Beatrix Potter, British Children’s Book Author

Helen Beatrix Potter was born on July 28, 1866 in London to Rupert and Helen Potter. Both of her parents were quite artistic, skilled in photography, embroidery and watercolours. They were also friends with many influential artists, including the painter John Everett Millais. Helen had a brother born six years after her, Bertram Potter, and they shared a fascination with nature and animals from an early age. The two used to walk around the countryside on family holidays to Scotland and the Lake District in England. She showed a talent for sketching as a child, specializing in drawing animals. She fell in love with the Lake District and natural places in England, which sparked her passion for conservation.

During her childhood, she was tutored by governesses and art teachers and had little contact with other people. Her last tutor, Annie Moore, became a lifelong friend who suggested that she write a book based on letters. She spent many hours sketching and drawing animals and plants and based many pieces on her pet rabbits, Benjamin Bouncer and Peter Piper. Potter went on to study at the National Art Training School in the late 1870s, then moved on to study fungi at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew, producing hundreds of botanical drawings. She worked with Charles McIntosh, a Scottish naturalist in order to make her drawings more technically accurate. She became a skilled scientific illustrator and even wrote her own scientific paper On the Germination of the Spores of Agaricineae.

Inspired to create a story from the illustrated letters she sent the son of her former governess, Annie, Beatrix wrote and illustrated The Tale of Peter Rabbit, but was rejected by publishers. She self-published, printing 250 copies for her friends and family in December 1901. This was an instant success, and Frederick Warne and Co. reconsidered their original rejection of the text and published it on the terms that Beatrix illustrated it in colour. It was an instant success in October 1902. In 1903, she published The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin and The Tailor of Gloucester, followed by the 40 rest of her stories.

In 1905, she was engaged to her editor, Norman Warne despite her parents’ opposition to the marriage because of his job. However, Potter was soon devastated when he died of leukaemia a month later.

She wanted to expand her creations, and she designed and created the first Peter Rabbit doll herself, and registered it at the patent office. This made Peter the world’s oldest licensed literary character. She expanded the merchandise to tea sets, bedroom slippers and board games.

Since her childhood, she was heavily invested in nature, especially the Lake District after Norman’s passing. Potter was a supporter of the National Trust and saved many farms from developers and preserved buildings. She met a local solicitor, William Heelis, in the Lake District, and they were married in 1913. She went on to buy fifteen farms and spent her time running them. She bred Herdwick sheep and won many prizes for her sheep, and Potter was elected the first female President of the Herdwick Sheep Breeders Association in 1943.

Beatrix Potter died in 1943, leaving 4,000 acres of property to the National Trust and an indelible impact on the world of literature.

by Daisy O’Connor

References

Peter Rabbit (2020). About Beatrix Potter. Peter Rabbit. Retrieved from https://www.peterrabbit.com/about-beatrix-potter/

Visit Cumbria (2018). Beatrix Potter. Visit Cumbria. Retrieved from https://www.visitcumbria.com/beatrix-potter/

Biography (2016). Beatrix Potter. Biography. Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/writer/beatrix-potter