First Plays w/ Direct link technology (A Classic Drama)

by A. A. Milne, New Century Books

Overview

For these plays were not the work of a professional writer, but the recreation of a (temporary) professional soldier. Play-writing is a luxury to a journalist, as insidious as golf and much more expensive in time and money. When an article is written, the financial reward (and we may as well live as not) is a matter of certainty. A novelist, too, even if he is not in "the front rank"-- but I never heard of one who wasn't--can at least be sure of publication. But when a play is written, there is no certainty of anything save disillusionment.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940013058361
Publisher:	New Century Books
Publication date:	08/30/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	130 KB

About the Author

It seems strange that A. A. Milne would have not have wanted to be associated with one of literature�s most beloved characters. Having achieved some success as a playwright and novelist, he aspired to be more than only an author of children�s books.

However, Milne�s books -- Winnie-the-Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner, and the verse collections When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six -- are hardly typical of most stories for kids. They remain among the smartest of the genre, and were likely written as much for himself as for his young son, Christopher. Infused with a sly wit, they contain humor that only an adult can appreciate; indeed, some of the poems in When We Were Very Young first appeared in the satiric magazine Punch, where Milne was an editor.

Rendered by illustrator Ernest H. Shepard in quaint, warm watercolors, Pooh and friends Tigger, Kanga, Roo, Owl, Eeyore, and Piglet star in stories about playing games and helping friends in and around their home near �100-Aker Wood.� In one instance of Milne�s ironic humor, a sign outside Owl�s residence reading �PLES RING IF AN RNSER IS REQIRD� is attributed to Pooh�s boy companion Christoper Robin, �who was the only one in the forest who could spell.� The books are written with sophistication and a certain amount of dry British wit, employing turns of phrase (�customary procedure,� �general remarks�) not usually found in children�s stories.

The volumes of verse range over a wider collection of themes, with Pooh appearing in just a few poems. Most of them offer a young person�s perspective on subjects such as imaginary friends, feigning illness, and going to the zoo; and it�s evident how Milne�s work prefigures that of Dr. Seuss (From Going to the Zoo: �There are biffalo-buffalo-bisons/A great big bear with wings/There�s sort of a tiny potamus/A tiny nossarus too�). Other poems feature cowardly knights, buffoonish Sirs, and other fantasy figures.

Little of Milne�s work for adults, which included the autobiography Year In, Year Out and his first novel, Lovers in London, can be easily found in print. One adult title, however, is still being published: the pleasing Gosford Park-style Red House Mystery.

Pooh, meanwhile, continues to grow as a powerful franchise, with modern-day titles, animation, and games that are almost as delightful as Milne�s original texts -- but not quite.

Hometown:

Cotchford Farm, Sussex, England

Date of Birth:

January 18, 1882

Date of Death:

November 6, 1318

Place of Birth:

Hampstead, London

Place of Death:

Cotchford Farm, Sussex, England

Education:

Trinity College, Cambridge University (mathematics), 1903

Website:

http://www.penguinputnam.com