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A.A. Milne Pens a Humorous Letter about Golf & His Play, Michael and Mary with an Important Association
A.A. Milne Pens a Humorous Letter about Golf & His Play, Michael and Mary with an Important Association
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Milne A.A.



A.A. Milne Pens a Humorous Letter about Golf & His Play, Michael and Mary with an Important Association



Single page ALS, signed in full signature "A.A. Milne" and dated "10.X.29" (October 10, 1929). 5.5" x 7.5" on stationary with letterhead of 13, Mallord Street, Chelsea, S.W.3. Tel Kensington 2074. Expected center fold. Near fine.



An intriguing, most humorous letter written by Milne to his close personal friend, Vincent Seligman. The letter was written just months before the publication of Milne's new play, "Michael and Mary", which he referenced in his letter as a post script. But perhaps most significant, Milne later gifted this very manuscript of the play, having it specially bound, to Vincent as a joint wedding present in 1930. Milne shows his sense of satire referencing that his recent gift from Vincent of a leather jacket will need to allow him to play golf vicariously in his imagination, as he has no time to do so otherwise, saying "it (the leather jacket) looks and swings delightfully. I am hoping to wear it tomorrow and break all records in it."



A most humorous letter, with Milne even making fun of his crazy schedule, and not even being able to accompany his wife (Daff) to their dinner. Below is the letter in full:



"Dear Vincent, 10.x.29



I was hoping to wear my leather jacket before telling you how delightful it was, but I can not postpone this letter for as long as I have had to postpone my golf. So here's thanking you very much, and saying that anyhow it looks and swings delightfully. I am hoping to wear it tomorrow and break all records in it.



I am strongly tempted to come to (illegible) with you, but think I ought to go to my dinner though shall enjoy it much less. Anyhow I know you will give Daff a happy evening.



Yours …



A.A. Milne



Haven't heard from America again. Michael and Mary is probably best but the alternative was Your Hand in Mine, which is better than your version "



"Michael and Mary" was published shortly after the final book of the Winnie The Pooh trilogy, and was instead an adult genre book about bigamy. Milne treated the subject matter with more serious (yet unconventional and satirical) tones compared to his other attempts which were more comic in nature. It follows the lives of Michael and Mary, who meet in the British Museum in 1905. Michael, a bright young man and aspiring writer who seems to have much in common with Milne, is there for an assignation. Mary, distraught and tearful, definitely is not. Abandoned by her husband and utterly alone in the world, she is facing a horrifyingly bleak future. Milne's glibness still resounds with such lines as:


MARY. And you’re going to give me half of all you have in the world?


MICHAEL. Don’t keep on saying “all you have in the world” as if it included a couple of yachts and a coalmine. I’m going to give you the extremely small sum of £100.



The story continues as Michael finds success as a writer, they have a much adored son, David, and everything is going quite well until Mary’s husband surfaces after the war; having discovered his wife’s crime of bigamy, he is now eager to blackmail the couple. But in the middle of this attempted blackmail he falls down dead: it is convenient for Michael and Mary in that he can no longer blackmail them, but not so convenient in that they now have a dead body in their apartment and must explain its presence to the police without revealing who the man was.



In retrospect, it has been considered that the parent child bond in this play is as perfect as any could be – and probably as Milne had hoped his would be with his own son, Christopher (Robin), who was the child protagonist in Milne's Pooh stories. Of course David’s affection and respect for his parents Michael and Mary never wavers. Sadly things did not work out so well for Milne with his own son, who instead was less than thrilled about the success of his father's "Pooh" stories, and held a grudge which started when kids in school picked on him by citing passages from the stories. As he grew older, he accused his father of achieving success by “climbing on my infant shoulders, that he had filched from me my good name and left me nothing but empty fame.” Christopher Robin rarely saw his father in his final years.



A wonderful, fun early letter by Milne, written in a jocular manner to his friend Vincent Seligman, who was a German Jew whose family emigrated to the London and the USA in the 19th century. The letter just barely post dates the vast success he achieved with his trilogy, following the stories of The Adventures of Christopher Robin and Winnie The Pooh.



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