Year In, Year Out

215 pp. Illustrations by Ernest H. Shepard, who also provided artwork for Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh series and other works. Portrait of Milne by Karl Soumalainen on rear jacket panel. Includes new preface for American edition, stating that all the content except the month of January appears in America here for the first time. Two chapter header illustrations feature characters from Milne's Winnie-the-Pooh series. From the jacket: "In this delightful volume of Milne wit and wisdom the author's urbane humor bubbles and sparkles in a manner to bring hours of sheer enjoyment to his many admirers. Mr. Milne has here gathered together a fine and varied collection of subjects ranging from the family life of bath sponges to the Truth About Candida; from the naming of race horses to the relative intelligence of boobies, ostriches and rooks; and from the absurdities of the Baconians to the philosophy of Karl Pearson, the atom bomb, and the Art of Saying Thank You. Of all these many pieces Mr. Milne says he thinks of them as "a calendar of ideas such as I have often thought it would be pleasant to keep." They are arranged in chapters from January to December, each subject appearing in its appropriate month. The result might best be called Table Talk, on a wide range of themes from grave to gay, from lively to severe. As the (London) Times Literary Supplement says: 'Some are quite brilliantly dealt with, the great majority are extremely amusing and none fall flat.' Adding great beauty and charm to the graceful and ingratiating pieces by A. A. Milne are the delightful headpieces and running decorations by E. H. Shepard, the artist whose drawings of Christopher Robin, Winnie-the-Pooh, and Piglet, to name but a few, will be remembered and loved as long as books exist."