Now We Are Six

London: Methuen & Co., 1927 Decorations by Ernest Howard Shepard. First edition, first printing. Limited issue, large paper edition; one of 200 copies on handmade paper, signed by Milne and Shepard, this being number 7. 4to. Publisher's tan buckram spine with salmon boards, paper title label to front board, and additional title label to rear pastedown; in the original pale green dust jacket with titles lettered in blue to front panel and spine. About fine book with a touch of soiling to front board label and front endpapers; near fine unclipped dust jacket with very minor soiling to panels and spine, light toning to spine, tiny mark to center of left spine hinge, and light edgewear including a couple of small closed tears. Overall, an excellent copy in an exceptionally clean and bright dust jacket. Housed in a custom blue quarter morocco slipcase with matching chemise. Now We Are Six is a collection of thirty-five children's poems and verses that comprises the third of four volumes in The Pooh Books, Milne's series of children's books featuring the adventures of the teddy bear character Winnie the Pooh and his friends of the Hundred Acre Wood. Like the other books in the series, Milne wrote Now We Are Six for Anne Darlington, the daughter of family friends whom both families hoped would marry Milne's son Christopher Robin; while the first Pooh book When We Were Very Young was dedicated to Christopher Robin, Now We Are Six is dedicated to Darlington. As Milne alludes in his introduction, "We have been writing this book for three years. We began it when we were very young… and now we are six." Although only a few of the poems feature him, Winnie the Pooh frequently appears in Shepard's decorations. As Milne explains, Pooh "thought it was a different book; and he hopes you won't mind, but he walked through it one day, looking for his friend Piglet, and sat down on some of the pages by mistake." . First Edition. Hard Cover. Near Fine/Dust Jacket Included. Illus. by Shepard, Ernest H..