“It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like, ‘What about lunch?’” — Winnie the Pooh

Up early this morning, drinking coffee and reading a story appearing on my Facebook feed from an influential online U.K. source, Just Collecting News: “A British collectibles dealer is selling a copy of Winnie the Pooh that it says is the rarest and most desirable first edition of the book. Paul Fraser Collectibles are offering a first deluxe edition of the book that was recently voted the “best-loved children’s book of the past 150 years."

According to the JCN story, the book was owned by a World War I British captain and his wife; the couple purchased the book in 1926 and raised their children reading the exploits of Winnie the Pooh. 

Rare Winnie The Pooh Collectible Book

Rare Winnie The Pooh collectible book purchased in 1926 on display.

Credit: Paul Fraser Collectables

Author AA Milne was a well-known writer in the 1920s, but when Winnie the Pooh hit the London Evening News in 1925, a star was born.

Winnie the Pooh, obviously, is a wonderful book, but the immortal voice of Cedartown, Ga., native Sterling Holloway (1905-1992) as the intrepid bear was the wind beneath Mr. Milne’s words.

Sterling Holloway, the voice of Winnie The Pooh, with Winnie The Pooh at a Disney Park

Sterling Holloway, the voice of Winnie The Pooh, with Winnie The Pooh at a Disney Park.

Credit: Disney

When he came to visit Cedartown (from Los Angeles), he loved the food, and "good Southern cooking,“ said Donnie Jarrell, a longtime friend of the late actor.

Sterling Holloway, Cedartown-born and raised, attended Georgia Military Academy in College Park (now Woodward Academy), the American Academy of Dramatic Arts NYC, and was voice of Walt Disney Pictures and most famously Winnie the Pooh.

“In 1989, Sterling returned to Cedartown for a showing of Winnie the Pooh; he signed autographs afterward,” recalled Mr. Jarrell. “The line stretched down the street. While the movie played, Sterling sat in the back of the theatre, in a chair speaking dialogue as the beloved character.”

Mr. Holloway’s work was in Hollywood, feature films, short subjects, television, radio, recordings — Pooh, Gilligan’s Island, Peter and the Wolf, Twilight Zone and Andy Griffith.

“He was a wonderful man: Sterling would visit our home in Cedartown and sit with my children talking with them in the voice of Pooh, it was unforgettable.”

Mr. Holloway had five friends in the small Northwest Georgia community; he would rotate homes, staying during a weeklong visit, reconnecting through shared stories of Southern life.

In the late 1970s, when Amy Carter heard Pooh’s alter ego had suffered a heart attack, she lobbied her father, President Carter, to call and wish Mr. Holloway well. 

The street running alongside the beloved actor's Cedartown birthplace was renamed in his honor shortly before his death of heart failure Nov. 23, 1992. 

“Sterling loved Cedartown and you could always see so many who loved him — coming up to his restaurant table here,” said Mr. Jarrell.

Interested in purchasing the book? Here is your opportunity, it’s now online through Paul Fraser Collectibles; make sure your bank account is full, the Winnie the Pooh book will run about the same price as a new luxury SUV. 

A page from the Rare Winnie The Pooh Collectible Book

A page from the rare Winnie The Pooh Collectible Book purchased in 1926.

Credit: Paul Fraser Collectables

"Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart." -Winnie The Pooh