The Pooh perplex
I am crestfallen to discover that
EH Shepard, whose pix have cheered every child (and many adults) through A Bad Spell, despised his benefactor. "The man whose drawings brought
Winnie the Pooh to life spent the last years of his life hating the bear with very little brain," it
sez here.
"The biggest regret in EH Shepard's life was agreeing to illustrate Winnie the Pooh for
AA Milne, as it resulted in the bulk of his work, even during his lifetime, being completely overshadowed.
"In his later years, Shepard was heard to describe Pooh as 'that silly old bear' and resented his close identification with Milne's books.
"Although he is best remembered today as the man who drew Pooh, Shepard himself saw these illustrations as very much a sideline. Instead his main occupation, from 1921 until 1953, was working as one of
Punch magazine's leading political cartoonists.... From his first published cartoon in 1907, he became a regular contributor until 1953."
The unwashed masses have spoken. A Pooh original sells for tens of thousands. A laboured Punch scribble sells for ... rather less.