Absolutely lovely and thorough analysis of this masterpiece of / for childhood. thank you! "We are left with something more important: bits of poetry and books of tales that understand the great quest of childhood, the start of the journey of life, as something innocent, reserved, delightful, and worth remembering"
I've never read any of Milne's adult works - but Dorothy Parker's delightfully scathing review of his play "Give Me Yesterday" is a great favorite of mine, and (perhaps unfairly) gives me no inclination to explore them.
Delightful and astute. Milne also wrote a really good comic novel for slightly older children of about 9 called Once on a Time, which has a prince, a princess, a pair of seven league boots, two quarrelling kings, a serving girl heroine and a beguiling, self aware female baddie who keeps a diary in ( I think) violet ink. Any girl who reads it will start a diary of her own.
Oddly enough I recently bought a copy of one of Milne's adult novels, Two People. I haven't read it yet, though my wife has. (Her reaction was, pretty much, "Meh".)
I had rather little contact with Winnie the Pooh as a child -- I'm not quite sure why. I also didn't read The Wind in the Willows until I was an adult! (And my mother had been an elementary school teacher, and had a Masters in Children's Literature!) But I read the stories over and over again to my children when they were the right age.
“In the first eight weeks of publication, Milne’s first children’s poems, When We Were Young, sold forty-four thousand copies. “
Finding sentences like this one is reason enough to keep coming around this neighborhood.
What a charming piece. Thank you for making my day.
Charming is the word. Absolutely right.
What a beautiful piece!
Absolutely lovely and thorough analysis of this masterpiece of / for childhood. thank you! "We are left with something more important: bits of poetry and books of tales that understand the great quest of childhood, the start of the journey of life, as something innocent, reserved, delightful, and worth remembering"
What a great post Henry! There was so much I didn't know about Milne - thank you!!
Acre? Aker!
Gah serves me right for writing in a hurry
I've never read any of Milne's adult works - but Dorothy Parker's delightfully scathing review of his play "Give Me Yesterday" is a great favorite of mine, and (perhaps unfairly) gives me no inclination to explore them.
Delightful and astute. Milne also wrote a really good comic novel for slightly older children of about 9 called Once on a Time, which has a prince, a princess, a pair of seven league boots, two quarrelling kings, a serving girl heroine and a beguiling, self aware female baddie who keeps a diary in ( I think) violet ink. Any girl who reads it will start a diary of her own.
Oddly enough I recently bought a copy of one of Milne's adult novels, Two People. I haven't read it yet, though my wife has. (Her reaction was, pretty much, "Meh".)
I had rather little contact with Winnie the Pooh as a child -- I'm not quite sure why. I also didn't read The Wind in the Willows until I was an adult! (And my mother had been an elementary school teacher, and had a Masters in Children's Literature!) But I read the stories over and over again to my children when they were the right age.
Lovely.