Contents:

  1. Aims of the presentation……………………………………… 2
  2. Introduction…………………………………………………… 2
  3. The main body of the presentation……………………………. 2
  4. Date and year of birth…………………………………………..2
  5. School study time……………………………………………… 3
  6. Early career starts………………………………………………3
  7. Birth of Milne’s son……………………………………………. 4
  8. The famous character Winnie-the-Pooh’s appearance………… 5
  9. “Winnie-the-Pooh” book publication…………………………..6

10.The writer’s death and further life of his creation, Winnie-the Pooh………………………………………………………………. 7

11. A list of stories, novels and poetry for adults and children……8

12.Conclusion…………………………………………………… .9

13. Bibliography………………………………………………….. 9

The aims of this report is to make readers and listeners familiar with such a famous writer as A. A. Milne. Almost each and every child all over the world knows this writer and his outstanding characters Christopher Robin and Winnie-the Pooh. When my parents read stories from this book to me I enjoyed them so much. So, I decided to make a report on this writer’s literary activity.

Alan Alexander Milne was born in London on the 18th of January of 1882. His father was the headmaster of a small school.

Milne went to Westminster School at the age of 11. Later on, he studied at Trinity College. He wanted to become a mathematician, but he became an editor. While at Cambridge, he studied mathematics and also edited and wrote for the student magazineGranta. He also published his humorous poems there.

Realizing that writing was his true vocation, he moved to London after his graduation in 1903.

At the age of 24 he became an assistant editor of the magazine “Punch”.

In 1913 he got married.

Milne joined the British Army when the war began. He had only one child, a son, whose name was Christopher Robin.

The Milnes bought him a teddy bear for his first birthday.

They called him Winnie. Christopher Robin Milne's stuffed bear, originally named "Edward",was renamed "Winnie-the-Pooh" after a Canadianblack bearnamedWinnie(after Winnipeg), which was used as a military mascot in World War I, and left forLondon Zooduring the war. "The pooh" comes from a swan called "Pooh".

  1. Milne wrote a lot of poems for Christopher, his son and about him.

In eleven days he wrote so many children’s poems that they filled a book. It was published in 1924.

In 1925 the Milnes bought a farm where they wanted to rest from city life. Not far from the farm there was a forest “Ashdown forest” where Milne and his son played very often.

Each day there gave Milne a lot of material for his, now, famous book “Winnie-the-Pooh”. It was published in 1926.

Except this famous one, he wrote other books of children’s poems.

In the 1930s and '40s, A.A. Milne returned to writing for adults, publishing novels, short-story collections and a non-fiction, anti-war book entitled“Peace with Honour”. He wrote his autobiography“It's Too Late Now”, in 1939.

Milne suffered from an illness in the early 1950s and died at his home in Hartfield.

A.A. Milne died at the age of 74 and his widow sold her right to the Pooh characters to the Walt Disney Company, which has made many Pooh cartoon movies.

A Russian children’s poet Boris Zakhoder translated the book “Winnie-the-Pooh” into Russian in 1960.

Some of Milne’s well-known works both for children and adults are listed below:

Newspaper articles and book introductions

  • The Chronicles of Clovisby "Saki" (1911) [Introduction to]
  • NotThatItMatters(1920)
  • ByWayofIntroduction(1929)
  • It Depends on the Book(1943, in September issue of Red Cross NewspaperThe Prisoner of War)

Story collections for children

  • A GalleryofChildren(1925)
  • Winnie-the-Pooh(1926) (illustrated byErnest H. Shepard)
  • The House at Pooh Corner(1928) (illustrated by E. H. Shepard)
  • ShortStories

Poetry collections for children

  • When We Were Very Young(1924) (illustrated by E. H. Shepard)
  • Now We Are Six(1927) (illustrated by E. H. Shepard)

Storycollections

  • The Secret and other stories(1929)
  • TheBirthdayParty(1948)
  • A Table Near the Band(1950)

Poetry

  • For the Luncheon Interval[poems fromPunch]
  • When We Were Very Young(1924) (illustrated by E. H. Shepard)
  • Now We Are Six(1927) (illustrated by E. H. Shepard)
  • BehindtheLines(1940)
  • TheNormanChurch(1948)

Conclusion.

A.A. Milne is well-known all over the world from little children to adults. We can read brightly coloured books about children’sfavourite characters from “Winnie-the-Pooh” and watch cartoons after this book.

Preparing this project I learnt a lot about this writer that can be useful for me now and in the future.

Thank you for your kind attention.

Bibliography:

  1. Encyclopedia Britanica Online. Archived from the original on 10 May 2008.
  2. Wikipedia.org
  3. Works by A. A. Milne at Internet Archive.

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