Is it time Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends were sent back to Britain?
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Pooh → send → Britain
Need the UK repatriate them forcibly?
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UK → repatriate → them
This year marks the hundredth anniversary of A. A. Milne’s evergreen creation, Winnie-the-Pooh, the beloved “bear of very little brain.”
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year → mark → brain
Although the character first appeared in a poem in a 1924 poem, it wasn’t until 1926 that the teddy was given his own starring role in “Winnie-the-Pooh.”
Pooh Bear was inspired by a stuffed animal called Edward that Milne had bought for his son, Christopher Robin, from Harrods.
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Milne → appear → Harrods
Today, that original model for Winnie, along with the toys that inspired his equally beloved friends Tigger, Kanga, Eeyore and Piglet — the original Roo, alas, is long since lost — are housed in the New York Public Library.
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Roo → inspire → Library
They sit in the Polonsky Exhibition of the library’s greatest treasures, alongside a Mozart manuscript and a copy of Shakespeare’s First Folio.
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They → sit → Folio
NYPL is sparing no effort on Pooh’s centenary.
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NYPL → spar → centenary
A new exhibition, “Silly Old Bear!” features reproductions of the original Milne stories and E. H. Shepard’s cherished illustrations.
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exhibition → feature → stories
Also on display are versions of the story in different languages — including Latin, so the classically minded can enjoy the adventures of the ursus pusilli ingenii.
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minded → include → ingenii
A particular coup for NYPL’s show is the gift Queen Camilla made earlier this year, a modern reproduction of Roo, granted in celebration of America’s 250th.
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Camilla → make → 250th
But across the pond, many Brits are rankled.
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Brits → rankle → pond
Why should America get to host Pooh’s big birthday?
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America → get → birthday
Winnie and his friends arrived in New York in 1947 as part of a publicity tour organized by the book’s US publisher E.P. Dutton.
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Winnie → arrive → publisher
They stayed in the Big Apple largely because Christopher Robin, who had wearied of being associated with the characters from his childhood, made no effort to reclaim them.
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who → stay → them
Although they were loaned back to Britain briefly in 1969 and 1976, the toys mostly hung around Dutton’s offices before being donated to the NYPL in 1987.
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toys → loan → 1987
They’ve since never returned to their native country.
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They → return → country
The British have tried, on occasion, to repatriate Winnie back to his home in Hundred Acre Wood.
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British → try → Wood
In the 1980s, Milne’s biographer, Gyles Brandreth, made a request to the NYPL for their return.
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biographer → make → return
In Brandreth’s telling, the library responded: “We own Pooh.
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We → respond → Pooh
Pooh stays here.”
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Pooh → stay → ?
The British politician Gwyneth Dunwoody went further in 1998, asking then-Prime Minister Tony Blair to lobby President Bill Clinton to have the toys returned.
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toys → go → Clinton
The editors of these esteemed pages responded in trenchant fashion.
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editors → respond → fashion
Under the headline “GET STUFFED!” the newspaper wrote, “That’s New York’s response to Brits who want to yank Winnie-the-Pooh and his four plush friends from the comfort of their home at the New York Public Library and drag them back home to England.”
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who → stuff → England
Reportedly, a later attempt by David Cameron to schmooze his BFF President Barack Obama into intervening met with no more luck.
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attempt → schmooze → luck
NYPL CEO and President Dr. Tony Marx told Brandreth that an intermediary for POTUS made a request for Pooh to be returned temporarily, but it carried no weight in the halls of the library.
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it → tell → library
Marx responded: “I am the president of the New York Public Library — and the answer is no.”
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answer → respond → Library
When asked for comment on this story, an NYPL spokesperson said, “The New York Public Library has been the proud steward of Winnie-the-Pooh and his friends since 1987 …
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Library → ask → 1987
We’re excited to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Winnie-the-Pooh, and invite everyone to see them up-close in our Treasures exhibition — always for free.”
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We → ’re → exhibition
And as the bothered Brits ought to know, anything can happen, as the presence of the Bayeux Tapestry in England for the first time in a millennium proves.
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presence → bother → millennium
Perhaps if something truly significant might be offered in return as a quid pro quo — Meghan Markle, maybe — then Winnie and his friends might once again be allowed back into Britain, albeit under the closest scrutiny imaginable.
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Winnie → offer → scrutiny
Otherwise, His Majesty’s Armed Forces might have to come to New York and drag the bear and his pals back to his home of Hundred Acre Wood, with all necessary force.
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Forces → have → force
The Aporia
