Dec 10 2002
Shepard’s birthday
My good friend Kathleen, that Renaissance woman who is equally at home with matters spiritual, artistic, and sports-related, mentioned that today is Ernest Howard Shepard’s birthday. He was born on this day in 1879 and was the original illustrator of the immortal Winnie-the-Pooh stories, including the drawing above. Shepard also did what I consider to be the definitive illustrations for Kenneth Grahame’s timeless Wind in the Willows. In both cases, his sensitive and beautiful line drawings added to the magic and beauty of the stories.
Coincidentally, A.A. Milne, the author of the Pooh stories and also a playwright, adapted the Wind in the Willows as a play, Toad of Toad Hall. Both Milne and Grahame wrote their stories for their own sons, and I think that makes them better stories and is part of their continuing success. Many of the best-loved children’s tales, from Alice in Wonderland to Peter Rabbit to the Harry Potter series, were written for actual children known and loved by the author.
Contrary to popular belief, Shepard based his drawings of Pooh not on a bear belonging to Milne’s son, Christopher Robin (who grew up to be a grumpy old man who repudiated anything to do with Pooh), but on a bear belonging to his own son, Graham, named Growler.
Shepard lived to be 96 and died on the 50th anniversary of the publication of Winnie the Pooh.
Milne wrote these words in the copy of Winne the Pooh he presented to Ernest Shepard:
“When I am gone
Let Shepard decorate my tomb
and put (if there is room)
Two pictures on the stone:
Piglet from page a hundred and eleven,
And Pooh and Piglet walking (page a hundred and fifty-seven) . . .
And Peter, thinking they are my own,
Will welcome me to heaven.”
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