小熊維尼生日
Wikipedia，自由的百科全书
小熊維尼生日快樂！Happy Birthday Winnie-the-Pooh!
小熊維尼今天滿八十一歲了！小熊維尼首次於一九二五年的耶誕夜刊登在「倫敦晚報」，故事是有關作家米恩的兒子和他兒子所蒐集的玩具。克里斯多福．羅賓的泰迪熊其實叫「小熊艾德華」，他以其他兩位朋友的名字來為愛德華命名，一隻是名叫「Pooh」的天鵝，他們和牠道別後取用牠的名字，另一隻是住在倫敦動物園、貨真價實的加拿大幼熊，克里斯多福．羅賓獲准進入牠的籠子，以煉乳餵食牠，這隻小熊的名字就叫做「維尼」。
小熊艾德華向克里斯多福．羅賓要一個有趣的新名字，「小熊維尼」於焉而生。原版故事的插圖是由一名為政治諷刺雜誌「笨趣」工作的青年畫家操刀，他讀了故事之後便熱切地想為故事畫插圖，他登門拜訪米恩，給米恩看自己準備的作品選集，米恩大為激賞，當下便同意由他負責插畫，不過後來他卻後悔自己做了倉卒的決定，考慮要撤換畫家，好在朋友們說服他謝培德的確是正確選擇。一九六一年，迪士尼與美國經銷商簽下小熊維尼的版權，並且帶來兩項重大變革︰首先小熊維尼名字中間的分號不見了，變成「Winnie the Pooh」；其次，小熊維尼身上總是穿著一件紅T恤。
小熊維尼的故事已經被翻譯成四十種語言，包括拉丁文！全世界都愛小熊維尼，不過在波蘭，他的故事是由一位知名的詩人翻譯，而民眾也對他喜愛到將一條街命名為「小熊維尼」。 （翻譯︰鄭湘儀）
Happy Birthday Winnie-the-Pooh!
Winnie-the-Pooh is 81 today! Winnie-the-Pooh was first published in The London Evening News on Christmas-eve 1925. The stories were based on the writer AA Milne's son and his collection of toys. Christopher Robin's teddy bear was actually called Edward Bear. But he renamed him Winnie-the-Pooh after two other friends. The first was a swan, named Pooh, and when they said goodbye to that friend they took the name Pooh with them. The second was a real Canadian bear cub at London Zoo. Christopher Robin was allowed to actually go into its cage and feed it condensed milk. The bear was called Winnie.
When Edward bear asked Christopher Robin for a new exciting name, Winnie-the-Pooh was that name.
The original stories were illustrated by a young artist who worked for Punch, a political satire magazine. He had read the stories and desparately wanted to illustrate them. He turned up on AA Milne's doorstep and showed him a portfolio of drawings he had prepared. AA Milne was impressed and agreed on the spot. Later he regretted his snap decision and considered changing artists, but luckily friends persuaded him that EH Shepard was the right choice.
In 1961 Disney signed a contract for the right to use the Winnie-the-Pooh characters with the American distributor. Two major changes came about. Firstly Winnie-the-Pooh lost the hyphens in his name to become Winnie the Pooh; and secondly, he was always shown wearing a red T-shirt.The books have been translated into as many as 40 languages including Latin! Winnie-the-Pooh is loved the world over, but in Poland where a famous poet translated the book, everyone loved it so much that they named a street after Winnie-the-Pooh.
《catherine thomas,staff writer》
