The Great War usually conjures horrific images of men huddled in muddy trenches, while we've managed to wrap the carnage of WWII in a more romantic package suitable for the general public to consider entertaining. The stark truth of WWI's devastating effects on a generation remains an event we'd rather avert our eyes from examining too closely. Over recent years a few brave storytellers have taken us in hand to give us a glimpse, helping us put a face on those blurred black and white photos taken in the battlefields.
These books written for children tell the story of how the real Winnie stepped into history.
Winnie’s story begins in 1914 when, as a cub, she was captured by a Canadian hunter after killing her mother. Unwilling to kill the orphaned cub, the hunter finds in Harry Colebourn a willing foster parent who purchases her, changing her life for a greater purpose. A veterinary surgeon on his way to join troops training for Canadian Expeditionary Force at Valcartier, Colebourn takes the cub with him, naming her Winnie for his hometown of Winnipeg. The adopted bear becomes the regiment’s mascot. When Colebourn is deployed to France, he gives Winnie into the care of the new London Zoo, where she becomes a hit not only with the public but with a young boy named Christopher Robin Milne. The cub and his boy became the inspiration for Mr. Milne’s enchanting children’s stories.
Winnie never saw the conflict from the front lines, but the stories she inspired, her simple philosophies born within the protection of The Hundred Acre Wood soothed generations of children to sleep. Like C.S. Lewis, and JRR Tolkien, the author A.A. Milne was a veteran of the Great War, and like them he wrote more than entertaining fiction. Is it a stretch to believe these authors wrote stories to recapture their own lost childhoods? At the least, I can imagine how they might have written with a similar motivation to offer readers a delightful escape with a few hard-learned lessons woven into the narratives.
An author's life experience is a powerful intuitive force that can transform a simple story into a classic that speaks to generations. What childhood books shaped your philosophies? Are you to still able quote the wisdoms of Pooh? Comment below.
References:
Manitoba Provincial Archives
The True Story of the Real‑Life Winnie‑the‑Pooh, http://History.com
Comments