The Men Who Created Winnie-the-Pooh

In celebration of 100 years of Winnie-the-Pooh, this beautiful full-colour volume explores the men behind the creation of the much-loved characters.

When A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard first collaborated in 1923 to create the world of Winnie-the-Pooh and his companions in the Hundred Acre Wood, no one could have foreseen the impact their unique partnership would have on children’s literature and children all over the world. Now, 100 years on, the characters they created remain as cherished as ever. Millions of books in fifty different languages have been sold globally; films have become huge box-office successes; and merchandise from pyjamas to placemats has kept Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends alive in our hearts and minds.

But what about the two men who created these iconic characters? How did they come to collaborate, and what were the secrets of their successful partnership?

In this beautiful, full-colour volume, author James Campbell brings to life these two remarkable men, exploring their professional and personal relationships, complex families, strengths, and weaknesses. From working together at Punch magazine in the early 1920s and co-creating the four iconic Winnie-the-Pooh titles—When We Were Very Young (1924), Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), Now We Are Six (1927), and The House at Pooh Corner (1928)—through the success of the books and their reception both at home and abroad, their wartime experiences, other collaborations (notably Shepard’s renowned illustrations for Kenneth Graham's The Wind in the Willows and Milne’s dramatization of the same story into Toad of Toad Hall), and their legacies that continue to this day.

Illustrated with excerpts from original manuscripts and drawings, previously unseen draft illustrations, photographs, documents, ephemera, and more, this timely book offers a retrospective on their lives and work—from the first sketches to the illustrations we know and love, and onto the characters’ later incarnations at Disney for new generations.