[A.A. Milne (1882-1956)] – Harold Fraser-Simson (1872-1944)
Autograph music manuscripts signed, working manuscripts of songs from Teddy Bear and other songs from "When We Were Very Young", [c.1926]
Scored for voice and piano for 15 songs. c.44 pages in total, 240 x 301mm, notated mostly in blue ink on up to 12 staves per page, the individual songs from one to 11 pages long, autograph titles and signature (‘H. Fraser Simson’) at the head of each song, autograph emendations, cancellations and added passages in pencil, marked up by the printer on a couple of occasions, many with typescripts of the verses interleaved (in autograph on one occasion). Provenance: Sotheby’s, 15 December 1987, lot 100.

The printer’s manuscript for Teddy Bear and other songs from "When We Were Very Young" (1926); autograph musical settings of A.A. Milne’s verse. Harold Fraser-Simson was a composer of light music who won the favour of A.A. Milne to set to music the verses for When we were very young. After the verses appeared in Punch, Milne was approached by many composers vying for the task, choosing his neighbour in Chelsea, whose reputation has been established by the hugely successful stage show The Maid of the Mountains, which ran at Daly's Theatre from 10 February 1917 for 1,352 performances. Fraser-Simson went on to produce music for six volumes of songs by A.A. Milne, a total of 67 songs for which Milne noted that ‘the music is exactly right’.