A trip to the Hundred Acre Wood

Home Features A trip to the Hundred Acre Wood

Associate Professor of English John Somerville is seated in a leather armchair, one loafer resting against the opposite knee, a hardcover book in his hands.

“Oh, that’s such a tender picture,” he says, lifting his eyes from the page. He sends the book to his right, indicating a small illustration in the middle of a break in the text. “Pass it around.”

The book and its whimsical illustration are passed with reverence from hand to hand, making a slow circuit around the room.

Most of the students present are crammed onto couches. Some are seated in chairs. Others are perched on the arms of chairs or have decided to sit cross-legged on the floor.

As the book is returned to him, he allows himself a faint smile.

“I just couldn’t keep that to myself.”

The A. A. Milne Society hosted the reading on Monday, Feb. 17. Somerville chose to read a chapter from “Winnie the Pooh” titled “In which Eeyore has a birthday and gets two presents.” The tender picture was an ink sketch of Piglet, one of Milne’s characters, running with his arms wrapped tightly around a balloon intended for Eeyore.

But why would Hillsdale College students care about Piglet or Eeyore?

Somerville suggested that perhaps it is the wonder of childhood that draws Hillsdale’s notoriously goal-driven students to Milne’s stories.

“Often, a lot of the students who come to the A. A. Milne Society’s meetings are very academically gifted,” Somerville said. “But when you see a small child on campus, everyone stops. The students are fascinated. It’s something that we don’t have on this campus. We’re so sophisticated, and along comes a child! It’s delightful!”

Senior David Krueger also noted that children’s literature, as a genre, is a simple affirmation of lessons learned early in life.

“On a basic level, it’s just relaxing,” Krueger said. “Children’s literature is also supposed to help form your morality. The stories instill values to young children, teach them lessons.”

When the A. A. Milne Society began, it organized member outings to play Pooh-Sticks, sold hot chocolate, and even hosted readings of Winnie the Pooh in foreign languages. The founders of the A. A. Milne Society, made sure that the readings were held in the afternoon so that members could nap.

Attendance varied widely: if the professor hosting the reading was popular, as many as 20 to 30 students might appear. More often, small groups seated on carpet squares would quietly assemble in the Knorr Center or the auditorium of Knowlton Hall, a building that has since been demolished and replaced by Delp Hall.

Milne’s appeal endures across generations. The A.A. Milne Society, among others, love his literature for its simplicity and nuance: by founding the society, they hoped to give others the opportunity to discover it for themselves.

Milne crafted characters that were charming and accessible to young children, but the underlying complexity of the Hundred Acre Wood was not lost on older readers. Many grow up with Winnie the Pooh and return to the books long after they have left home.

For some readers, like junior Weston Wright, Milne’s stories never fully separate themselves from childhood.

“Listening to Dr. Somerville read Winnie the Pooh is like listening to a kitten,” Wright said. “That is also your grandmother taking warm cookies out of the oven while knitting you a sweater on a snow day… that is also your birthday. But about 12 times more tender.”

In a world predominated by the pressures of adulthood, the Hundred Acre Wood continues to stand as a place of respite for Hillsdale College students: a glimpse of childhood charms, a window into whimsy.