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(Helen) Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) |
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English author and illustrator of
picture-books for very young. Beatrix Potter's many
characters include Peter Rabbit, Jeremy Fisher, Jemima
Puddle-Duck, and Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle. Since creating her timeless
children's books, Potter's popularity has
shown no sign of diminishing. She died childless. "Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were - Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter. They lived with their Mother in a sand-bank, underneath the root of a very big tree" (from The Tale of Peter Rabbit, 1902) Beatrix Potter was born in 2 Bolton Gardens, South Kensington, London, the only daughter of Rupert Potter, a barrister and wealthy rentier, and Helen Potter, whose sister Elizabeth Leech had married Rupert's younger brother Walter. The property of the family came from the Lancashire cotton industry. Rupert's friends included the photographer A. F. Mackenzie and the Pre-Raphaelite painter Sir John Everett Millais, who frequently teased the shy Beatrix. Potter grew up with her brother Bertram, who was five years younger. Her parents have been described as rather unloving. Helen, afraid of germs, did not allow her children to mix with other children than members of the family. Potter amused herself by painting, using specimens from the Natural History Museum or sketching the nature in the Lake District, where the family spent summer holidays. She also became a proficient photographer. Her pets included, at various times, rabbits, a green frog called Punch, lizards, water newts, a tortoise, salamanders, mice, several bats, birds, guinea pigs, and other animals. With her parents, Potter lived for nearly fifty years (they hoped that she would take care of them for the rest of her life), before she moved north to settle in the Lake District. Her secluded London home Potter later called as "my unloved birthplace." The daily rituals in the house followed a schedule set by Helen – Rupert spent usually his afternoon at a club. During World War II, the house was destroyed in the air raids. Potter had more pleasant recollections of the home of her grandparents, Camfield Place near Hatfield in Hertfordshire. After her grandmother's death she wrote a short essay, 'Memories of Camfield Place,' to an imaginary correspondent named Esther. Potter never went to school, but was taught at home by governesses. She had learned to read from Sir Walter Scott's novels and Maria Edgeworth's Tales. Her favorites included Aesop's Fables, fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, Charles Kingsley's fantasy The Water-Babies, and Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. For her tenth birthday she received from her father Beatrix Jemina Blackburn's Birds Drawn from Nature (1868). "I kept it in the drawing room cupboard, only to be taken out after I had washed my grimy little hands . . ." Potter recalled. "The book was bound in scarlet with a gilt edge. I danced about the house with pride . . . " (Beatrix Potter: Her Inner World by Andrew Norman, 214, p. 19) From the age of fifteen until she was past thirty, Potter recorded her everyday life in her own secret code-writing. "Thank goodness, my education was neglected," Potter later said. (Beatrix Potter's Journal, Abridged with an Introduction by Glen Cavaliero, 1986, p. 20) Independently, she became interested in science. Potter spent much time in developing a theory of the germination of fungus spores. Her paper, 'On the Germination of the Spores of Agaricineae,' was returned by the Linnean Society. (The Society apologized in 1997.) In 1881, she received an Art Student's Certificate from the Science and Art Department of the Committee of Council on Education. Her first drawing and paintings Potter made at a very young age, but as a writer and artist she debuted in the 1890s. Potter's illustrated animal stories, sent to Noël Moore, a child of her former governess, found their way to the publisher Frederick Warne & Company. A Happy Pair (1890), which Potter published under the signature H. B. P., was a small book of animal drawings. It accompanied verses by the English songwriter and lawyer Fredric Weatherley (1848-1929), famous for the lyrics of 'Danny Boy' and 'Roses in Picardy'. Potter's illustrated letter to Noël from 1893 contained the first version of The
Tale of Peter Rabbit, an
adventurous bunny, who loves to eat carrots and cabbages. Peter's
father was baked into a pie by Mrs. McGregor. Also some other charactes,
such as Squirrel Nutkin, first appeared in Potter's letters. Her little
book was privately printed in 1901 in an edition of 250 copies, and
then published by Frederick Warne & Co; the company had first
rejected it. Potter and Norman Warne, the youngest son of her
publisher, engaged in
1905. Tragically, he died of lymphatic leukemia only a month later. Potter
delved deeper into her picture books. At that time, she was already a successful writer
and having money of her own gave her comfort. "If it were not impertinent to lecture one's publisher – you are a great deal too much afraid of the public, for whom I have never cared one tuppenny button. I am sure that it is that attitude of mind which has enabled me to keep up the series. Most people, after one success, are so cringingly afraid of doing less well that they rub all the edge off their subsequent work." (The Magic Years of Beatrix Potter by Margaret Lane, 1978, p. 180) With
the royalties from her books, Potter bought Hill Top,
a seventeeth-century farm at Sawrey in the Lake District,
paying nearly twice as much for the thirty-four-acre property as the
previous owner. "My purchase seems to be regarded as a huge joke," she
wrote to Harold Warne, her editor. (Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature by Linda Lear, 2007, p. 4) Actually it was an
investment in her personal development and in addition taught her not to be gullible. The following years
until 1913 were Potter's most productive. She published a number of
children's books with watercolor illustrations. The stories were simple
and straightforward. "I never quite understood the secret of Peter's
perennial charm," Potter admitted in a letter in 1940. (Beatrix Potter: The Picture Letters, The Morgan Library & Museum, exhibition November 2, 2012 - January 27, 2013) Potter's
illustrations usually show animal figures wearing human clothes,
but otherwise they were not ovely cute. This was also the case with human figures. Betsy, the fisherman's wife from The
Tale of Little Pig Robinson (1930), has rheumatics. In The Tale of Peter Rabbit, the naughty Peter is nearly caught by Mr. McGregor, who chases the frightened
rabbit waving a rake and calling out, "Stop thief." When the attempt to issue The Tale of the Pie
and the Patty Pan (1905; 181 mm × 141 mm), The Roly-Poly Pudding
(1908; 205 mm × 160 mm), and Ginger & Pickles (1909; 181 mm × 141 mm)
in a larger format did not gain success, the original size (142 mm ×
107 mm) was found perfect for the hands of children. A little bit
smaller format had been used by Helen Bannerman in The Story of Little Black Sambo (1899), a best-seller. At the age of 47 Potter married the solicitor William Heelis
and gradually stopped writing. He had acted for her in the purchase of
Castle Farm; it had been made through W. Heelis and Sons, an
old-established family business. Potter's parents objected to the marriage. On her father's death, she received a
substantial inheritance. Potter tought that her mother was "a regular miser." She died in 1932 when Potter was sixty-six. In 1923 Potter bought a sheep farm, where she
spent her last 30 years raising Herdwick sheep. In the Lake District,
she was better known as Mrs. William Heelis. She prefereed not to be called Beatrix Potter or Miss Potter. Potter's marriage was happy; it was the rebirth she had been hopefully awaiting for years. She continued the life she loved best – as a conservationist, landowner, solicitor's wife, and farmer. Potter told her husband little about her life before her marriage. Many of the books she published after marriage were reworkings of older material. A few years before Potter died, she wrote in a letter to a friend that she regards herself as the stronger half of the pair. Potter's literary work diminishing gradually. Tale of Little Pig Robinson was the only story of note to appear in her declining years. The Fairy Caravan (1929), written for American publication only, did not appear in England until 1952. Potter
died in Sawrey, Lancashire on December 22, 1943. She
was cremated in Blackpool and her ashes were scattered somewhere on the
fells above Near Sawrey. By the time of her
death, Potter had built up an
estate of 4.000 acres. In her business dealings, Potter was far-thinking and practical. She even oversaw the
production her books. Her work created an entire industry around
them: pottery, tea-towels, soft toys, cartoon films. Potter's home in the Lake District is open to the public. She left several thousand acres of land, including Hill Top Farm, the setting of several of her books, to the National Trust. Her journal was deciphered by Leslie Linder and published in 1964. An animated series based on Potter's characters was broadcasted in the 1990s every Christmas and Easter around the world. The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots, unfinished at the time of her death, was published in 2016 by Frederick Warne & Co. For further reading: The Tale of Beatrix Potter by Margaret Lane (1946); Beatrix Potter by Marcus Crouch (1960); The Magic Years of Beatrix Potter by Margaret Lane (1978); Cousin Beatie by Ulla Hyde Parker (1981); Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller and Countrywoman by Judy Taylor (1986); Beatrix Potter by Ruth MacDonaldson (1986); Beatrix Potter's Derwentwater by Wynne Bartlett and Joyce Irene Whalley (1988); Beatrix Potter: The Story of the Creator of Peter Rabbit by Elizabeth Buchan, Beatrix Potter (1998); Beatrix Potter to Harry Potter: Portraits of Children's Writers by Julia Eccleshare (2002); Beatrix Potter: Writing in Code by M. Daphne Kutzer, Jack Zipes (2002); Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature by Linda Lear (2008); At Home with Beatrix Potter: The Creator of Peter Rabbit by Susan Denyer (2009); Over the Hills and Far Away: the Life of Beatrix Potter by Matthew Dennison (2016); Rebirth in the Life and Works of Beatrix Potter by Richard Tuerk (2020); Beatrix Potter, Scientist by Lindsay H. Metcalf; illustrated by Junyi Wu (2020); Saving the Countryside: The Story of Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit by Linda Elovitz Marshall, Ilaria Urbinati (2020); A Historical Study of the Function of Picture Book Peritext in Beatrix Potter's 'Peter Rabbit series' by Eri Nagano (2021); Beatrix Potter by Jennifer Hurtig (2022); Beatrix Potter: Drawn to Nature by Annemarie Bilclough (2022); Becoming Beatrix: The Life of Beatrix Potter and the World of Peter Rabbit by Amy M. O'Quinn (2022); The Women Who Saved the English Countryside by Matthew Kelly (2023) - Note: the ballet film Tales of Beatrix Potter (1971), directed by Reginald Mills, is one of the most succesfull films of its kind. Bryan Talbot's graphic novel The Tale of One Bad Rat (1995) used Potter's settings. Talking animals: see Kenneth Grahame, Rudyard Kipling. See also: Richard Scarry, who admired the books of Potter Selected works:
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