Oh Pooh

The pipe smoking fellow above, our 145th hero of the day, is on A.A. Milne born this day 1882 in London, England. He was lucky enough, as a child, to be taught for a year by H.G. Wells. He then went on to attend Cambridge where his writings for the student newspaper caught the eye of the humour magazine "Punch." He soon became a contributor, and later an assistant editor at Punch. He got himself all married up in 1913, and 1920 his only child, a son named Christopher Robin, was born. That name sound familiar? I hope so for it was the books that Milne wrote for, and starring his son, that puts him on the hero list for today. In all Milne wrote four volumes of stories (from 1926 to 1928) with Pooh and his friends as them subject. It became a smashing hit, but it also became his millstone. Milne did not stop writing with the Pooh stories, but he became a victim of his own success. His fame rests almost completely on the Pooh books, and this was to become, in his lifetime, a source of great annoyance to Milne. His goal as a writer was to "write what I want to write". A noble goal if there ever was one, but sort of like Conan Doyle and his Holmes stories, the public was much more interested in Tigger, Piglet, and Eeyore, than any other writings of Milne, and by the late 1930's the audience for his grown up writings had virtually vanished. I guess sometimes you can be too successful. We all have our favourite Pooh character, I know several Eeyore's and a couple of Rabbits. I myself have always been a fan of Tigger, after all the wonderful thing about Tigger's is that "I'm the only one." A clarion call for individualist's around the world if there every was one. So, for creating those timeless characters living in the Hundred Acre Wood, A.A. Milne (January 18th, 1882-January 31st, 1956, at the age of 74), you are my hero of the day.