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Winnie-the-Pooh

fictional character created by A. A. Milne

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 20, 2026
Entity authorityQ188574
Source-derived summary

Winnie-the-Pooh (also known as Edward Bear, Pooh Bear or simply Pooh) is a fictional anthropomorphic teddy bear created by the English author A. A. Milne and the English illustrator E. H. Shepard. Winnie-the-Pooh first appeared by name in a children's story commissioned by London's Evening News for Christmas Eve 1925. The character is inspired by a stuffed toy that Milne had bought for his son Christopher Robin in Harrods department store, and a bear named Winnie they had viewed at London Zoo.

The first collection of stories about the character is the book Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), and this was followed by The House at Pooh Corner (1928). Milne also included a poem about the bear in the children's verse book When We Were Very Young (1924) and many more in Now We Are Six (1927). All four volumes were illustrated by E. H. Shepard. The stories are set in and around the Hundred Acre Wood, which was inspired by Five Hundred Acre Wood in Ashdown Forest in East Sussex—situated 30 miles (48 km) south of London—where the Londoner Milne's country home was located.

The Pooh stories have been translated into many languages, including Alexander Lenard's Latin translation, Winnie ille Pu, which was first published in 1958 and in 1960 became the only Latin book ever to be featured on The New York Times Best Seller list. The original English manuscripts are held at the Wren Library in Trinity College, Cambridge (Milne's alma mater), to which he had bequeathed the works. The first Pooh book was ranked number 7 on the BBC's The Big Read poll.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Winnie-the-Pooh” as fictional character created by A. A. Milne. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1925, 1926, 1928, 1924—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1924-11-06. The account is most persuasive where Winnie-the-Pooh, fictional and character can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as fictional character created by A. A. Milne. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q188574. VIAF identifies the subject as 313295694. The Library of Congress control number is no2014169001. None of the 4 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1925, 1926, 1928 and 1924.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Winnie-the-Pooh” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.