A. A. Milne - Softcover

Thwaite, Ann

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0752440853 ISBN 13: 9780752440859

Publisher: Tempus, 2006

Synopsis

A.A. Milne is one of the most successful English writers ever. His heart-warming creations—Winnie-the-Pooh, Christopher Robin, Eeyore, Tigger and Piglet—have become some of the best-loved children’s characters of all time, and readers the world over are familiar with the stories from the Hundred Acre Wood.    Yet the man himself has remained an enigma. Although in many ways his behaviour was that of a typical golf-playing, pipe-smok-ing Englishman, Milne refused to be typecast, and his publishers despaired when he turned from writing popular columns for Punch to writing detective stories. They complained again when the detective writer presented them with a set of children’s verse, but when When We Were Very Young became one of the best-selling books of all time, Milne’s credibility as one of the world’s favorite authors was sealed.

About this title

About the Author

Ann Thwaite was born of New Zealand parents in London in 1929. She was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford and has been a writer, biographer and reviewer all her life. She lives with her husband, the poet Anthony Thwaite, in Norfolk

From Library Journal

The man behind Winnie-the-Pooh was a humorist, Punch editor, light versifier, and above all a playwright. Milne had a brief but very successful and prolific career as a dramatist before settling reluctantly for Pooh's glory. For this first Milne biography, Thwaite draws on both Milne's and his son Christopher Robin's memoirs, but also on unpublished letters and family memories, depicting his happy childhood, solidly middle-class background, ardent pacifism, and complex relations (obscured by an ingrained reticence) with his wife and son. Although the children's books play only a small (but central) role in this biography, their publishing history, reception, and critical evaluation are neatly summarized. There is just enough history to set Milne's work in its context. Sadly, Milne's charmed life eventually gave way to disappointment, but this even-tempered and readable biography will not disappoint.
-Patricia Dooley, Univ. of Washington Lib. Sch., Seattle
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Tempus
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0752440853
• ISBN 13: 9780752440859
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 428