The first Winnie the Pooh book adventure was published by Methuen (London) on October 14, 1926.

This means the venerable bear will be 100 years old next year. 

There are many stamps bearing Winnie’s image, with the UK and Canadian stamps standing out. The Royal Mail release relied on original drawings from Pooh’s first book. 

Winnie the Pooh
From Royal Mail’s EUROPA entry for the  Children’s Books – Winnie The Pooh series in 2010
Designed by Studio David Hillman

Prior to this excellent set of stamps, Canada Post issued it’s own tribute to the bear, but relied more on the Disney version most are now familiar with. The set was issued for Disney World’s 25th anniversary.

Winnie the Pooh
Issued 1996 by Canada
Designed by Wai Poon

And finally, Japan released their own Winnie the Pooh stamps in 2012, with this cancel being the best of the year. Japan alone has issued over 35 stamps celebrating the honey loving bear and his friends. 

 

In 1926, A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard introduced Winnie-the-Pooh to the world. Yet the bear’s journey into print was a long and circuitous one that crossed an ocean and took a dozen years.

Winnie-the-Pooh’s story begins in White River, Ontario—a railroad town deep in the forest. On August 24, 1914, its small population swelled with soldiers for a few hours during a Canadian Pacific train stopover. Great Britain had entered the First World War earlier that month, and many Canadians answered the call to volunteer. Among the first was Harry Colebourn, a 27-year-old veterinarian from Winnipeg who was travelling with other members of the Canadian Expeditionary Force for six weeks of training at Camp Valcartier in Quebec. Their train stopped to resupply in White River, and Colebourn disembarked with the other men to explore the town.

Most of what we know about his stopover comes from the few words scrawled in his day planner: “Left Pt. Arthur 7A.M. Train all day, Bought Bear $20.” Buying a bear during a layover might sound odd, especially when one realizes this is around $500 in today’s money. Yet regimental mascots were seen as good for morale, so when Colebourn saw a trapper selling a black bear cub, he may have felt it was his patriotic duty to buy it. He named it “Winnie” after Winnipeg.

A playful cub with a sweet tooth, Winnie was a favourite with the troops in Valcartier. In October, she and Colebourn crossed the Atlantic in a ship convoy bound for more training on England’s Salisbury Plain. When Colebourn was about to depart in early December for combat in France, he loaned Winnie to the London Zoo. She swiftly became a crowd favourite and continued to delight a generation of children after she was officially donated to the zoo at war’s end. One of these young admirers was Christopher Robin Milne.
The Story of Pooh | Royal Ontario Museum

 

Last year featured another literary icon, although not so fluffy and adorable – New Zealand author Katherine Mansfield.