Winnie-the-Pooh is a toy stuffed bear who is the title character in two books by English author A. A. Milne that have become classics of children’s literature. The first book is a collection of stories called Winnie-the-Pooh (1926). The bear also appeared in a sequel, The House at Pooh Corner (1928).
Milne wrote the stories when his son, Christopher Robin, was a child. The stories describe the adventures of a boy named Christopher Robin and his animal friends in a forest called the Hundred Acre Wood. The boy is the only human being in the adventures and serves as the kindly master of the animals.
Winnie-the-Pooh is a gentle-natured bear who loves honey. The animal is also called Edward Bear, or just Pooh. Other characters include a gloomy donkey called Eeyore, a peppy tiger called Tigger, a timid pig called Piglet, a philosophical owl called Owl, an interfering Rabbit, and a kangaroo named Kanga and the baby kangaroo Roo who lives in her pouch.
English artist Ernest Howard Shepard contributed a famous set of illustrations that brought the Milne characters to life in the original editions of the Pooh books. In his autobiography, It’s Too Late Now (1939), Milne told how his son’s stuffed animals led to the creation of the characters in the Pooh stories.
