A. A. MILNE'S CAREER

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 68, 21 March 1931, Page 21

A. A. MILNE'S CAREER

Mr. A. A. Milne imparted to a representative of "Everyman" the facts of his early career as author: — I suppose it began with writing in tho school magazine. Then I went to Cambridge. My father decided that ho would spend an equal amount on tho education of each of his three sons. I Actually what it came to was that each of us was allowed to draw on him for £.1000 after leaving school. I went up to Cambridge, Trinity College, where I spent £ 700 in three years and got my first taste of journalism editing the "Granta." Some of the things I did for it received notice in London. I had £300 left, so I decided to go to London and make my fortune as a writer. That was in 1903. I took some expensive rooms just outside the Temple, and during the first year I spent all tho £.300 and earned 20 guineas. I got one guinea an article, and 20 of them had been accepted. The second year I came to Chelsea and hired two rooms in a policeman's house for 10s a week. Breakfast cost me 7d. This year I earned £100 and lived on it. The third year I was on the way to making £200 when I was suddenly asked to join tho staff of "Punch." It was a great piece of luck for me. Among other things I met my future wife, Owon Seaman's god-daughter. At the tiuio "Punch" was looking for a young journalist as assistant editor. But in timo I got sick of it. Thu prospect of liiiving an idea every Friday morning became too frightful. But I stuck to it until the beginning of the war. After the war I began all over again as a free-lance. "Mr. Pirn Passes By" was my first success, in 1920.