Seth Kaller, Inc.

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A. A. MILNE. Autograph Letter Signed “Blue”, to Vincent Seligman, c. 1920s-1930s, Chelsea, London, England. 1 p., 5½ x 7½ in.

Inventory #25338       Price: $550

Complete Transcript

13, Mallord Street,/Chelsea, S.W.3./TEL.FLAXMAN 2074.

Dear Vincent,

            I’m afraid Daff spoke out of her turn, as I am employed on Tuesday evening. Daff is going to America on the 19^th – can I come any time after that? Please. And will Bobs – etc you know what – or is she going to be you know what, etc – on whatever day it is?

            I’m so sorry about Tuesday, and we are pretty busy for her last week with husband.

                                                                        Ever yours

                                                                        Blue

High time we played golf again, and I shall make you when I’m a bachelor.

Historical Background

Milne, known as “Blue” to his friends, writes just before his wife Daphne (“Daff”) was to leave on a trip, possibly her 1938 visit to the United States. Seligman, a German Jewish London banker, was also an author, and dedicated his book Oxford Oddities to Milne. He and his wife Barbara (“Bobs”) were close friends of the Milnes.

Alan Alexander Milne (1882-1956) was born in London and graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge in 1903 with a degree in mathematics. He joined Punch magazine in 1906, and published 18 plays and three novels before 1925. Although a pacifist, Milne worked in the Royal Corps of Signals in World War I. He married Dorothy “Daphne” de Sélincourt in 1913, and their son Christopher Robin Milne was born in 1920. In 1924, Milne wrote When We Were Very Young, followed by Winnie-the-Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner, and Now We Are Six, all illustrated by Punch staff cartoonist E. H. Shepard. When their son grew up, he came to hate the books that made him a public figure and felt that his father had exploited his childhood.