On February 13, 1924, Punch magazine published a short poem titled “Teddy Bear” by Alan Alexander Milne (January 18, 1882–January 31, 1956), one of the magazine’s editors and a frequent contributor. The poem was inspired by the stuffed teddy bear Milne had given to his son, Christopher Robin, three years earlier. It was included in Milne’s collection of children’s verses, When We Were Very Young, illustrated by Punch staff cartoonist E. H. Shepard and published later that year. But the bear’s very first appearance in Punch was the public birth of Winnie-the-Pooh, which Milne released two years later and which went on to become one of the most timeless children’s books ever written.

In the summer of 1929, the Dominion Gramophone Company set out to capture prominent British authors reading from their work. In this rare recording, Milne reads the third chapter of his classic, “In Which Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting and Nearly Catch a Woozle,” made all the more delightful by his enchantingly melodic voice — please enjoy:

Complement with Milne on happiness and the only surviving recording of Virginia Woolf’s voice.