New-York tribune., 1921-05-22
By Haywood Broun


EeE@HR0UGH the courtesy of the
fst Theater Guild it is possible
AL for US to step aside and let
A. A. Milne do the column
to-day. Some little time ago we ex-
pressed desire to know something
about the author of Belinda" seen
aere few seasons ago, and OF "Mr.
PIN Passes By" now playing at the
Henry Miller Theater, The Guild has
supplied source material by furnish
ing hr. Mines own account of him
self. which runs as follows:
] was born in London on January
G. 1882, so I ought to be thirty
Ene years old now-but nobody be-
ieves it. At the age of eleven 1 went
20 Westminster School with a scholar
snip and for a year worked very hard,
but at twelve began to feel that
knew enough and thereafter took life
more easily. l left Westminster in
1900 being then second in the school
IN the cricket and football elevens and
we'll. and so on; after seven years
there one could hardly help it. Per-
maps the most important thing which
happened was that I began to write
verses, parodies and the like for the
school paper. One evening, when an
other boy and / were looking at
copy Of Cambridge undergraduate
II boI
to the school, he said solemnly: You
ought to edit that some day So I
said, equally solemnly: Il will This
sounds like the story of the model boy
who became millionaire; apologize
tor it, but it really did happen. I
vent to Cambridge-in spite of the
sact that everybody meant me to go
TO Oxford-and edited The Granta.
Il left Cambridge in 1903 with very
moderate degree and feeling in the
family that l had belied the brilliant
Promise of my youth, and that it was
about time got to work and did some
thing Sehoolmastering and the Indian
civil service were two of the profess
Sons suggested. Phe first was not very
exciting; the second meant more ex-
smlnatlons to pass; so I said that l
was going to London to write. L had
enough money left over from my Cam
orlage allowance to keep me for a
year, and by the end of the year saw
myself the most popular writer in Lon
aoh-editor Of The Times, Punch and
Inc Spectator, member of all the i'm
portant literary clubs and intimate
mend Of Meredith and Hardy. My
lamiiy was not so optimistic. They
saw me at the end of the year deciding
!" De schoolmaster. However, they
gave me their blessing; and I went to
Tendon, took expensive rooms and
settled down to write. .
by the end of the year had spent
my money and had earned by writing
"@o' 80 moved to two cheap and dirty
rooms IN policeman's house in Chel
sea and went on writing The second
year made about 9120, and lived on it.
IN the third year l was by way of max
'ag SzO0, for several papers were now
getting used to me, but in February,
'sVo' surprising thing happened. The
'aitor Of Punch retired, the assistant
eoitor became editor, and was offered
'ne assistant editorship. I accepted,
aha' feeling extremely rich and i'm
poFtsnt, told the policeman's wife that
| should be leaving at the end of the
month.
was assistant editor of Punch un-
VI the end of 1914. During that time
, wrote a weekly article signed A. A
~ and published with Methuens three
solumes Of these articles, and one
volume, Happy Days, with Doran in
new York. This last came out in
aSl9' when was in the army One
american :. critic ended up review of
8 with these delightful words: 'Mr.
same is aow in the trenches facing