Chapter 2: In Which a Brief Description of Winnie-the-Pooh is Given

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The "Official" alt.fan.pooh Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).

2.1 Who or what is Winnie-the-Pooh?

Winnie-the-Pooh is quite possibly the world's most famous bear. Pooh was the teddy bear of Christopher Milne, and his father, A.A. Milne, made him the main character in two children's books that he wrote, entitled "Winnie-the-Pooh" and "The House at Pooh Corner." As a character, Pooh tends to be a bit on the slow side (his head is full of fluff, you know...a common occurrence among teddy bears) but his heart more than makes up for that. Pooh has a love of honey (or, hunny, as it is sometimes spelled) and often creates little tunes, or hums, about most anything at all.

2.2 Who wrote the stories?

The author of the Pooh stories is A.A. (Alan Alexander) Milne, a famous English author. He is most famous for the two Pooh books, plus two books of children's verse ("When We Were Very Young" and "Now We are Six") but he was, during his lifetime, the most successful playwright in England. He also had spent many years writing humorous essays for "Punch" magazine. A.A. Milne was born July 18, 1882, and died January 31, 1956.

2.3 Who illustrated the stories?

E.H. (Ernest Howard) Shepard is attributed as the illustrator of all four of Milne's children's books. Shepard had also done illustrations for "Punch" magazine, and was recommended to Milne by another member of the "Punch" producers. Shepard is also known for his illustrations of Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows."
E.H. Shepard was born in 1879 and died in 1976.
However, Shepard was not the first illustrator to draw for the first Pooh story. Although Shepard was asked to do the illustrations for WtP, he occupied with another project when the first chapter of that book was published nearly a year early as part of the Christmas edition of the London Evening News. For that special edition, J.H. Dowd was called in to do the illustrations.

2.4 Who published the books?

The books were published by Methuen Children's Books Ltd. in London, England, and E. P. Dutton & Co., Inc. in New York, U.S.A.

2.5 Who are the characters?

The original characters from WtP are:
Winnie-the-Pooh: A Bear of Little Brain
Christopher Robin: The only human in the stories
Piglet: A Small Animal, but brave in his own way
Eeyore: A depressed, yet insightful donkey
Kanga: A kangaroo, the mother to Roo
Roo: Kanga's son, always energetic
Owl: The most intelligent (at least, he thinks so...)
Rabbit: Always trying to organize things

Introduced in HaPC:
Tigger: The only one of his kind, he likes to bounce

Introduced by Disney:
Gopher: Likes to dig and build things, he tends to whistle a lot

2.6 What are the chapter titles?

"Winnie-the-Pooh"
Introduction
Ch 1: In which we are introduced to Winnie-the-Pooh and some bees, and the stories begin.
Ch 2: In which Pooh goes visiting and gets into a tight place
Ch 3: In which Pooh and Piglet go hunting and nearly catch a Woozle
Ch 4: In which Eeyore loses a tail and Pooh finds one
Ch 5: In which Piglet meets a Heffalump
Ch 6: In which Eeyore has a birthday and gets two presents
Ch 7: In which Kanga and Baby Roo come to the forest, and Piglet has a bath
Ch 8: In which Christopher Robin leads an expotition to the North Pole
Ch 9: In which Piglet is entirely surrounded by water
Ch 10: In which Christopher Robin gives a Pooh Party, and we say good-bye.

"The House at Pooh Corner"
Contradiction
Ch 1: In which a house is built at Pooh Corner for Eeyore
Ch 2: In which Tigger comes to the Forest and has breakfast
Ch 3: In which a search is organized, and Piglet nearly meets the Heffalump again
Ch 4: In which it is shown that Tiggers don't climb trees
Ch 5: In which Rabbit has a busy day, and we learn what Christopher Robin does in the mornings.
Ch 6: In which Pooh invents a new game and Eeyore joins in
Ch 7: In which Tigger is unbounced
Ch 8: In which Piglet does a very grand thing
Ch 9: In which Eeyore finds the Wolery and Owl moves into it
Ch 10: In which Christopher Robin and Pooh come to an enchanted place, and we leave them there.

2.7 What's the copyright status on the stories?

All the original Pooh stories by A.A. Milne are still under copyright protection. Here's the explanation from Christopher Franceschelli, president of Dutton Children's Books.

'Under the copyright laws of the United States, for all works published prior to 1978, copyright protection extends for seventy-five years after the date of first publication. _Winnie-the-Pooh_ was published in 1926, and is therefore protected by copyright until after the turn of the century. There are several elements, e.g. the colored illustrations of the Ernest Shepard drawings, in which copyright protection is extended to well beyond the middle of the next century. In the United Kingdom and in other countries subscribing to the Berne Convention, copyright extends for an even longer period than in the United States.
Copyright in the text by A.A. Milne and in the illustrations by Ernest Shepard resides jointly or individually in the Trustees of the Pooh Properties, Dutton Children's Books (a division of Penguin USA) and Methuen Children's Books (a division of Reed Consumer Books) and all three rights holders are committed to protecting the copyright fully. (The proliferation of various items of Pooh merchandise is not due to the books being out-of-copyright, but rather our recognition that there are indeed many Friends of the Bear who welcome the availability of more Pooh materials, and we have therefore, together with the fourth _Pooh_ rights holder, the Walt Disney Company, created or have licensed several ranges authorized merchandise in both book and non-book form.)
Therefore, the reproduction of any of A.A. Milne's text beyond that of fair use (as it is defined under the copyright law) or of the line or color illustrations by Ernest Shepard on the home page or any ancillary pages as they appear there currently or in future without prior and proper permission by the rights holders is a breach of both U.S. and international copyright law.'

U.S. copyright protection was extended to a period of 95 years for any works still under protection as of October 27, 1998. This means that "Winnie-the-Pooh" will be under copyright protection until October 21, 2021, in the United States.