Beschreibung:

A complete set of first editions of the Winnie-the-Pooh Stories, comprising When We Were Very Young, 1st edition, Methuen, 1924, illustrated throughout by E.H. Shepard, blank verso of fly-title with slight skinning at gutter, plain endpapers toned, bookplate of Richard Adams, top edges gilt, remainder rough-trimmed, original dark blue cloth gilt, spine slightly sunned and a little rubbed at ends, 8vo, and Winnie-the-Pooh, 1st edition, Methuen, 1926, illustrated throughout by E.H. Shepard, pictorial endpapers, verso of front free endpaper with bookplate of Richard Adams, facing blank with mounted photograph cutting of A.A. Milne with Christopher Robin and Pooh, top edges gilt, remainder rough-trimmed, original green cloth gilt, spine ends rubbed, cloth on lower outer corner of upper cover slightly wrinkled, 8vo, and Now We Are Six, 1st edition, Methuen, 1927, half-title and final page partially toned, pictorial endpapers, verso of front free endpaper with bookplate of Richard Adams, top edges gilt, remainder rough-trimmed, original red cloth gilt, spine a little faded and a trifle rubbed at ends, 8vo, and The House At Pooh Corner, 1st edition, Methuen, 1928, illustrated throughout by E.H. Shepard, pictorial endpapers (free endpapers a little toned), top edges gilt, remainder rough-trimmed, original salmon cloth gilt, spine slightly faded, 8vo, housed together in a blue cloth slipcase with morocco edge One of the authors strongly present in the formative years of Richard Adams was A.A. Milne: "This was the heyday of A.A. Milne - 1924 to 1928. Everyone read 'When We Were Very Young' and Pooh: everyone quoted them. Everyone knew that Christopher Robin went down with Alice, and that he said his prayers." Although Adams thought that the stories were somewhat trivial he felt they were "redeemed by the marvellous characters... 'Pooh' will survive on the marvellous characters all right, no danger." (Richard Adams, The Day Gone By, An Autobiography, 1990, page 22). He thought the relationship between Pooh and Piglet "splendid" and that Tigger was "unforgettable", going on to note that Eeyore was "as far as I know, the first portrait in English literature of a type of neurotic we all know only too well." From the Pooh books Adams said he learnt "the vital importance, as protagonists, of a group of clearly-portrayed, contrasting but reciprocal characters", adding "though I wouldn't claim that Hazel, Fiver and Co, come anywhere near Pooh and his friends" (Richard Adams, Some Ingredients of Watership Down, in The Thorny Paradise, Writers on Writing for Children, edited by Edward Blishen, 1977, pages 167-68). (4)