A collection of letters and drawings from Winnie the Pooh author AA Milne, illustrator EH Shepard and publisher Frederick Muller is set to go on auction this week, after being discovered in a carrier bag.
The collection belonged to the late Leslie Smith, founder of publishing company Cressrelles, which according to The Guardian had taken over another publishing company run by Muller.
“A rare, unique and incredibly exciting archive collection of letters, manuscripts and drawings relating to childhood favourite Winnie the Pooh have been discovered and will be offered for sale by Fieldings Auctioneers,” the auctioneer said on its website.
“The archive which covers a stream of exchanges between author AA Milne, illustrator EH Shepherd and publisher Frederick Muller of Methuen has been discovered hidden amongst the papers of the late Leslie Smith who had a lifelong career in the publishing industry.”
Created by AA Milne, teddy bear Winnie the Pooh featured in a series of children’s books and poems in the 1920s. The stories, which follow the adventures of Poohwith his friends Piglet, Rabbit, Eeyore and Tigger in their home, the Hundred Acre Wood, were first adapted for the screen in the 1960s.
The letters were found by Smith’s children after his death in November 2023. “We were just clearing out the attic and found a plastic carrier bag full of letters,” his son Simon Smith told the BBC.
“We started going through them and found many signatures we couldn’t even decipher – and then we found the AA Milne. We were a bit gobsmacked, to say the least.”
The collection of letters, due to be auctioned by Fieldings Auctioneers in Stourbridge on 16 January, contains first drafts of Milne’s works like the poem Wind on the Hill and the opening dedication for poetry collection Now We Are Six. There are also sketches for a Christopher Robins Birthday book and design ideas for Christmas cards from characters that appear in the children’s book, including Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, and Eeyore.
There is a stern reprimand dated 28 March 1928 written by Milne on behalf of Pooh taking offence to being called a monster. “By the way Pooh protests strongly against being called a ‘fabulous monster’ in today’s Observer and threatens to come to Methuen’s one day to show you,” it reads.
There are letters that show Milne getting upset with the quality and tardiness of Shepard’s work as well. In one letter, Milne tells Muller about Shepard: “He must do new drawings for April and September as the originals are very poor.”
In another, he says: “If Shepard has not done the new drawing yet, then he need not.”
In a letter dated 5 July 1927, Milne writes: “Forgotten I have sent back to Shepard. I must have a new title-piece. He has got it all wrong.”
One of Shepard’s letters, dated 29 April 1928, may offer hints as to his reasons for the delay. “I am doing my best to hurry on the drawings, but style is rather cramped by the blasted move, as you will see from the above address, has been accomplished. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, were, to put it mildly bloody,” he writes.
Will Farmer, director of Fieldings Auctioneers, worked with BBC Antiques Roadshow’s Clive Farahar to appraise the collection, all of whose contents have been given guide prices of between £100 and £1,500.
“This is an incredible discovery in the world of Winnie the Pooh, especially when it was thought all documents were accounted for,” said Farahar.
In addition, the collection contains letters from Enid Blyton to Muller about advertisement space in her magazine. “Thankyou very much for the amusing Cat Book which was forwarded to me. If you could take a ½ page advertisement in my magazine, I could give it a tie-up in the same issue and speak about the book on my Special News,” Blyton writes in a letter dated 13 July 1955.
The collection features two postcards from fantasy writer JRR Tolkien as well.
“Thank you for your specimen facsimile, and for your kindness in thinking of me,” he says in one of the postcards to Smith. “I should indeed find these specimens of considerable use in Class-work and should be very grateful if you would let me have them.”
In the other, Tolkien asks if it would be “possible for us to collect ‘Rocket’ on Saturday morning?”
He was likely referring to the Rocket Statuette of the International Fantasy Award which he won in 1957 for the Lord of the Rings from the 15th World of Science Fiction Convention.
