A.A. Milne’s 1926 Bear Still Lives at the New York Public Library
A day as sweet as honey. It’s 100 years of Winnie-the-Pooh. Huzzah-hurrah to the beloved bear who changed childhoods around the world — and somehow still makes a pot of honey, a red shirt and a few very good friends feel like enough.
Look back with us and learn all the magic and stardust dreamsicles right below!
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Winnie-the-Pooh Turns 100
A.A. Milne’s 1926 classic reaches a full century, while Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga and Tigger’s original toys remain part of the New York Public Library’s treasures.
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The centennial marks the publication of A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh in 1926, illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard. Pooh had appeared in print earlier — as Edward Bear in Milne’s 1924 poem “Teddy Bear” — but the 1926 book introduced the story collection that made the Hundred Acre Wood a permanent address in children’s literature.
And the anniversary has one especially wonderful real-world stop: The New York Public Library. The original stuffed animals that inspired Pooh and several of his friends have lived at the Library since 1987 and are displayed in the Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library’s Treasures.
Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga and Tigger were childhood toys belonging to Christopher Robin Milne, A.A. Milne’s son and the inspiration for Christopher Robin. Rabbit and Owl, meanwhile, came from Milne’s imagination rather than Christopher Robin’s toy box.
Reporting for TODAY, NBC’s Laura Jarrett traces the sweet history of the character and heads inside the New York Public Library, where the original toys and a first edition of the 1926 book help connect a century of Pooh back to the very objects that started it all.
Winnie-the-Pooh at 100
Gallery images: TODAY / YouTube.
A century later, the spell is still ridiculously simple: friendship, imagination, a little kindness and perhaps something sweet waiting in the cupboard. No wonder Pooh never really left.
TODAY Celebrates 100 Years of Winnie-the-Pooh at the New York Public Library
Laura Jarrett looks back at Winnie-the-Pooh’s history and visits the New York Public Library, home to the original Pooh toys and a first edition of A.A. Milne’s 1926 book.
Source: TODAY / NBC; The New York Public Library. Images: TODAY / YouTube.
