A Source of Nonsense

Illinois Review ^ | January 18, 2011 A.D. | John F. Di Leo

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In London, England, on January 18, 1882, A.D., an author was born. A humorist for Punch, then a playwright, then a screenwriter, this talented gentleman was a man of many genres, but you and I know him best for the children’s stories he wrote in the 1920s.

He wrote about the Hundred-Acre Wood, about his son, and his son’s playmates – a spirited bear, a spiritless donkey, a wise owl and a brave young piglet. These books were a gold mine, and live on nearly a century later in books, DVDs, television series, and shelves full of licensed characters in every toy store in the western world.

Much less famous than Winnie the Pooh, but of note to us today, is his first play, “Wurzel-Flummery”, which he wrote in 1917, while serving in The Great War. This one begat no cartoons, no lucrative licensing deals… you’ll find no branded sweatshirts, pajamas, and lunchboxes emblazoned with its characters. But it posed a timeless question for students of government, in a way that only A.A. Milne could imagine.

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