In 1928, A.A. Milne wrote letters about Pooh; in 2023, Simon Smith found his father’s attic papers, and rare drafts and drawings sold for £95,000 in 2025

In January 2025, a collection of previously unseen letters, manuscripts and illustrations connected to Winnie-the-Pooh creator A.A. Milne sold at auction for £95,000, bringing renewed attention to documents that had remained among a publisher’s private papers for decades. The archive was found by Simon Smith while he was sorting through the attic of his late father, Leslie Smith, who passed away in November 2023. Among the papers was a letter dated March 28, 1928, where Milne jokingly defended Pooh in response to an article in which a newspaper called the bear a “fabulous monster”. The auction was held almost 97 years after the letter was written, even though the papers were discovered in 2023. The collection consisted of original manuscripts, sketches, proof sheets and correspondence intended for the original publisher Methuen & Co., but which eventually ended up in the archives of later publisher Frederick Muller.A publishing archive hidden among family papersThe discovery was made by Simon Smith, who found the materials among the possessions of his father in Malvern, Worcestershire, England. Leslie Smith, who spent most of his life in the publishing industry and founded the publishing house known as Cressrelles, took over the company associated with Frederick Muller. This is the reason why papers pertaining to Frederick Muller, Milne and Shepard were kept by Leslie Smith. Simon told the BBC that the family was unaware of the size of the collection and could have disposed of it.The papers included original sketches for The Christopher Robin Birthday Book, first drafts of Milne’s poem “Wind on the Hill,” and corrected proofs associated with Now We Are Six and The House at Pooh Corner. The archive also includes letters from children's author Enid Blyton and postcards from J.R.R. Tolkien, known for his work on The Lord of the Rings. This added to the historical importance of the archive by providing insight into the connections within the publishing world of that period.The letters behind the famous bearOne of the key documents which are there in the collection is the letter of Milne written to Pooh’s publisher, dated March 28, 1928. In this, Milne reportedly complained about the description of the character in The Observer, “By the way Pooh protests strongly against being called a ‘fabulous monster’ in today’s Observer.” He further added that Pooh would come to the publisher to prove his point. The humorous language in this letter shows how Milne reacted to the description of his fictional character.Some other letters describe the nitty-gritty of the book illustrations. For instance, Milne was reportedly dissatisfied with some of Shepard’s illustrations and wanted them to be changed. In particular, he reportedly wrote to Muller saying, “The illustrator must do new drawings for April and September as the originals are very poor.” Such letters, together with the drafts and corrected proofs, help understand how the author, illustrator, and the publisher worked out the final results.Rare drafts and drawings reach auctionFollowing the discovery, Simon Smith took the archive to Fieldings Auctioneers in Stourbridge, England. Clive Farahar, an expert on books who is well known for his work on the BBC show Antiques Roadshow, helped to value the items. The auction house divided the archive into 34 lots for its January 16, 2025, sale. Its catalogue described the collection as material from the estate of Frederick Muller that had passed down through subsequent ownership.The archive’s reported total was £95,000, according to BBC reporting. It is worth noting that the figure should be distinguished from the £87,470 combined result reported by ITV for the 28 lots specifically related to Winnie-the-Pooh. Among the individual sales, a group of printers’ proofs and annotated material connected to The House at Pooh Corner and Now We Are Six fetched £18,000, while a draft manuscript for The Christopher Robin Birthday Book sold for £9,500. The auction house’s published results confirm those individual prices and state that the overall total, after calculating the standard 26.3% buyer’s premium on top of the £95,000 hammer price, reached £120,000.The collection had caught the attention of buyers from both Britain and the United States. The director of Fieldings, Will Farmer, told the BBC that about two-thirds of the collection would stay in the United Kingdom while the rest of the collection would go to collectors from America. According to Simon Smith, the outcome surpassed his expectations. In an article in the Guardian before the auction, Simon Smith said that he was planning to use the money raised from the sale for research on Milne’s work.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.