Wisdom and Wonder: Winnie the Pooh and Children's Literature

Pooh and Piglet by EH Shepard

After all the venom, gnashing of teeth, the storms, real and political, and the convoluted language of the campaign season, let’s take a refresher course in real wisdom. I nominate Winnie the Pooh as Master Wisdom Giver. I’m in the midst of teaching my Children’s Literature classes at Drexel University, so I’m deep into the wise and charming world of Children’s Books - and I’m not alone.

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Beatrix Potter: Peter Rabbit

The Morgan Library is currently offering a peek at the correspondence of Beatrix Potter, particularly her hand-written illustrated letters with their winning combination of personal detail and flights of whimsical imagination parading as little sketches between the lines. 
I haven’t been there yet, but plan to go. The exhibit is at the Morgan Library through January 27, 2013.

A link to the show with examples of her letters is at the end of the post.

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Croation version: Winnie the Pooh

Like the very best of children’s literature, Winnie the Pooh is something of a miracle, a perfect stew of tenderness, humor, wisdom, charm, sincerity, heart, and language that transcends time and generation. Winnie the Pooh speaks across all barriers of culture and geography - it has been translated into innumerable languages, including Latin and Esperanto. One commentary, The Tao of Pooh, published in 1983, equates Winnie the Pooh with ancient Chinese philosophers; it was on the New York Times best seller list for 42 weeks. 

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Pooh, Tigger and Christopher Robin by EH Shepard

To be very clear, Winnie the Pooh is NOT a Disney creation - the Disney version is a travesty, a cheap tawdry imitation lacking any trace of the delicate, gentle, poignant lilt of the original. The Disney visuals, too, are harsh and crude - painful to look at if you know the sweet, careful original drawings by E. H. Shepard. Shepard’s gift was for illustrations that capture the perfect tone for children: seriously good natured and forcefully innocent, in contrast to too many overly cute, sentimental versions of childhood. (He also did the original illustrations for The Wind in the Willows.) 

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AA Milne, Christopher Robin, and Pooh Bear

For Winnie the Pooh we thank A. A. Milne, a Cambridge educated writer (one of his professors was H.G. Wells) who wrote humorous essays, murder mysteries and early screenplays, fought in WWI, and then retired to a farm in Sussex. His son, named Christopher Robin, was born in 1920 - the first Winnie the Pooh stories (starring guess who) were published in 1925.

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Map of Hundred Acre Wood by EH Shepard

The other unforgettable characters - Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Roo, etc. - were all ‘real’ friends of Milne’s son - his stuffed animals.* The setting, beloved as ‘The Hundred Acre Wood,’ is modeled on Ashdown Forest near Milne’s home, a wild moorland south of London with prehistoric traces that was once a hunting ground for Tudor Kings.
*see below for how to Meet Them

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Pooh and Piglet: EH Shepard

Winnie the Pooh’s world is a place of wonder and challenge–- every adventure leads to new discovery. The language is deft and playful, and behind every twinkle and charm lies a deeper truth. When Pooh says, “It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn't use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like "What about lunch?”  We think, "Of course - wouldn’t life be better if we just cut the bombast and got right to the important stuff?"

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Pooh and the Hunny Jar by EH Shepard

“Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?”

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Pooh and Piglet by EH Shepard

“What day is it?"
It's today," squeaked Piglet.
My favorite day," said Pooh.”


“Promise me you'll never forget me because if I thought you would, I'd never leave.”

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Tigger and Roo by EH Shepard

“I'm not lost for I know where I am. But however, where I am may be lost.”

“You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”

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Christopher Robin and Pooh by EH Shepard

“The things that make me different are the things that make me.”

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If you would like to meet Winnie the Pooh and some of his friends in person, take a trip to the New York Public Library. – You’ll find Pooh, Eeyore, Tigger, Kanga, and Piglet in a case in the Children’s Center at 42nd Street. EP Dutton, the original publisher, brought them to the U.S. in 1947 and donated them to the library in 1987.
http://exhibitions.nypl.org/treasures/items/show/28

Chapter 8: An Expedition to the North Pole, read by Stephen Fry, Judi Dench and others:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EJAJCToXGg&feature=relmfu

Morgan Library exhibit - Beatrix Potter: The Picture Letters (Through January 27, 2013)
http://www.themorgan.org/collections/works/potter/thumbs.asp

What wisdom do you recall from Children's Books? Please share with the rest of us!

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