Born in London, A. A. Milne attended a small, independent school run by his father. He went on to Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating in 1903 with a B.A. in Mathematics. His articles for a student magazine gained attention from the popular British magazine Punch, where he became a regular contributor and later, an assistant editor. Milne was primarily a playwright until his two books about a boy name Christopher Robin—named after his son, Christopher Robin Milne (1920–96)—and characters inspired by his son’s stuffed animals (led by a teddy bear named Winnie-the-Pooh) overshadowed his previous work. A veteran of World War I and II, Milne died at his home in Sussex in 1956, a couple weeks after his 74th birthday.

English artist and book illustrator E. H. Shepard is best known for his anthropomorphic animal characters in Winnie-the-Pooh and Wind in the Willows. Born in London, he showed promise in drawing early on, winning a Landseer scholarship and a British Institute Prize. During World War I, he worked for the Intelligence Department sketching the combat area within view of his battery position and was awarded the Military Cross. Married twice, with two children from his first wife, he passed away in 1976 at the age of 96.