This is part of an ongoing series where I write about a different author for each letter of the alphabet. You can see them all here.
I can’t believe I haven’t done anything in my ‘A is for’ series since JANUARY? I knew I was putting it off for a bit because it meant moving some books around (my Milne shelf is on the back of a mantlepiece, with plenty of other books in front of them). But I finally did it, and here we are. When I started this little blogging project, I always knew who would be in the alphabet for M – and any long-term readers of StuckinaBook wouldn’t be in any doubt either.
How many books do I have by A.A. Milne?
When I did Stephen Leacock for L, I thought I was hitting a peak with 27 books. Well, I have 50 books by A.A. Milne. That’s more or less everything he ever published, and I’d reached about 46 of those a long, long time ago. Over the intervening years I’ve managed to get hold of some very obscure pamphlets (e.g. War Aims Unlimited) and plays (e.g. Other People’s Lives), and the books that remain missing are either prohibitively expensive or might never have been published. There are a couple of plays mentioned on his Wikipedia page that I’ve never seen, so would have to rely on stray acting editions turning up. I don’t care at all about having first editions or pristine editions – I just want to get my hands on everything Milne ever wrote!
How many of these have I read?
Hold onto your hats, because I’ve read it ALL. Most of my Milne collecting came around 2002-2005, when I only had a few hundred books and (gasp) often read the ones I bought. Because Milne was, and is, my favourite writer, newly acquired books by him always went straight to the top of the pile. I’ve done quite a lot of re-reading too, though there are still some books I’ve only read once, nearly two decades ago.
How did I start reading A.A. Milne?
He was really my gateway into a world of interwar literature. It all started when I watched a documentary about Winnie the Pooh in about 2002, and I decided I wanted to read more about it. That led me to Christopher Milne’s first autobiography, The Enchanted Places, which in turn led me to Ann Thwaite’s biography of Milne. And after that I scoured secondhand bookshops, began using ebay and other embryonic online places for buying books. It was surprisingly easy and cheap to get most of Milne’s books (and difficult and expensive to get the remaining handful).
General impressions…
Well, I love him, of course! On this shelf are plays, novels, sketches, essays, poetry, pamphlets, autobiography, and of course children’s books. He turned his hand to almost everything. And he was brilliant at it all, with an insouciant, witty, capable tone that pervades everything. It is a joy to fall in love with an author whose style is so identifiable and yet can be turned to such a wide variety of works. Every now and then something by him is rediscovered – his detective novel, The Red House Mystery, seems to be rediscovered every few years, and it was great to see Mr Pim Passes By and Four Days’ Wonder come back into print a little while ago, though I’m not sure if they’re still available. For my money, my favourite AAM books are his autobiography It’s Too Late Now, the touchingly comic novel Mr Pim Passes By (and the play it was adapted from), his pacifist work Peace With Honour, and any of the early sketch collections about the ‘rabbits’. He is a joy. Incidentally, one of the best blogging experiences I’ve had was watching Claire at the Captive Reader fall in love with AAM too.
You can read more about what reading Milne has meant to me in a post I wrote eight years ago.
When I was a wee tot, I discovered Winnie the Pooh. When I read the story about Pooh falling down through the branches of the tree saying things like “oh bother” and “I really wish I hadn’t”, I howled with laughter. The story my mom tells is that I laughed until I cried and then couldn’t stop, making her quite concerned. “Why are you crying?” “Because it’s so funny”, I had apparently sobbed.
And now you tell me there’s more? Joy!
Haha! Yes, there is SO much more
By coincidence I have just finished listening to the audiobook version of the first volume of The Enchanted Places. I read all the Pooh books, both the stories and poems, and The Red House Mystery, but that is about all of AAM. Listening to The Enchanted Places (I own both volumes in hardback, but this was my first time listening) did make me think about reading AAM’s autobiographical works, at least, if I can find them. He certainly does make a good representation for the letter M, although I would probably have used Ngaio Marsh for my selection, if I were going to count numbers.
Oh lovely! I enjoyed The Enchanted Places a lot too. I’ve only read one Marsh, but did enjoy it.
This is quite an impressive shelf!
Winnie is actually the very first book I read in English, when I was 11, with about a year of English behind me, so I checked almost every word in the dictionary!
I recently listened to The Red House Mystery, and feel like it’s time to meet Winnie and his friends again!
Oh lovely! Though some of the Winnie-the-Poohisms must have been absent from the dictionary…
I really enjoyed The Red House Mystery, and I recently bought a copy of Mr Pim Passes By but the print is VERY small, so I haven’t read it yet. I’d like to read more, because his Pooh stories and books of poetry were things I read to my kids when they were little.
When Christopher published The Enchanted Places I bought it in hard cover, and loved it! I understand he wrote a couple more memoirs as well, but that’s the only one I have.
He did – I haven’t reread them for many years, but THe Path Through the Trees (the second one) was my favourite
Not sure why my comments seem to disappear here. Maybe they’re in your spam pile! If so… there’s another one of mine there, and probably this one will be there too. The Mr. Pim I have is the play!
They’re appearing for me, don’t worry.
He wrote the play first, and it’s broadly the same – equally lovely!
How lovely, and you’ve read them all! Funnily enough, at that time, my TBR shelf was about ten books long and I read books almost as soon as I’d bought them. It was meeting Mr LyzzyBee that made the rot set in! Then again, I then had a life and saw different people and left the house at weekends, so …
I’ve never read any adult Milne, so to speak, so will remedy that the next one I see.
I would love it if you did!
This post was such a joy Simon, thank you. I’ve never read any adult Milne but I will seek to remedy the situation!
Oh please do!!
I haven’t read any of his adult books but will! This, and your post from eight years ago are so interesting, thank you!
Excellent, I do hope you enjoy!
That’s a lot of lovely Milne! 😊
Absolutely!
I found this post very inspiring and immediately started looking up some of the adult Milne that you mentioned as I was not even aware that there were so many more books as well as the delightful children’s collection . I did not really properly begin to love those until I was well into adulthood. Still, better late than never!
Happily, Devon libraries have some of the adult Milne so I have requested a copy of Not that it Matters to get me started. In the meantime, I decided to reread The House at Pooh Corner. Thank you for the inspiration.
Oh excellent! Not That It Matters is a fun essay collection that will give you a good taste of early Milne.
Discovering Milne through you has been the absolute highlight of my blogging years! I love his work so much, from the Punch pieces to the plays to, of course, his autobiography. I sadly don’t have as extensive a collection on my home shelves but it might be time to put the library to use again and start rereading some favourites.
Impressive collection. I too love AA Milne, is there anyone sane who doesn’t? lol
I adore his autobiography as well.
Wonderful autobiography!
I would certainly be behind this idea!
Hahaha, I like the way you’ve described the collection process, beginning easy and cheap and ending difficult and expensive. At least it’s averaged out in the end!
yes :D
Not exactly a Milne comment but my reading of your blog post was at the same time as I read a blog post by Pat Thomson, on bibliomemoirs. It may add to your reading list with its links… https://patthomson.net/2022/08/22/the-bibliomemoir-a-musing/
I have just finished It’s too late now. The child section is magical and definitely my favourite. Some lovely scenes from his childhood and how happiness is different for children compared to adults. I really liked the way he described the providential decision as to which job his father should take which then led to his meeting his mother. Thanks for introducing me to Milne’s other writings. I am looking forward to reading Mr Pim passes by soon now.
So glad you enjoyed it! His portraits of his parents are so well done. And I’m so glad Mr Pim is easy to buy again – enjoy!
Sadly, Mr Pim is in a library copy (a very attractive Minerva ed. by The Library Press, brown hardback with gold lettering) not one to keep!
I was able to get Mr. Pim on the Kindle. Read and enjoyed the play.
I have always loved reading A.A. Milne. I imagine in England he is still more popular. I live in the United states. I just bought a first edition of Birthday Party. I have a 1951 Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine with one of Milne’s short stories published in it. I also write short stories myself and consider Milne one of my biggest influences. His adult stories I like the best.
Wonderful! I’m so glad that a collection of his short stories has just been published
Does the new short story collection of his have any of his contributions to magazines? I cant find a table of contents anywhere on line for the collection.