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95 MILNE, A. A. Winnie-the-Pooh. London: Methuen & Co., 1926 signed by both author and illustrator Signed limited edition, number 288 of 350 large paper copies signed by both Milne and Shepard, printed on handmade paper. Limited signed editions of the first Winnie-the-Pooh story book are increasingly scarce. After the huge success of When We Were Very Young , published in 1924, Milne was asked to contribute a story to the London Evening News . “The Wrong Sort of Bees”, published on Christmas Eve 1925, was based on a bedtime story that Milne had told his son Christopher. It starred Christopher’s teddy bear, bought at Harrods for Christopher’s first birthday, known initially as Edward or Edward Bear and later renamed Winnie-the-Pooh (after a favourite bear cub at London zoo).
Winnie-the-Pooh was an immediate success and garnered even more enthusiastic reviews than its predecessor. It was published in the UK in three issues: an extra limited issue of 20 copies bound in vellum, the present limited issue of 350 copies on large paper, and a regular trade issue. This is the first title of the series to be issued in this format: there was no equivalent issue of the first book, When We Were Very Young , as the magnitude of its success had not been anticipated. Small quarto. Original dark blue cloth-backed blue paper-covered boards, front cover with paper label lettered in black, edges untrimmed. With dust jacket. Illustrated throughout by E. H. Shepard, folding map at end. Browning to free endpapers, a near-fine and crisp copy. Dust jacket spine toned with head and foot slightly rubbed, minor closed tear to front panel, a very good and attractive example. ¶ John R. Payne, “Four Children’s Books by A. A. Milne”, Studies in Bibliography , vol. 23, 1970, pp. 127–39, item IIB. £17,500 [157028]
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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