Four lost manuscripts of works by the author of “Winnie the Pooh” have been discovered: “Extraordinary Depth”

One of Alan Milne’s stories is criminal in nature

Four unknown stories by Winnie the Pooh author Alan Milne have been discovered nearly 70 years after his death. One of these stories tells about a media mogul’s search for the happiest married couple, the second is written in the style of works about Sherlock Holmes, the third is a comic conversation between a character named Herrick and the famous English poet William Wordsworth, the fourth is a conversation between two men, one of whom is upset because for the interlocutor repeating the phrase “what happened?”

The handwritten stories were found by a literary agent for the late writer’s estate in an archive in Texas.

One of the stories, called “Happy to Live,” follows a magazine editor’s competition to find the happiest married couple and their subsequent tips for success.

Happy Ever After tells the story of magazine magnate Thomas Henry Swart. He proposes holding a competition for the best set of rules for a happy marriage, offering a tidy sum of prize money. Two couples, the Welbys and the Bloxhams, win the competition and subsequently go on a promotional tour. However, at the end of the story it turns out that both couples are not so happy.

Another story, “My Dear Vincent,” is a fragment of an unfinished crime story written in the style of a Sherlock Holmes novel.

The third, The Southey Manuscript, details the discovery of a document in the Lake District containing a humorous poem detailing a humorous conversation between the famous poet Wordsworth and a character named Herrick.

The fourth, called “Together”, details a conversation between two men, with one of them becoming increasingly frustrated by the other’s repetition of the phrase “what’s up?”

Milne published four Winnie the Pooh books between 1924 and 1928. These stories sparked a global phenomenon that led to film adaptations of Milne’s works.

Literary estates expert and Milne estate agent Becky Brown noted: “When I got on the plane to visit the archive, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to find anything. Finding these stories and passages written in Milne’s unmistakable handwriting, with crossing-outs, later additions and marginal notes, was a dream. Milne was a master craftsman, and his trademark charm and brevity are on full display in these lost works.”

Harry Ransom Center Curator of Performing Arts Eric Colleary added: “Archives like Milne’s are filled with drafts and project ideas that were never published. We are always happy when these works can find their audience – sometimes generations after they were originally written.”

Pete Duncan of Duckworth Books, which publishes Milne’s fiction for adults, said: “The newly discovered stories are quite remarkable and reveal Milne’s extraordinary creative depth. Having read them, it is impossible not to see his works for children in a completely new light.”