Alan Milne was born in London on the 18th of January in 1882. His father was the headmaster of a small preparatory school. One of the teachers at the school was the famous writer H. G. Wells.
Milne went to Westminster School at the age of 11 and then went on to Cambridge to become a mathematician. Instead he become the editor of the university's journal "Granta" in which he published some of his light humorous poems. Then he went to London hoping to earn his living as a writer. At the age of 24 he was given a post of assistant editor of the famous magazine "Punch".
In 1913 he married Dorothy De Selincourt and the following year when the war broke out he joined the Army. The Milnes' only child was born on August 21st 1920. They called their son Christopher Robin. The Milnes bought him a teddy bear for his first birthday. The teddy bear was soon name Winnie, after a real-life bear that lived in London Zoo. A. A. Milne wrote a lot of poems for Christopher Robin and about him.
In eleven days he wrote so many children's poems that they filled a book. It was published in 1924 under name "When We Were Very Young" and sold half a million copies. In 1925 the Milnes bought a farm in Sussex, which they used for weekends away from London. From his old house it was a short walk over a bridge into the Ashdown Forest where Christopher Robin and his teddy, now known by the name of "Winnie-the-Pooh" or "Pooh Bear", used to play. Each daily adventure in the Forest gave A. A. Milne more material for his now famous book "Winnie-the-Pooh" published in 1926. The illustrations to it were done by Ernest Shepard, who drew all the well-loved Pooh characters and places.
In this cartoon we can see again the favourite characters and the places where they live: Christopher Robin, Winnie, Piglet, Eeyore, Kanga and Roo, Rabbit, Owl.After the book "Winnie-the-Pooh" A. A. Milne wrote another book of children's verses – "Now We Are Six" and "The House at Pooh Corner".
What happened to Winnie-the-Pooh?
Well, the bear was put into the glass case in the museum with all the other toy animals.
After Milne's death in 1956, his widow sold her rights to the Pooh characters to the Walt Disney Company, which has made many Pooh cartoon movies.
In the Soviet Union three cartoons about Winnie and his friends were created from 1969 till 1971 by Fyodor Khitruk
Winnie-the-Pooh was translated by Boris Zakhoder. He was born in 1918 and died in 2000.
As for me, I prefer Disney's version. I think it's more lively, bright.