Beatrix Potter Biography and List of Works

English author and illustrator of picture books for the very young, creator of the characters Peter Rabbit, Jeremy Fisher, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, and others. Potter's popularity has shown no sign of diminishing since she created the timeless children's books.

"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 South Kensington, London, the only daughter of Rupert Potter, a wealthy rentier. Potter spent a sheltered childhood with her brother Bertram, who was five years younger. She amused herself by painting, using specimens from the Natural History Museum or sketching in the Lake District, where the family spent summer holidays. She never went to school, but was taught at home by a governess. As a young woman she still lived at her parent's house. From the age of fifteen until she was past thirty, she recorded her everyday life in her own secret code writing.

As a writer and artist Potter made her debut in the 1890s when she sent a sick child illustrated animal stories, these found their way to the publisher (Frederick Warne & Company) and made her famous. In 1890 she published A HAPPY PAIR, a small book of animal drawings with accompanying verse by Frederic Weatherley, under the signature H.B.P.

In 1893 Potter wrote a letter to a young friend, Noël Moore, which was illustrated with drawings of animals and contained the first version of THE TALE OF PETER RABBIT. The book was privately printed in 1901, and then published by Frederick Warne and Co. Potter and one of the publishers, Norman Warne, became engaged in 1905, but he died of leukaemia only a month later. Potter turned back to her books as the one creative impulse left to her.

"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."
(from The Magic Years of Beatrix Potter by Margaret Lane, 1978)

From 1905 she spent her time on a farm in Sawrey in the Lake District. The following years,( until 1913), were Potter's most productive. She published a number of children's books with watercolour illustrations, and oversaw the production and design. Later her works created an entire industry : pottery, tea towels, soft toys, and cartoon films. Her illustrations usually showed animal characters wearing human clothes but otherwise Potter treated her characters without sentimentality. It was important for her to write stories that were both simple and direct, with no attempt to write down to the young listener or reader. When an attempt to issue THE PIE AND THE PATTY PAN and THE ROLY-POLY PUDDING in a larger format did not gain success, the original small format of the book was found best and suitable for small hands.

LITTLE Benjamin said,
"It spoils people's clothes
to squeeze under a gate;
the proper way to get in,
is to climb down a pear tree."
(from 'The Tale of Benjamin Bunny')

At the age of 47 Potter married the solicitor William Heelis and gradually stopped writing. They met when she bought Castle Farm, as the purchase had been made through W. Heelis and Sons, an old-established family business. While engaged she purchased a larger farmhouse in Sawrey. In 1923 she bought a substantial sheep farm and spent her last 30 years raising Herdwick sheep. Potter's marriage was happy. She continued the life she loved best as a conservative landowner, solicitor's wife, and farmer. Her literary work deteriorated with her eyesight after 1918, diminishing gradually by 1930s. THE TALE OF LITTLE PIG ROBINSON (1930) was the only story of note to appear in her declining years. Potter told her husband little about her life before her marriage. In a letter to a friend a few years before she died, Potter wrote, "I am exceedingly sorry for my husband. You may have noticed I am the stronger half of the pair..."

Potter died in Sawrey, Lancashire on December 22, 1943. Her 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. Potter's journal, which she kept from the age of fifteen and which was written in an elaborated code, was deciphered and published in 1964.

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) - NOTE: ballet film Tales of Beatrix Potter (1971), dir. by Reginald Mills, one of the most successful 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

Books by Beatrix Potter