A.A. Milne

A. A. Milne, whose full name is Alan Alexander Milne, was an English children's fiction author, best known for his "Winnie the Pooh" series of children's stories. He was born in Kilburn, London, to Vince and Sarah Milne and grew up at the small public school run by his father, Henley House School. One of his teachers was H. G. Wells, who taught there in 1889-90.

Milne attended Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied on a mathematics scholarship. While there, he edited and wrote for Granta, a student magazine. His work came to the attention of the leading British humour magazine Punch, where Milne was to become a contributor and later an assistant editor. Milne joined the British Army in World War I and served as an officer in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment and later, after a debilitating illness, the Royal Corps of Signals. He was discharged on February 14, 1919. After the war, he wrote a denunciation of war titled "Peace with Honour" (1934), which he retracted somewhat with 1940's "War with Honour." During World War II, Milne was one of the most prominent critics of English writer P. G. Wodehouse, who was captured at his country home in France by the Nazis and imprisoned for a year. Wodehouse made radio broadcasts about his internment, which were broadcast from Berlin. Although the light-hearted broadcasts made fun of the Germans, Milne accused Wodehouse of committing an act of near treason by cooperating with his country's enemy.

Milne married Dorothy "Daphne" de Sélincourt in 1913, and their only son, Christopher Robin Milne, was born in 1920. In 1925, A. A. Milne bought a country home, Cotchford Farm, in Hartfield, East Sussex. During World War II, Milne was Captain of the Home Guard in Hartfield & Forest Row, insisting on being plain 'Mr. Milne' to the members of his platoon. He retired to the farm after a stroke and brain surgery in 1952 left him an invalid and passed away in 1956. Milne's son, Christopher Robin, was the inspiration for the character Christopher Robin in the Winnie the Pooh series. Milne based Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet and friends on the real nursery toys of his son Christopher Robin and published the first of their adventures in 1926. Since then, Pooh has become a world-famous bear, and Milne’s stories have been translated into sixty-two languages.