Alan Milne went down in history as the creator of one of the most famous heroes of children's literature of the century. Winnie the Pooh is the main character in two of Milne's books: "The House on the Downy Edge". In the 1960s, thanks to Boris Zahoder's retelling of "Winnie the Pooh", and then the films of the Soyuzmultfilm studio, the literary bear became very popular in the Soviet Union. Ironically, Alan Milne - a prolific and hardworking writer, humorist, author of plays, feuilletons, detective stories, psychological novels, fairy tales, poems - remained in all these genres behind everyone whose work he continued. The only book written playfully and jokingly brought him posthumous fame.
The outstanding English writer Alan Alexander Milne was born on January 18, 1882 in the London borough of Kilburn. Alan Milne attended a small private school owned by his father, John Milne. One of his teachers, who taught biology, was H. G. Wells, a famous English science fiction writer, who in his autobiography recalls a little boy who took part in a school magazine. This was Alan Milne, the creator of Winnie the Pooh. Subsequently, it was Wells who introduced the young Milne into the circle of writers and actively helped him establish himself in this field. Also one of his close friends was James Barry - the future author of the popular book for children - "Peter Pan".
After graduating from school, the young man entered Cambridge University, where he was already the editor of a student magazine. From childhood, Alan Milne was convinced that he would become a writer, and directly stated this to his father when he received a university degree. For many years Milne was an employee of the English humorous magazine “Punch”. Milne's first published work was a parody of “The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes”. This was followed by a series of "Small Plays for amateur Theater."
In 1920, an event occurred in Alan Milne's personal life that had a decisive influence on his literary fate: he had a son, the first and only one, named Christopher Robin. Especially for him, Milne wrote one of the most popular fairy tales in the whole world - the tale of the teddy bear Winnie the Pooh, funny, naive and childishly frivolous. "I, in fact, did not invent anything," Milne himself wrote, "I could only describe," because the toys - both the bear, and the Donkey, and Piglet existed in reality - in the form of Christopher Robin Milne's toys, and only the Rabbit and the Owl were his own inventions. But it should be noted that Alan Alexander Milne's literary fame as a children's writer began with poems.
Alan Milne fought 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. Before the publication of the books about Winnie-the-Pooh, Milne was already a fairly well-known playwright, but the success of Winnie-the-Pooh has acquired such proportions that Milne's other works are now practically unknown. Why? Mainly because of the kind sense of humor, lightness, and the amazingly beautiful world of childhood created by the author.
Nazira Artykbayeva, volunteer of the International Book Department
