Winnie-the-Pooh [first edition with prospectus]

MILNE, A. A. # 823 London: Methuen, 1926. First edition. Decorations by E. H. Shepard. Octavo, gilt-illustrated green cloth in illustrated dustjacket (very small nicks to head and foot of spine, minor rubbing to corners, an excellent example), top edge gilt, very small loss on front free endpaper where glue from front pastedown has adhered, usual embrowning on endpapers from dustjacket, neat owner's name on p. , 159 pp. A fine copy of the true first edition, accompanied by the original printed prospectus of 4 pp., with Shepard illustrations, advertising the availability of the three editions of 1926, specimen pages, and a list of books by the author available from Methuen. Pooh made his first appearance in book form in Milne's When we were very young (1924), which features a poem about the bear which had been earlier printed in February in Punch. Pooh returned in a Christmas story commission for The Evening News in 1925, and in October 1926 was to star in his own volume of stories, simply titled Winnie-the-Pooh. Of all the friends of Christopher Robin, Pooh would prove favourite, and his stories have been in print since this first edition. A fine copy with the rare prospectus.