MILNE, A. A. When We Were Very Young - Winnie The Pooh - House At Pooh Corner - Now We Are Six. (4 VOLUMES - 1957, 58, 60, 62)

AUTHOR: MILNE, A. A.

TITLE: When We Were Very Young - Winnie The Pooh - House At Pooh Corner - Now We Are Six.

PUBLISHER: London: Methuen & Co., Ltd., 1957, 58, 60, 62.

DESCRIPTION: 4 vols., 7-3/16" x 5-1/8", illustrated by Ernest Shepard, bound in full green, blue, orange, and red morocco, ribbed gilt decorated spines, covers ruled and paneled in gilt, different gilt character from each volume to each cover, gilt dentelles, all edges gilt, original pictorial pastedown and endpaper bound in the read of each volume, marbled pastedowns and endpapers, by Zaehnsdorf.

CONDITION: Inner and outer hinges fine, head and foot of spines fine, internally clean and bright, some minor spotting to the spine of “House At Pooh Corner”, otherwise a FINE SET.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Milne began the poems in When We Were Very Young for his son Christopher Robin. They had originally appeared in Punch magazine and, to the shock of Milne and Methuen, the book sold out on publication day. It was an unqualified success, quoted, recited, and parodied everywhere. Milne based the stories of his second major book Winnie-the-Pooh on a set of stuffed animals Christopher Robin (called "Billy Moon" in the family) owned. Methuen published Milne's third children's book just two months after Winnie-the-Pooh. The House at Pooh Corner would be the last of the Pooh books. Milne wanted both to stop while the books were selling well - "I have had my thrill out of children's books, and know that I shall never recapture it" - and to protect his growing son: "I feel that the legal Christopher Robin has already had more publicity than I want for him. Moreover, since he is growing up, he will soon feel that he has had more publicity than he wants for himself. We all, young and old, hope to make some sort of name, but we want to make it in our own chosen way, and, if possible, by our own exertions" (Thwaite pages 338-39).