Description:

Milne A.A.

A.A. Milne Asserts "Damn the theatre!" when Critics Pan his New Play

 

Single page autographed letter signed, 5.5" x 7.5," on letterhead of Cotchford Farm, Hartfield, Sussex stationary. Dated "24/4/29," and signed by A.A. Milne as "A.A.M." Lovely bright near fine condition with single mailing fold.

 

After the huge success of his Winnie The Pooh series of books, Milne attempts another three act play, The Ivory Door. This somewhat jocular but irritated letter from Milne has him lamenting to his dear friend Vincent Seligman, exclaiming the critics "have damned and slammed it." But his all too familiar dry humor still shows through suggesting Vincent has his friends "all go at once before it will be off."  The first book of the Pooh series was published in 1924 as "When We Were Very Young", but it was not until the 1926 publication of "Winnie The Pooh" that Milne was launched into a literary superstar. The final book, The House At Pooh Corner, was published the year before this play as Milne began to meander back into other genres.

 

"Dear Vincent

We are here for another fortnight, so cannot lunch with you next week, much as we should like to meet your Americans. Can we do it later; or could you bring them and yourself to lunch here? We should be delighted to you.

 

I am glad you liked the  Ivory Door, and wish you were a critic. They have dammed and slammed it, so thoroughly that I doubt if it will ever get (propsing) open now. For Heaven's sake make all you’re A (illegible)  friends go at once, or it will be off. Daff and I feel very sad about it, and an only consider the charming letters about it which we have had from friends and strangers. Damn the theatre! Never again - but I say that every time.

Yours ever

A.A.M."

 

An important look at Milne's early attempts to remove himself from being known only as the author of children's books and wishing to be acknowledged in the adult literary circle. The Pooh series would become both his legacy, but also his nemesis for the balance of his life.


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