Alan Alexander Milne example essay topic

Alan Alexander Milne When reminiscing on past memories of favorite books, cartoons, songs and stuffed animals, many people will think about Winnie the Pooh. The man behind all of your fun filled childhood adventured with Christopher Robin and his bear friend Pooh is Alan Alexander Milne, more commonly known as A.A. Milne. Besides his creation of Winnie the Pooh short story and poetry books he was a very accomplished man through out his whole life. He showed great affection to family members, friends, and to his wife and child. He was also dedicated to his work and set his mind to whatever task he was facing. Family life for Milne was very unusual, he experienced love and hate towards different members of his family.

On January 18, 1882 in London, A.A. was born as the youngest son to Sarah Marie and John Van Milne. (Collier, Nakamura 1685) A.A. and his two older brothers Davis Barrett (Barry) and Kenneth John (Ken) grew up in the Henley House. This was a school for boys that his father ran. ( ) As Milne grew up, he and his brother Ken became very close although he showed no affection for Barry. This is how things stayed for the rest of their lives. ( ) Alan Alexander once said he and Ken shared " 'Equally all belief, all knowledge, all ambition, all hope and all fears'".

( ) While this statement symbolizes how close a bond there was between them he went on to say this about Barry and his relationship", ' Whoever heard... of two frogs assuming a friendliness which they don't feel, simply because they had been eggs in the same spawn. Ridiculous. ' " ( ) Barry and A.A.'s relationship worsened as Alan watched Barry's wife, Connie, suffer through Barry's unfaithfulness. Also, as their father John was dying, Barry deceitfully convinced him to change his will. This gave Barry the largest portion of his father's money.

By Barry's inhumane actions, it took away precious money needed from grandchildren and Ken's widowed wife, Maude. ( ) Barry never regretted it and he and Alan never spoke one more word to each other again. A.A. even refused to say anything to Barry while he was on his deathbed. ( ) Alan Alexander Milne was always and exceptional student but writing always dominated his life. In 1893 Alan Alexander attended his first year at Westminster School which his older brother Ken also attended.

(Collier, Nakamura 1686) Alan was an exceptional student during his first year at Westminster and became a Queen Scholar after only finishing his first term of school. (Collier, Nakamura 1686) After this though, he began slacking off and lacking the exceptional qualities he once had. He decided he knew enough so he stopped working as hard as he used to. This is when he began focusing all his efforts on writing for the school newspaper. (Collier, Nakamura 1686) In 1900 he graduated from Westminster and began Trinity College of Cambridge University. After graduating from Trinity College he moved back to London and worked as a free lance journalist.

He had articles published in Variety Fair and Punch magazines. (Collier, Nakamura 1686) In 1905 he completed his first book Lovers in London. He was very unsatisfied with this publication and pretended that he never wrote it. One year later he became assistant editor at Punch magazine. After he became assistant editor he made this comment, "My real achievement was to be not wholly the wrong person at the right spot at the right time.

(Collier, Nakamura 1686) The reason he said something like this is because he is very modest about his work and how talented he was. By what he said in the quote he thought that it was pure luck by him becoming assistant editor of a major magazine not by ambition and natural talent. Although he had already been assistant editor for four years he only became famous in 1910. (Collier, Nakamura 1687) His articles became very popular among readers. He wrote about insight's into a child's mind. This is what led him to writing children's books later on in his life.

He also wrote about sports but what made him most famous were his stories about a fictional family he created named the Rabbit's. ( ) The Rabbit's were a middle class family that had different problems in each story. In the endings though, the problems were resolved and there was a happy ending. ( ) From what was written it seems as though it is like an old fashioned version of the Brady Bunch. Not only is A.A. dedicated to his work, he also puts his life at risk for the good of his country. Milne stayed assistant editor of Punch until 1914 when World War I broke out.

Alan wanted to be a part of it and help his country. He felt that it was a "war against war". ( ) On February 10, 1915 he volunteered to fight in the war. For A.A. nothing much happened for him until August of 1915.

Alan was sent to the Southern Command Signaling School at Wake Regis for a nine week course. ( ) During these two months he wrote his first play, Wurtzel Flummery. This was he first published piece of work that he was proud of. In 1916 he was sent to France to become a signaling officer. For Alan Alexander being a signaling officer was relatively safe but he still saw enough death and destruction then he ever could " ve imagined. ( ) On 1916 he had to leave his job in the was and go back to London because he had a bad fever.

After he recovered he was put in charge of a new signaling school and stayed there until he was released from the army on February 14, 1919. ( ) Milne's wife and child began his immeasurable amount of success. They had great love for one another and Milne adventually began writing books plotted around family events. Before Milne went to war he met a woman named Dorothy de Selincourt.

She and Alan met at a coming out dance and they spent much of their time together. In 1913 they were wed. ( ) Dorothy and Alan were perfect for each other but she didn't get along very well with his brother Ken and Ken's wife Maude. Whenever A.A. went to visit his family he would go alone. ( ) In the 1920's, Alan and Dorothy had a son. They named him Christopher Robin.

(Christopher being his dad's choice, Robin being his mother's.) Although his real name was Christopher Robin, his nickname was Billy Moon. This name "Moon" originated when Christopher was very young and tried to pronounce his last name. ( ) On Christopher's first birthday he received a teddy bear named Winnie the Pooh that was as big as he was. Over the years he got many other stuffed animals.

Dorothy would sit with Christopher and give them all names and personalities. (Collier, Nakamura 1688) Some animals that Christopher had were Pooh, Piglet, Tiger, Eeyore, Kanga, and Roo. The settings of the stories that made up Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner is the Hundred Acre Wood. (Berger 665) By the time Christopher was three years old A.A. was writing books about his only child. (Collier, Nakamura 1688) During the war there was a very high demand for Milne's children's books.

There was so much trouble that there were problems getting enough paper to keep them in print. Even after the war sales kept increasing because he became so popular with children and adults. ( ) By 1948, thirteen different plays by him had been produced. In the same year Christopher began to resent his father because of the famous books that gave fame to his name. This is also when Christopher met his cousin Lesley for the first time. They fell in love, married, and ran away together.

( ) Dorothy Milne was very surprised and upset by this not only because Christopher's new wife was also her niece but also because Dorothy hated her niece's father, her brother. Alan was very disappointed as well. Alan's last book was published in 1952 and finally Christopher Robin began to get over his resentment towards his father and the Pooh books. He said", 'There was an intermediate period where any reference to Pooh was infuriating; but now such a nice, comfortable feeling envelopes him that I can almost regard him impersonally as the creation of one of my favorite authors. ' " ( ) Christopher began to come to terms with his father once again just in the nick of time. In October of that same year Alan Alexander had a stroke which left him close to death for his remaining three years.

On January 31, 1956 he past away. At the service held for him Dorothy and Christopher barely talked and those few words that were exchanged between the two of the were also there last to each other although Dorothy lived for 15 more years. After his father's death, Christopher forgave him and he too became a writer. ( ) Alan Alexander Milne was a great influence on society then and society today. His books have continued to be best sellers and people all over the world love and cherish the cuddly bear, Winnie the Pooh.

Throughout his life he was a role model and leader for his colleagues, friends and his family. Even though through out his life he experienced bad relationships, he managed to overcome them and go on in his exceptional life. What made him a different wrote then many was that he didn't just think of his job as work, he truly loved what he did and wouldn't give it up for anything.