[Complete set of the Winnie-the-Pooh Books:] by MILNE, A. A - 1924-28: When We Were Very Young; Winnie-the-Pooh; Now We Are Six; The House at Pooh Corner.

London: Methuen & Co. Ltd, , 1924-28. Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump... First editions, first impressions, of these timeless classics of children's literature. When We Were Very Young is in the second state of the first impression with the page number ix present, as usual, in the preliminaries. The dust jacket for Winnie-the-Pooh is in the first state with "117th Thousand" on the rear flap. After the huge success of When We Were Very Young, published in 1924, Milne was asked to contribute a story to the London Evening News. "The Wrong Sort of Bees", published on Christmas Eve 1925, was based on a bedtime story that Milne had told his son Christopher. It starred Christopher's teddy bear, bought at Harrods for Christopher's first birthday, known initially as Edward or Edward Bear, and later renamed Winnie-the-Pooh (after a favourite bear cub at London zoo). Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) was an immediate success and garnered even more enthusiastic reviews than its predecessor. Now We Are Six followed in 1927, and took just two months to eclipse the sales records of the previous two books. The final book, The House at Pooh Corner, was received by critics with a delight tinged by sadness. "The Times Literary Supplement congratulated Milne on avoiding 'the temptation to repeat his successful formula mechanically', though it was 'sad to see the stories end'" (Thwaite, p. 336). 4 works, octavo. Original blue, green, red, or pink cloth, spines lettered in gilt, front covers with pictorial designs and ruled borders in gilt, top edges gilt. With dust jackets. Housed in a custom purple cloth folding box. Illustrations throughout by E. H. Shepard. Some extremities a little bumped or rubbed, usual browning to endpapers, minor cockling to fixed endpapers in When We Were Very Young; extremities of jackets a little worn with occasional minor loss, jackets toned at spine, creases to jacket for When We Were Very Young, closed tears with minor tape repairs on reverse of jackets for When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six, prices integral to spine: a very good set in very good jackets. Ann Thwaite, A. A. Milne: His Life, 1990.