A semester’s worth of research in UBC’s Rare Books and Special Collections has culminated into this blog. Initially, I was overwhelmed by the amount of collections and research materials to choose from—what could I possibly decide on? Yet, as I dug deeper into UBC’s Children’s Literature Collection, I developed a growing interest in the early editions of classic children’s books from the 19th and early 20th centuries. It wasn’t until I came across the B. Roslyn Robertson Collection that I finally found an item in her collection that I wanted to further research and focus on for my book blog.

This site is an exploration of A.A. Milne’s The House at Pooh Corner, a well-known beloved tale about Winnie-the-Pooh and the inhabitants of the Hundred Acre Wood. The book is one of 521 titles that Beatrice Roslyn Robertson (also known as “Rolly”) donated to the UBC Library in 1991 and 1994 (“Beatrice Roslyn Robertson”). Rolly was born in Montreal on June 2, 1912, lived briefly in Edinburgh with her husband, Dr. Harold Rocke Robertson, and then moved back to Montreal in 1939 after the war. Described as being “an avid reader” who “loved the pace and rhythm of fine children’s books”, it comes as no surprise that Rolly amassed hundreds of children’s books over time that we now fortunate enough to peruse in Rare Books and Special Collections.

Please navigate from one page to the next to learn more about the book—and, by extension, the Winnie-the-Pooh series—as an object that celebrates the illustrious work of A. A. Milne and E. H. Shepard.