How Art and Text Created an Icon: Winnie-the-Pooh and the Collaboration of A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard
Title and/or Affiliation
Writer for Macmillan Publishing
Presenter Bio
Annette Bay Pimentel writes for young people about the people and ideas that shape our world. This session is based on the research she did for her book How a Bear Became a Book: The Collaboration that Created Winnie-the-Pooh, illustrated by Faith Pray and published this year by Henry Holt, an imprint of Macmillan.
Session
Pooh's Roots
Start Date
10-7-2026 3:15 PM
End Date
10-7-2026 4:30 PM
Abstract
Winnie-the-Pooh is so beloved around the world that it can be hard to remember that he wasn’t born or discovered. This session explores how A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard collaborated to create “the Best Bear” that people around the world recognize. We’ll look at how Milne’s text delineates some of Pooh’s important characteristics but leaves much of what he should look like unsaid. Early on, artists other than Shepard illustrated individual chapters for promotion in periodicals, so today we can see the startling images of what Pooh might have looked like if he had been drawn by someone other than Shepard. We’ll compare those images with the choices that Shepard made in his character design. We’ll also look at how Milne and Shepard collaborated on the layout of the pages of Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner, combining text and art in ways that mimic and reinforce the story being told. We’ll explore how this process between them and their editors pioneered new editorial norms for combining art and text. This session celebrates the distinct but equally important roles Milne and Shepard played in creating the iconic character of Winnie-the-Pooh.
How Art and Text Created an Icon: Winnie-the-Pooh and the Collaboration of A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard
Winnie-the-Pooh is so beloved around the world that it can be hard to remember that he wasn’t born or discovered. This session explores how A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard collaborated to create “the Best Bear” that people around the world recognize. We’ll look at how Milne’s text delineates some of Pooh’s important characteristics but leaves much of what he should look like unsaid. Early on, artists other than Shepard illustrated individual chapters for promotion in periodicals, so today we can see the startling images of what Pooh might have looked like if he had been drawn by someone other than Shepard. We’ll compare those images with the choices that Shepard made in his character design. We’ll also look at how Milne and Shepard collaborated on the layout of the pages of Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner, combining text and art in ways that mimic and reinforce the story being told. We’ll explore how this process between them and their editors pioneered new editorial norms for combining art and text. This session celebrates the distinct but equally important roles Milne and Shepard played in creating the iconic character of Winnie-the-Pooh.