Pooh & Friends

Winnie-the-Pooh, commonly shortened to Pooh Bear and once referred to as Edward Bear, is a fictional bear created by A. A. Milne. The character first appeared in the children's books Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928). more...

Home
Action Figures
Beanies
Construction Toys & Kits
Diecast & Vehicles
Toys & Games
Creative Toys/ Activities
Educational Toys
Electronic Pets
Fast Food/ Cereal/ Sweets...
Games
Jigsaws & Puzzles
Other Toys & Games
Outdoor Toys & Activities
Pre-School/ Young Children
Radio-Controlled Toys
Scalextric & Slot Car
Soft Toys/ Stuffed Animals
Branded Soft Toys
Disney
Dalmatians
Lion King
Mickey & Friends
Monsters Inc.
Nemo & Friends
Other Disney Soft Toys
Pooh & Friends
Other Soft Toys
Steiff
Unbranded Soft Toys
Cats
Dogs
Farm Animals
Other Unbranded Soft Toys
Sea Creatures
Wild Animals
Steam
Toy Soldiers
Toys Model Kits
TV & Film Character Toys
Vintage/ Classic Toys
Wargames & Role-Playing

Milne also included several poems about Winnie-the-Pooh in the children’s poetry books When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six. All four volumes were illustrated by E. H. Shepard.

The hyphens in the character's name were later dropped when The Walt Disney Company adapted the Pooh stories into a series of Winnie the Pooh featurettes that became one of the company's most successful franchises worldwide.

The Pooh stories have been translated into many languages, notably including Alexander Lenard's Latin translation, Winnie ille Pu, which was first published in 1958, and, in 1960, became the first foreign-language book to be featured on the New York Times Bestseller List, and is the only book in Latin ever to have been featured therein.

History

Origin

Milne named the character Winnie-the-Pooh after a teddy bear owned by his son, Christopher Robin Milne, who was the basis for the character Christopher Robin. His toys also lent their names to most of the other characters, except for Owl and Rabbit, who were probably based on real animals, and the Gopher character, who was added in the Disney version. Christopher Robin's toy bear is now on display at the Donnell Library Center Central Children's Room in New York.

Christopher Milne had named his teddy after Winnipeg, a bear which he and his father often saw at London Zoo, and "Pooh", a swan they had met while on holiday. Winnipeg the Bear was purchased from a hunter for $20 by Canadian Lieutenant Harry Colebourn in White River, Ontario, Canada, while en-route to England during the First World War. He named the bear "Winnipeg" after his hometown in Winnipeg, Manitoba. "Winnie", as she became known, was surreptitiously brought to England with her owner, and gained unofficial recognition as a regimental mascot. Colebourn left Winnie at the London zoo while he and his unit were in France; after the war she was officially donated to the zoo, as she had become a much loved attraction there. Among her many young fans was Christopher Milne, who named his own teddy bear "Winnie". Pooh the swan appears as a character in its own right in When We Were Very Young.

In the first chapter of Winnie-the-Pooh, Milne offers this explanation of why Winnie-the-Pooh is often called simply "Pooh": "But his arms were so stiff ... they stayed up straight in the air for more than a week, and whenever a fly came and settled on his nose he had to blow it off. And I think - but I am not sure - that that is why he is always called Pooh."

Read more at Wikipedia.org