"…A LITTLE BOY AND HIS BEAR WILL ALWAYS BE PLAYING": FIRST EDITION OF THE HOUSE AT POOH CORNER

MILNE, A.A. The House at Pooh Corner. London: Methuen, (1928). Small octavo, original gilt-stamped pictorial pink cloth, pictorial endpapers, top edge gilt, original dust jacket. $6000.

First edition of Milne's final Winnie-the-Pooh book, delightfully illustrated by Ernest H. Shepard.

"Even as Milne celebrates childhood" in this, the final book of his Pooh quartet, "he subtly prepares both characters and readers for the inevitable need to forge ahead" (Silvey, 462). The stories in this volume—the de- and reconstruction of Eeyore's house, Tigger's arrival in the Forest, Christopher Robin's attempted farewell in an Enchanted Place—bring to a close tales that are "more successful as works written for children than anything else produced during children's literature's Golden Age" (Carpenter, 205). Payne IV A. Cutler & Stiles, 116. Bookplate on half title; contemporary owner signature.

Book with slight offsetting to endpapers, as often; bright dust jacket with very mild toning to spine, one small shallow chip to rear panel. A crisp and lovely copy in near-fine condition.