“Unveiling Childhood Secrets: British Man Stumbles Upon Hidden Treasure of Original ‘Winnie-The-Pooh’ Artifacts in Father’s Attic”
However, Leslie Smith’s collection extended beyond Winnie-the-Pooh content. As Simon Smith sifted through each paper, letter, and illustration, he uncovered a broader picture of his father’s successful career in the publishing industry.
The Collection’s Origins And Its Fate At Auction
Fieldings AuctioneersA sketch of Winnie-the-Pooh with Piglet discovered in Leslie Smith’s attic.
Leslie Smith founded Cressrelles Publishing Company in 1971, and he eventually took over the business of Frederick Muller, the publisher of Winnie-the-Pooh. However, Simon had no idea his father had an attic full of literary treasures. When he first discovered the plastic bag full of papers, he assumed they were simply business documents.
“I knew we had some letters from authors,” Simon Smith told the BBC. “But I assumed it was our authors… playwrights that we handled. I thought he’d kept those in case they were worth anything in the future.”
Instead, Simon found that his father had maintained connections with some of the most prominent writers in history. In addition to Milne’s documents, the collection of papers contained correspondence with none other than J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of the Lord of the Rings series.
Simon SmithLeslie Smith, pictured here, worked in the publishing industry for most of his life.
While the Smith family was thrilled to uncover their late father’s remarkable collection, they believed the documents would be better appreciated by others.
“There’s four of us [children] and plenty of grandchildren and lots of great-grandchildren, so where would they go in the family?” Smith told the BBC. “We would like to see them somewhere useful.”
