“AMONG THE BEST EVER WRITTEN FOR CHILDREN”: EXCEPTIONALLY RARE LARGE PAPER SIGNED LIMITED FIRST EDITIONS OF THE FOUR POOH BOOKS

MILNE, A.A. When We Were Very Young. WITH: Winnie The Pooh. WITH: Now We Are Six. WITH: The House At Pooh Corner. London: Methuen, 1924-28. Four volumes. Large, square octavo, original half cloth and stiff paper boards, original printed labels to front boards, uncut. When We Very Young with original dust jacket. Each volume housed in own custom half morocco clamshell box.

Large paper signed, limited first editions on handmade paper of A.A. Milne’s wonderful “Pooh Quartet,” each book signed by both Milne and Shepard; the exceptionally rare first volume limited to only 100 copies, the others from 200 to 300 copies.

“One would have to search far and wide to find fictional characters as beloved to so many readers… Although Alan Alexander Milne wrote novels, short stories, poetry and many plays for adults… it is his writings for children that have captured the hearts of millions of people worldwide and granted Milne everlasting fame… Winnie-the-Pooh’s adventures are not only arguably the greatest toy fantasies ever written for children, they are also, simply and undeniably, great literature” (Silvey, 461-63). Shepard’s endearing illustrations enhance Milne’s whimsical verse and prose; they “show character and movement in simple line vignettes, which add so much to the books that most people consider them to be inseparable from the texts” (Silvey, 462). Winnie-the-Pooh even includes a delightful folding map of the Hundred Acre Wood and its environs. When We Were Very Young, the rarest of all Pooh books, is number 75 of only 100 copies; Winnie-the-Pooh is number 245 of 350 copies; Now We Are Six is number 131 of 200 copies; and The House at Pooh Corner is 125 of 350 copies. The latter three volumes without original dust jackets. Payne IB, IIB, IIIB, IVB. Cutler & Stiles, 115-16. Publisher’s advertisement for Songs from When We Very Young laid into When We Very Young. Publisher’s ticket affixed to rear endpaper of Now We Are Six. Without scarce original boxes.

Books about-fine, with light rubbing to corners and edges of boards; The House at Pooh Corner with light soiling to boards. Dust jacket of When We Were Very Young near-fine, with light rubbing to spine head and edges, minor chip to rear panel. An excellent and desirable set of these childhood classics.