Lot 151

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Description:

Milne A.A.

A.A. Milne ALS in The Year Of Christopher Robin's Marriage

Single page autograph letter signed, 5.5" x 7", on Cotchford Farm, Hartfield, Sussex letterhead. Penned to the recto with verso left blank. Dated "30.8.48", and signed by Milne using his nickname of "Blue". Near fine with center fold. Small penciled words mid page.

Penned at the tail end of Milne's career as a writer, "Blue" reaches out to his dear friend Vi (Vincent Seligman), whose friendship began long before the Winnie The Pooh series was born. By the time of this letter, the real Christopher Robin choose to detach himself from his parents and in April 1948 became engaged to Lesley de Sélincourt, a cousin on his mother's side, and they married on 24 July 1948 just a month before this letter was written.

"Dear Vi                                                       30.8.48

     J.Burnside

     22 Elm Park Lane

     S.W.3.

Tel. Flaxman 8628

Now available for cartage of Bobs to (illegible) or elsewhere.

Thank you very much for my happy donation - and the golf balls. Miss you both.

Ever

Blue".

Milne's brief comment on golf balls follows from his love of the game and the frequent golf related gifts he received from the Seligman's (Bobs and Vincent), over the years. A.A. Milne played a fair amount of golf, in the mid-1920s he mentioned he got “his handicap to 9”. In his autobiography published in several years later,  Milne talks about golf. “To-day, I could be happy without a car, I could be happy without a country cottage, but I shouldn’t be happy if I couldn’t be reckless about golf balls, taxis, the best seats at cricket grounds and theatres, shirts and pullovers, tips, subscriptions, books and wine-lists.” While discussing the creative process of writing Milne says, “I have spent many mornings at Lords [Cricket Grounds] hoping that inspiration would come, many days on golf courses; I have even gone to sleep in the afternoon, in case inspiration came to take me completely by surprise. In vain.” Milne’s biographer Ann Thwaite mentioned his playing golf at Addington, Royal Wimbledon and Walton Heath and that he played at least on one occasion with Bernard Darwin. He called Walton Heath, “about the most difficult course in London, with heather a foot high on each side of a narrow fairway, and a perpetual wind. I play a terrible lot of golf now – always twice and often 3 times a week, and it’s really time I settled down to work again.”

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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