Writer Alan Alexander Milne (1882–1956) was born on this day in London, England, and became the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh, the most beloved bear in the world.

Pooh first appeared in a story called The Wrong Sort of Bees, published on Christmas Eve, 1925. Soon after, Milne gave the world Winnie-the-Pooh (1926) and The House at Pooh Corner (1928), inviting us into the Hundred Acre Wood.

Along the way we met Tigger (spring-loaded joy), Piglet (a forever friend), Rabbit (always rushing), and Eeyore (our oddly comforting companion in gray weather).

Milne wrote the stories for his only son, Christopher Robin, and illustrator Ernest H. Shepard brought them to life with line drawings that still feel like a warm hand on the page. In time, Pooh also became a Disney character, traveling from ink and paper into animation.

What keeps Pooh shining is not spectacle, it is wisdom that arrives in small sentences, kindness that does not hurry, and the quiet permission to be exactly who we are. The secret may be that when Milne wrote for his son, he also returned to his own boyhood memories, and gave voice to the child in everyone.

Milne once said a children’s book must be written, not for children, but for the author himself. Maybe that is why these stories still feel so alive, they come from a true place.

“Nobody can be un-cheered with a balloon,” said Pooh. And somehow, nobody can be un-cheered with Pooh for very long.