Happy Days

by A. A. Milne

Overview

This book is made up from my contributions to Punch--a casual selection from the four hundred or so which have appeared in the last nine years. It is offered to the American public as a sample of that Punch humour (and perhaps, therefore, British humour) which Americans so often profess not to understand. According to whether they like it or do not like it, I hope they will consider it a representative or an unrepresentative sample.

Excerpt:

He says he doesn't mind my playing all day, so long as I don't start before eight in the morning, as he is in his bath then, and in listening to the music quite forgets to come out sometimes, which I can see might be very awkward.

Write to yours affectionately, ~Thankyou.~

VII

Darling Thankyou,--I am so sorry, dear, and I will come and hear your pianola to-morrow, and I think it lovely, and you must be clever to play it so well; but you musn't be angry with me because I am so taken up with my walking. You see, it is all so new to me. I feel as though I want everybody to know all about it.

Your pianola must be lovely, Thankyou. Dear Thankyou, could you, do you think, put all the letters we wrote to each other about my walking in some book, so that other people would know how to do it the way I do? You might call it "Letters on Walking," or "How to Walk," or--but you could get a better title than I could. Do!

Your very loving, O. D.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940014255356
Publisher:	Sheba Blake Publishing
Publication date:	03/26/2012
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	170 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