Darkeforce, were my personal Web site up I could direct you to a more accurate version of the story online. There are other Web sites linked from there; one of the very best is Christopher Robin’s Winnie-the-Pooh Character Guide. At any rate, here is much of the story as A.A. Milne’s biographer Ann Thwaite and A.A. and Christopher Milne themselves tell it.
Winnipeg or Winnie (no Pooh in her name) was a female black bear cub in the London Zoo, originally from Canada indeed, and Christopher Robin did indeed know her very well, but the stories aren’t based on her - only part of Winnie-the-Pooh’s name. (The “Pooh!” comes from C.R.’s reaction to a swan.) The stories are based on Christopher Robin’s own teddy bear and other toys, but Shepard drew Pooh as based on the look of the teddy bear of his own son, which bear was named Growler.
Darkeforce, were my personal Web site up I could direct you to a more accurate version of the story online. There are other Web sites linked from there; one of the very best is Christopher Robin’s Winnie-the-Pooh Character Guide. At any rate, here is much of the story as A.A. Milne’s biographer Ann Thwaite and A.A. and Christopher Milne themselves tell it.
Winnipeg or Winnie (no Pooh in her name) was a female black bear cub in the London Zoo, originally from Canada indeed, and Christopher Robin did indeed know her very well, but the stories aren’t based on her - only part of Winnie-the-Pooh’s name. (The “Pooh!” comes from C.R.’s reaction to a swan.) The stories are based on Christopher Robin’s own teddy bear and other toys, but Shepard drew Pooh as based on the look of the teddy bear of his own son, which bear was named Growler.