History Of Winnie The Pooh

The immensely popular Disney character, Winnie the Pooh, has been inspired by a fictional bear created by A. A. Milne in his books. However, Winnie, which has been simply referred to as Pooh Bear or just Pooh, is believed to have been existed for real and has actually inspired the creation of the story book.  Winnie The Pooh stories have been translated to several languages, including Alexander Lenard's Latin translation, Winnie ille Pu, which is credited to be the only Latin book to have ever found a place in the New York Times Best Seller List. The Pooh stories were adopted by Walt Disney, which immortalized Winnie the Pooh as a Disney character, liked by the young and old alike. Read the article to know about the origin and history of the cute and popular Winnie the Pooh.

The origin of Winnie The Pooh can be traced to the First World War. During the war, army troops were being transported to eastern Canada from Winnipeg (Manitoba, Canada). They were supposed to join the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade in Europe. When the train packed with Canadian troops halted at White River, Ontario, Harry Colebourn, a lieutenant bought a small female black bear cub from a hunter, at a price of $20. He named the bear cub 'Winnipeg' after the name of his hometown and called her ‘Winnie’ for short. Winnie became the mascot of the brigade and accompanied the unit to Britain. While the brigade got posted to the French battlefields, Lt. Colebourn loaned Winnie to the London zoo for a long time.

 

In December 1919, Colebourn formally presented Winnie to the London Zoo and it soon became a popular attraction among the visitors. The bear survived till 1919. It was the favorite of Christopher Robin, son of author A.A. Milne, who often spent time with Winnie inside the cage. The child grew so fond of the bear that he began calling his teddy bear at home “Winnie the Pooh". Christopher’s visit to the London zoo to spend time with Winnie inspired a literary journal by his father. The journal consisted of stories about the young bear. Soon, Milne began a series of books about Winnie the Pooh, his son, Christopher and friends. The series also included other characters, such as Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger, Kanga and Roo based on stuffed animals that belonged to Christopher Robin.

 

'Winnie-the-Pooh' was published in 1926, the verses 'Now We are Six' in 1927, and 'The House at Pooh Corner' in 1928. All these books had beautiful illustrations by E.H. Shepard, which made them extremely popular, in an almost magical way. The Pooh books soon became a rage among the young and old alike. This inspired Walt Disney to bring Pooh to films in 1966. 'The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh' is the first feature length animated Pooh film released in 1977. A second release of 'the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh', the Bear of Very Little Brain has been more popular than any other Disney character. Since then, Winnie has been a craze and continues to enjoy the same popularity even today.