed that this book was ranked 17th in the list of the most striking and significant works published in the twentieth century. Worldwide sales of Winnie the Pooh from 1924 to 1956 exceeded 7 million. As you know, when the sale exceeds a million, publishers stop counting them.

In 1960, Winnie the Pooh was brilliantly translated into Russian by Boris Zakhoder. Anyone who speaks Russian and English can attest that the translation was made with exquisite precision and ingenious ingenuity. In general, Winnie has been translated into all European and almost all world languages.

In addition to the world-famous Winnie the Pooh, Alan Milne is known as a playwright and novelist. His plays were successfully staged on the professional stage in London, but now they are staged mainly in amateur theaters, although they still gather full houses and arouse the interest of the public and the press.

In 1952, Milne fell seriously ill. He had to undergo major brain surgery. The operation was successful, and after it Milne returned to his home in Sussex, where he spent the rest of his life reading. After a long illness, he died on January 31, 1956.

Shortly after the release of Winnie the Pooh, Milne wrote in The Nation: “I think that each of us secretly dreams of immortality .. In the sense that his name will survive the body and will live in this world, despite the fact that the person himself has passed into another world.” When Milne died, no one doubted that he had discovered the secret of immortality. And this is not 15 minutes of fame, this is real immortality, which, contrary to his own expectations, was brought to him not by plays and short stories, but by a little bear with sawdust in his head. In 1996, Milne's favorite teddy bear was sold in London at an auction organized by the House of Bonham to an unknown buyer for £4,600.

Before the publication of fairy tales about a teddy bear with sawdust in his head, Alan Milne was a serious English playwright: he wrote novels and stories, composed poems. The stories about "Winnie the Pooh" fulfilled the writer's dream - they immortalized the name, but until the end of his life, Milne regretted that he was remembered by the world only for stories about the bear cub.

Childhood and youth

Alan Alexander Milne was born on January 18, 1882 in London, the third child of John Vine, a Jamaican, and British Sarah Marie (née Hedginbotham). The father worked as the director of the private school Henley, and the children of Milne studied there.

Alan's teacher was - in the future, a famous science fiction writer, author of the novels "Time Machine" and "War of the Worlds". Of the two older brothers - Kenneth and Barry - Alan was more attached to Kenneth. In 1939, in his autobiography Too Late, Milne wrote:

“Ken had one advantage over me - he was good, much better than me. After consulting Dr. Murray's work, I find that the word "good" has fourteen meanings, but none of them conveys what I put into it when describing Ken. And while I keep saying that he was kinder, more generous, more forgiving, more tolerant, and more merciful than I was, suffice it to say that Ken was better.

Of the two of us, you would definitely prefer him. I could have surpassed my older brother in studies, sports and even appearance - he was dropped on the ground with his nose as a baby (or picked up from the ground by his nose, we never came to a consensus), but poor Ken, or old Ken, knew how to tread a path to the heart anyone."

Parents gave the boys a decent education. Alan studied at Westminster School, in 1903 he graduated from Trinity College at the University of Cambridge, receiving a bachelor's degree in mathematics. However, the heart was drawn to creativity.

While still in college, Alan and Kenneth wrote for the student magazine Granta. The humorous works published under the initials AKM (Alan Kennet Milne) were noticed by the editors of the leading British humor magazine Punch. This began the biography of Milne the writer.

Books

After graduating, Milne began to write humorous poems, essays and plays in Punch, and after 3 years the author was hired as an assistant editor. During this time, Alan managed to make profitable acquaintances in literary circles. So, James Barry invited him to the Allahakbarries cricket team. At various times, Milne shared sports equipment with, and other English writers and poets.

In 1905, Alan Milne published his debut novel, Lovers in London, which was not distinguished by an intricate plot and deep problems. In the center of the story is a young Briton Teddy and his friend Amelia. Against the background of London in the 1920s, they fall in love, quarrel, dream of a happy future.

Critics took the book cool, however, encouraging for sharp and topical articles in "Punch". This forced Milne to leave "big" literature for a while and focus on what he did - stories and plays. But the First World War forced the playwright to put down his pen.

On February 1, 1915, Alan was called up as a lieutenant in the Royal Yorkshire Regiment. A year later, on July 7, he was wounded at the Battle of the Somme and sent home for treatment. An injury prevented him from returning to the front lines, and he was recruited into military intelligence to write propaganda leaflets for MI7. On February 14, 1919, Milne was fired, and a year later, when the opportunity arose to recover, he abandoned his further military career. The events of the First World War were reflected in the stories "Peace with Honor" (1934) and "War with Honor" (1940).

During the war years, Milne published four plays. The first, Wurzel-Flummery, was written in 1917 and immediately staged at London's Noël Coward Theatre. Initially, the work had three acts, but for the convenience of perception it had to be reduced to two.

In the same 1917, the second novel "Once upon a time, a long time ago ..." was published, which began with the words: "This is a strange book." The work is a typical fairy tale that tells about the war between the kingdoms of Euralia and Barodia. But it turns out that this fairy tale is not for children at all.

Milne has created characters that kids don't want to be like. The princess is able to get out of the tower herself without waiting for rescue, the prince, although handsome, is vain and pompous, and the villain is not so bad. An interesting fact is that the prototype of Countess Belvane - proud and arrogant, prone to melodramatic, emotional behavior, was Milne's wife - Dorothy de Selincourt.

In 1922, Milne became famous for the detective novel The Mystery of the Red House, written in the best traditions of Arthur Conan Doyle and. In the center of the plot is a murder committed under strange circumstances. American critic and journalist Alexander Woolcott called the novel "one of the best stories of all time". The work was so popular that it was reprinted 22 times in the UK.

In 1926, Alan Milne's most famous book, Winnie the Pooh, saw the light of day. The author wrote a story about a teddy bear for his son, who at the age of 4 saw a Canadian bear named Winnie at the zoo. The favorite plush toy was renamed from "Edward the Bear" to - Christopher believed that Winnie's fur felt like swan fluff to the touch.

The rest of the characters - Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga and Roo's son, Tigger - were also copied from Christopher's favorite toys. They are currently in the New York Public Library. An average of 750,000 people come to see them every year.

Winnie the Pooh has become popular far beyond the UK. In the 1960s, a children's writer translated the stories about the bear (with the exception of two chapters of the original) into Russian and combined them into the book Winnie the Pooh and Everything.

In 1969, Soyuzmultfilm released the first part of the adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The bear "spoke" in the voice of the famous Soviet theater and film actor. Two years later, the cartoon "Winnie the Pooh Comes to Visit" was released, a year later - "Winnie the Pooh and the Day of Worries." It is characteristic that Christopher Robin, one of the main characters, a friend of Winnie the Pooh, was absent from Soyuzmultfilm.

The success of the fairy tale about the bear cub first pleased Alan Milne, and then angered him - from now on he was perceived not as the author of serious novels, but as the "father" of Winnie the Pooh. Critics deliberately gave negative reviews of the novels that came out after the fairy tale - "Two", "A Very Short Sensation", "Chloe Marr", just to read another line about Christopher Robin and the bear.

There was another reason - the son did not like the popularity that had fallen on him. Milne once said:

“I feel like I ruined Christopher Robin's life. The character should have been named Charles Robert."

Ultimately, the boy became angry with his parents for putting his childhood on public display and stopped communicating with them. It is assumed that the family conflict was nevertheless settled, since Christopher Robin was present at the opening ceremony of the bear monument at the London Zoo. The statue is dedicated to Alan Milne. In the photo from that day, the 61-year-old man lovingly strokes the wool of the childhood heroine.

Personal life

In 1913, Alan Milne married the goddaughter of Punch magazine editor Dorothy de Selincourt, whom her friends called Daphne. It is noteworthy that the girl agreed to marry the writer the day after they met.

The newly-made wife turned out to be demanding and capricious, and Alan in love indulged her. Journalist Barry Gan described the family relationship as follows:

“If Daphne, capriciously twisting her lips, demanded that Alan jump from the roof of London's St. Paul's Cathedral, he most likely would have done so. In any case, the 32-year-old Milne volunteered for the front, which began a year after his marriage, the First World War solely because his wife liked the officers in military uniform who flooded the city.

Robin Christopher Milne was born on August 21, 1920. The child did not save the family from parting: in 1922, Dorothy left Alan for the sake of a foreign singer, but, unable to build a personal life with him, returned.

Death

In 1952, the writer suffered a stroke, never being able to recover from it.

Death caught Alan Milne on December 31, 1956, at 74 years old. The cause was a severe brain disease.

Bibliography

• 1905 - "Lovers in London"
• 1917 - "Once upon a time..."
• 1921 - "Mr. Pym"
• 1922 - "The Secret of the Red House"
• 1926 - "Winnie the Pooh"
• 1928 - "The House at the Pooh Edge"
• 1931 - "Two"
• 1933 - "A very short-lived sensation"
• 1939 - Too Late
• 1946 - "Chloe Marr"

Alan Alexander Milne- English writer, author of stories about the "bear with sawdust in his head" - Winnie the Pooh.

Milne was born January 18, 1882 in London, where he spent his childhood. He attended a small private school owned by his father. One of his teachers in 1889-1890 was HG Wells.

In 1892 he entered the Westminster School, and then to Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1904. As a student, he wrote articles for the student newspaper Grant. He usually wrote with his brother Kenneth, and they signed notes with the name AKM. Milne's work was noticed, and the British humor magazine Punch began to collaborate with him, later Milne became an assistant editor there.

In 1913, Milne married Dorothy "Daphne" de Selincourt.

Milne served in the First World War as an officer in the British Army. Later, he wrote the book "Peace with Honor", in which he condemned the war.

In 1920, Milne had his only son, Christopher Robin Milne.

In 1926, the first version of the Little Bear with sawdust in his head appeared - "Winnie the Pooh". The second part of the stories, "Now there are six of us", appeared in 1927, and the final part of the book "The House at the Pooh Corner" - in 1928. Milne never read his own stories about Winnie the Pooh to his son, Christopher Robin, preferring to educate him on the works of the writer Wodehouse, beloved by Alan himself, and Christopher first read poems and stories about the Pooh bear only 60 years after their first appearance.

The creator of one of the favorite children's characters lived and worked in this house - Alan Alexander Milne.

This historic home is being sold by the international real estate agency Savills. The Milne house is called Cochford Farm. It is located in Ashdown Forest, Sussex. The house was built in the 15th century, and the Milne family moved into it in 1925.

The writer's son Christopher Robin Milne spent his childhood in this house, and the teddy bear is named after one of Christopher Milne's real toys.

The house has six bedrooms. It is located on the territory of a vast estate, several hectares. On the territory of the garden near the house you can see a monument to Christopher Robin, as well as solar images of the main characters of Milne's story: Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigers, Rabbit and Owls. All these statues were commissioned by Dorothy Milne, the writer's wife.

Previously, the Cochford Farm estate was owned by the founder of The Rolling Stones, Brian Jones. Three years after the purchase of the estate, the musician died.

Alan Alexander Milne was born in 1882 in Kilburn, London.
He was the third, youngest son in the family of John (John Vince Milne) and Sarah Milne (Sarah Marie Milne, née Heginbotham).

His father, John Milne, was in charge of the small private school Henley House (Henley House School), famous for the fact that HG Wells taught there (in 1889-1890). All the children of the Milns once studied within its walls.

Milne attended Westminster School and then the famous Trinity College, Cambridge (Trinity College, Cambridge), where he studied mathematics, receiving a bachelor's degree in 1903.

At the university, Milne begins to write poetry and short stories, and soon becomes the editor of the student magazine Grant. He usually wrote with his brother Kenneth, signing notes with the initials AKM.
Milne's work was noticed, and in 1906 the British humor magazine Punch began to collaborate with him, later Milne became an assistant editor there. Writes articles, short stories, feuilletons.

Through his work in the magazine, Milne met Dorothy (Daphne) de Sélincourt (1890-1971). She was the goddaughter of Chief Milne, Owen Seaman (who is said to be the psychological prototype of Eeyore). One day, going to Dorothy's birthday, Owen invited a young journalist with him.

In 1913, Milne married Dorothy, from this marriage one son, Christopher, was born.

Christopher Robin with his mother Dorothy Milne

In 1925, Milne bought his home, Cotchford Farm, and the family settled there.
When his son was three years old, Milne began to write poems about and for him.

Alan Alexander Milne dreamed of earning fame as a great author of detective stories, writing plays and short stories. But when Pooh's first chapter, "in which we first meet Winnie the Pooh and the bees," was printed in the London Evening Paper and broadcast on BBC radio on Christmas Eve on December 24, 1925, the first step was taken to recognize Milne as a classic of children's books.

Milne was convinced that he did not write children's prose or children's poetry. He spoke to the child within each of us. By the way, he never read his Pooh stories to his son, Christopher Robin, although he acknowledged the decisive role of his wife, Dorothy, and son in writing and the very fact of the appearance of "Winnie the Pooh."

Alan Alexander Milne with son Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh 1920s

Christopher Robin's room, 1920s

In 1924, Alan Milne first came to the zoo with his four-year-old son Christopher Robin, who really became friends with Winnie the bear, even gave her sweet milk to drink. Three years earlier, Milne bought an Alpha Farnell teddy bear (see photo) from Harrods and gave his son a teddy bear (see photo) for his first birthday. After the owner met Winnie, this bear was named after his beloved bear. The boy even came up with a new name for him - Winnie Pooh. The word Pooh came to the former Teddy from a swan whom Christopher Robin met when the whole family went to their country house at Cotchford Farm in Sussex.

By the way, this is next to the very forest, which is now known to the whole world as the Hundred Acre Forest.

Why Pooh? Yes, because "because if you call him and the swan does not come (which they love to do), you can pretend that Pooh said just like that ...". The toy bear was about two feet tall, had a light coloration, and had frequent eye drops.
Christopher Robin's real toys were also Piglet, Eeyore without a tail, Kanga, Roo and Tiger. Owl and Rabbit Milne invented himself.

The toys that Christopher Robin played with are in the New York Public Library. In 1996, Milne's favorite teddy bear was sold in London at the Bonham House auction to an unknown buyer for £4,600.

The very first person in the world who was lucky enough to see Winnie the Pooh was Punch magazine cartoonist Ernest Sheppard. It was he who first illustrated Winnie the Pooh. Initially, the teddy bear and his friends were black and white, and then they became colored. And the teddy bear of his son posed for Ernest Sheppard, not Pooh at all, but “Growler” (or Grumpy).

Artist Ernest Howard Shepard (1879-1976), who illustrated the book. 1976

Shepard's Christmas card, Sotheby's. 2008

In total, two books about Winnie the Pooh were written: Winnie-the-Pooh (the first separate edition was published on October 14, 1926 by the London publishing house Methuen & Co) and The House at Pooh Corner (The House at Pooh Corner, 1928). In addition, two collections of Milne's children's poems, When We Were Very Young (When we were very young) and Now We Are Six (Now we are six years old), contain several poems about Winnie the Pooh.

The entire "childish" period of Milne's work covers only a few years, from 1921 to 1928. He no longer returns to the children's theme: Christopher Robin grew up, and together with his grown-up son, the world of childhood leaves Milne's life. All that he subsequently created for children was a dramatization of the book The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham.

Alan Alexander Milne, 1948

Adult Christopher Robin with his fiancee, 1948

In 1961, the Disney Company acquired the rights to Winnie the Pooh. Walt Disney slightly changed the famous illustrations of the artist Shepard, which accompanied Milne's books, and released a series of cartoons about Winnie the Pooh. According to Forbes magazine, Winnie the Pooh is the second most profitable character in the world, second only to Mickey Mouse. Winnie the Pooh generates $5.6 billion in revenue each year
On April 11, 2006, Winnie the Pooh's star was unveiled on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

At the same time, Milne's granddaughter, who lives in England, Claire Milne, is trying to get her bear cub back. Or rather, the right to it. So far unsuccessful.

In 1960, Winnie the Pooh was brilliantly translated into Russian by Boris Zakhoder and published with illustrations by Alice Poret.

Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh

In 1906-1914 he was an assistant to the publisher of the Punch magazine.

During World War I he served in the British Army.

In 1917, he published the fairy tale "Once upon a time ..." (Once on a Time), in 1921 - the comedy play "Mr. Pim Passed By" (Mr. Pim Passed By), which became one of the most popular of the dramatic works of the author. In the 1920s the play was staged in Manchester, London and New York.

In 1920, Alan Milne and his wife Dorothy had a son, Christopher Robin. From stories and poems that Alan composed for his child, in 1924 a book of children's poems "When we were very young" (When We Were Very Young) was born, which three years later appeared the sequel "Now We Are Six" (Now We Are Six). In the book "When We Were Little" a poem about a bear cub (Teddy Bear) appears for the first time. Both editions were illustrated by Ernest Howard Shepard, the artist who painted the famous image of Winnie the Pooh.

Some of the poems later.

In 1934, Milne, being a pacifist, published the book "Peace with Honor" (Peace With Honor), which called for peace and the rejection of war. The book has been the subject of considerable controversy.

In the 1930s, Milne wrote the novels "Two" (Two People, 1931), "Very short-lived sensation" (Four Days "Wonder, 1933). In 1939, he wrote his autobiography entitled "It's too late" (It "s Too Late Now). Milne's last novel, Chloe Marr, was published in 1946.

In 1952, the writer suffered a stroke. On January 31, 1956, Alan Alexander Milne died at his home in Harfield, Sussex.

The copyright to the Winnie the Pooh books was owned by four beneficiaries - the Alan Milne family, the Royal Literary Foundation, Westminster School and the Garrick Club. After the writer's death, his widow sold her stake to the Walt Disney Company, which made the famous Winnie the Pooh cartoons. In 2001, the other beneficiaries sold their stake to Disney Corporation for $350 million.

The writer's son Christopher Robin Milne (1920-1996) became a writer, following in his father's footsteps, and wrote several memoirs: "Enchanted Places", "After Winnie the Pooh", "Pit on the Hill".

The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources