The Hundred Acre Wood, home to Winnie-the-Pooh, the most famous bear in English literature, in the series of children's stories written by A.A. Milne for his son Christopher Robin Milne (1920–1996).

The Book
Pooh is named after Christopher Robin's stuffed toy, bought at Harrods for his first birthday, and originally known as Edward or Edward Bear. He was renamed "Winnie-the-Pooh" after two real animals: a Canadian black bear named Winnie (after Winnipeg), which was used as a military mascot in World War I, and left to London Zoo during the war. "The Pooh" comes from a swan the young Milne named "Pooh". The toy also inspired "Teddy Bear" in Milne's poetry collection 'When We Were Very Young' (1924) and his story for the 'London Evening News', 'The Wrong Sort of Bees', which later provided the opening to the present work. E. H. Shepard illustrated the original Pooh books, using his own son's teddy 'Growler' as the model. The rest of Christopher's toys - Eeyore, Kanga, Piglet, Roo, and Tigger - were incorporated into the stories, and two more characters – Rabbit and Owl – were created by Milne without real world cuddly inspiration.

'Winnie-the-Pooh' was huge success and was followed by 'Now We Are Six' in 1927 and, the final book, 'The House at Pooh Corner' in 1928. The 'Times Literary Supplement' "congratulated Milne on deciding to avoid 'the temptation to repeat his successful formula mechanically'", acknowledging that it was "sad to see the stories end" (Thwaite, p. 336).

The Map
The Hundred Acre Wood is based upon 'Five Hundred Acre Wood' in Ashdown Forest near A. A. Milne's country home at Cotchford Farm, Hartfield in East Sussex. Five Hundred Acre Wood was sold off from the forest in 1678, and now forms part of the Buckhurst Park estate.

The playful image subverts several features one might normally expect to find on a map: the compass rose has the bearings "P-O-O-H" instead of N-E-W-S), there is no sense of scale; the title reads "the Hundred Acre Wood", but, given the size of the trees and animals depicted, it seems more like three acres (not to mention the fact that Christopher Robin is five times the height of his front door), and the credit is given to the character of Christopher Robin on the map itself, which reads "Drawn by Me and Mr. Shepard Helpd".

The map is filled with notable landmarks relating to episodes in the stories, including "Pooh Bears House"; "Piglets House"; "Where the Woozle Wasn't" (a copse of trees surrounded by footprints in the snow); "Kangas House"; "Sandy pit where Roo plays"; "Pooh Trap for Heffalumps"; "Rabbits House"; "Rabbits friends and Raletions [sic]"; "Owls house"; and "Eeyores gloomy place". Only Tigger appears to be homeless.