The original illustrated manuscripts for the production of The Christopher Robin Birthday Book. Comprising,1. A.A.Milne's autograph manuscript of his introduction to the book: two pages, closely written (approx. 450 words), mainly clean with occasional corrections.2. Two states of the printed proofs of the initial pages of the book, the design drawn from the maquette, the first with the publisher's date stamp (11 Jul 1930), an 8pp booklet, uncut and without staples and containing mostly different illustrations to the ones in the maquette (and the ones in the final publication), contains several pencil annotations, possibly by Shepard, indicating a change of font or size of the lettering. The second state is also 8pp, but trimmed and stapled and shows some of the corrections indicated in the previous state but has further pencil annotation, indicating further changes to the lettering on the title page, which was eventually incorporated into the published version. All in very good condition with the primary proof a little dusty and finger-marked.

An interesting collection of documents, showing the creative process for one of the most popular works to be published as a spin off from Milne and Shepard's immeasurably successful Winnie the Pooh books.
This work draws on the text and illustrations used in the Pooh books, so that very little additional material is required, besides Milne's introduction, which begins by quoting Eeyore, "'What are birthdays? Here today and gone tomorrow.' Do let us make a note of them while we can." He continues in characteristic whimsy before finishing with the book's main attractions, "If you buy this book at all... it can only be because you are friendly with the four books from which I have taken the mottoes. If that is so, then you can amuse yourself (when you've got absolutely nothing to do) by trying to guess from which chapter or verse of a book each quotation comes. With some you will have no difficulty; others will baffle you for a long time even if you start looking through the books carefully for them."
The two proofs also show the design evolution for the book. The first sets the lettering in a standard font and has an illustration on the title page of Pooh and Piglet sitting on a fence with further illustrations on the text pages. The second proof, changes the lettering of 'January' to a fancy font and changes the size of the fonts as indicated by the pencil annotations, probably by Methuen's lettering designer, A.E.Taylor. However, the final published version reverts to the illustrations from the original design for the main title page and January section page, though retaining the proof's illustrations for the first spread of text. The published version also sees a change to font of the publisher's name on the title page, to match the font used for the January section page.

PROVENANCE: Frederick Muller (Milne's publisher at Methuen); Leslie Smith (who inherited the running of Muller's publishing company); by family descent.

Stock ID: 45977