MILNE, A. A.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Now We Are Six. First edition, signed limited issue of 200 large paper copies signed by both the author and the illustrator. This copy is an out-of-series copy and inscribed on the limitation page, "This is a presentation copy for E. V. Lucas, Esq." Lucas was chairman of Methuen & Co. from 1924.Milne sent the first poems that would become When We Were Very Young to Lucas, asking that he read them "officially as Methuen's friend, or unofficially as mine" (Thwaite, p. 251). E. V. Lucas (1868-1938) was then on the staff at Punch, and a reader for Methuen. He was responsible for the collaboration between Milne and Shepard. Milne's biographer notes that "As soon as Lucas saw the children's poems, he realized that they would make a splendid book when there were enough of them, and that, in the meantime, some of them should appear in Punch. It was obviously important to find the right illustrator... Lucas was sitting next to Shepard at the Punch Table when he suggested (so Shepard remembered) doing some drawings and seeing what Milne thought of them" (Thwaite, p. 252).Provenance: Bookplate of Barton Currie (1877-1962), the American author, journalist, and book collector; the collection of Steve Forbes, chairman of Forbes Magazine and presidential candidate in the 1996 and 2000 US elections.

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