Happy Birthday, Beatrix Potter!

This week is Beatrix Potter's birthday--her 146th!--on July 28th.


Sure, I know. I've already done two blog posts on Beatrix Potter. But she is such a remarkable lady that I can't resist doing just. . .one. . .more. 


Really. 


Maybe. 


Oh, who am I kidding?

FUN & FASCINATING FACTS 
ABOUT BEATRIX POTTER

• Beatrix started a secret diary when she was 15 years old and kept writing journals until about age 30. She invented a secret code for her diaries that wasn't cracked until about 15 years after her death in 1943.

• One of Beatrix's early interests was mycology--the study of fungi. The Potter family lived near the British Musem of Natural History in London, where Beatrix spent a lot of time studying and drawing fungi. In her late twenties, she wrote and illustrated a book on the subject. Her uncle presented the book to the Royal Botanical Gardens, but they expressed no interest in her work. Potter was one of the first people to recognize that lichens were a symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae.

• When it came time to draw up the publishing contract for Peter Rabbit, Beatrix was not allowed to sign the contract. The reason? She was a woman. Duh. Maybe the flowered hat gave her away. Her father had to make the agreement on her behalf.

• There is a curious "co-incidence" about some of the names used in Beatrix Potter stories. In Brompton Cemetery near the Potter family home, these names were found in computerized records of tombstones: Mr. Nutkin, Mr. McGregor, Jeremiah Fisher, Tommy Brock, and Peter Rabbett. (“Cemetery clue to Potter animals,” BBC News, 27 July 2001)

Brompton Cemetery

• Beatrix had a mind for "merchandising" as well. She created a Peter Rabbit Doll and told her publisher Norman Warne that they should sell well at Harrod's, a London department store. She also envisioned wallpaper, board games, "painting books," and china tea sets, based on her work. She was so far ahead of her time.
• As Miss Potter got older, her eyesight became poorer, and her paintings became more impressionistic. Eventually she lost interest in painting and writing.

• If you're planning a literary tour of England, you won't be able to visit the burial place of Beatrix Potter. After she died, her husband William delivered her ashes to their chief shepherd, Tom Storey. Beatrix wanted to make sure that no-one knew where her ashes were scattered. Not even her husband. Tom did tell his son, but the son died suddenly and unexpectedly. Now no-one knows the final resting place of Beatrix Potter. Mwa-ha-ha.

Hyde Chapel

• However, if you've got your heart set on a grave site, the author's parents and grandparents are buried in Hyde Chapel, east of Manchester. In 2008, the chapel held a Beatrix Potter exhibition (pictured above).

• Beatrix left nearly all her property in the Lake District to The National Trust--more than 4,000 acres, sixteen farms, many cottages, and herds of sheep and cattle. When William died 18 months later, he left the remainder to the Trust. 

A Letter from Beatrix Potter

Noel Moore

Five year old Noel Moore lay in bed staring at the patterns in the wallpaper. He could hear the other children having their lessons downstairs or playing outdoors. For in that summer of 1893, Noel had scarlet fever, a frequently fatal children's disease. 


Noel's family lived in London at the edge of a large park called Wandsworth Commons. Unfortunately, his mother Annie didn’t have a lot of time to spend with her sick child. She had other children to care for, and she was expecting again. Sometimes Noel felt sad and lonely.  Sometimes he couldn’t remember what it felt like to run and play.

One day in September, a letter arrived from a family friend. A letter for Noel. It was the very best kind of letter—big! With pictures! The letter said, “My dear Noel: I don’t know what to write to you, so I shall tell you a story about four little rabbits whose names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter.” 

1st page of letter

Beatrix Potter

Sound familiar? The Moore family had a special friend, a lady named Beatrix Potter. Though only three years older than Beatrix, Annie had been her governess, and now Beatrix liked to stay in touch with the Moores. 


Sometimes Miss Potter would come for a visit and bring her pet, a Belgian buck rabbit named Peter Piper. She had taught Peter to do tricks, but occasionally Peter was “naughty” and refused to cooperate. The children loved her visits, but it had been a long time since Miss Potter had come to see them. At least, it seemed like a long time to a five year old boy.



But this letter was almost as good as a visit—maybe better, because this letter was addressed to Noel. And it contained a story written just for him--a story about a naughty rabbit named Peter who went into his neighbor's garden and had great adventures and barely made it out again. The letter cheered Noel greatly. 


A few years later, Noel was sick again—this time with polio. And Miss Potter continued to send story-letters for Noel and the other children to read.

Noel’s mother told Miss Potter that she thought the stories ought to be published. So one day, when Noel was about twelve, Miss Potter asked to borrow the first letter she had sent. She had decided to try to publish the story about Peter the Rabbit, and she wondered if Noel had kept it.


Kept it? Of course he had kept it and treasured it. 


Miss Potter self-published the book in 1901, and it sold only a few copies. But then the publishing firm of F. Warne and Company took an interest in the "bunny book," as they called it. At the Warnes’ request, she rewrote the story, adding more scenes and more pictures. The time was right. Small picture books were just becoming popular, and the book was an instant success.


Beatrix later wrote: “It is much more satisfactory to address a real live child; I often think that that was the secret of the success of Peter Rabbit, it was written to a child - not made to order!”


Little Noel grew up to become a priest. He lived a long life and worked with children in the slums of London.

Beatrix Potter with her dog Kep

Peter's cousin, Benjamin Bunny

Beatrix Potter went on to become one of the most beloved and best-selling children’s authors of all time. Her beautiful books would bring delight to countless children around the world. And it all began because she cared deeply about one little boy named Noel.

The Garden Gate, inspiration
for Mr. McGregor's Garden

To learn more about the remarkable life of Beatrix Potter, click here.

And if you'd like to know more about how Peter Rabbit came to be written, the Stark Raving Mythopath recommends The True Story of Peter Rabbit: How a Letter from Beatrix Potter Became a Children's Classic, by Jane Johnson. A delightful picture book.

Beatrix Redux

“There is something delicious about writing the first words of 
a story. You never quite know where they'll take you.” – 
Beatrix Potter, in the movie Miss Potter

I remember my mother reading The Tale of Peter Rabbit to me when I was a small child. How tragic that Peter’s father had been made into a pie! How happy I was when Peter escaped from Farmer McGregor and his evil garden hoe. But I felt sorry for naughty Peter because he didn’t get to have blackberries and camomile tea with his saintly siblings, Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail. 

Unfair! Didn’t his mother understand that he had nearly met his doom? Besides, any dolt could see that Peter was the interesting character, taking risks and having adventures, while those good little bunnies were boring. At that age, I relished the delights of the story, but it probably never entered my mind that every picture has an artist, every story has an author. . . .

Beatrix as a child

Helen Beatrix Potter—author, artist, and naturalist—was best known for her children’s stories about animals: Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, Squirrel Nutkin, Jemima Puddle-Duck—a whole managerie of characters with names that are fun to say out loud. 

As a child, she spent endless hours observing and drawing animals. She had private art lessons but preferred to develop her own style. Perhaps even then she made up stories about the animals she drew. 

Norman Warne with his nephew

Although she was born into a well-to-do family, success didn’t come to Beatrix gift-wrapped and tied with a bow. As a young woman in post-Victorian England, she fought hard to get a hearing in a business world dominated by men. 

In 1901, she privately printed The Tale of Peter Rabbit, which was published by Warne and Co. the following year. Peter Rabbit was followed by The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin and a long string of other enchanting titles. Her friendship with publisher Norman Warne blossomed into romance, and in 1905, they became engaged—unofficially. (Her parents disapproved.) But tragically, Norman died only a month later of leukemia.

Hilltop Farm

That same year Beatrix purchased Hilltop Farm, in Near Sawry in the Lake District. Perhaps as a remedy for grief, she immersed herself in country living, touring neighboring farms to learn more about fell farming and raising livestock. She kept the tenant farmers on at Hilltop to preserve it as a working farm. 

In the following years, she bought additional farms in the area in order to keep the landscape from being ravaged by greedy developers. In this endeavor, she often sought advice from the law firm of W. H. Heelis & Son in Hawkshead. That professional relationship also turned to romance, and William Heelis proposed.

Beatrix and William

In 1913, Beatrix and William were married--without the approval of her parents, who were deeply entrenched in ideas about social class. Nonetheless, the couple were happily married for thirty years, continuing their work in conservation of the land and sheep breeding. Beatrix had no children of her own, but she was actively involved in the life of William's nephews and nieces and with the Girl Guides, a sister organization of the Girl Scouts.

Another view of Hilltop Farm

Beatrix Potter Heelis died in 1943, at the age of 77, leaving a lasting legacy of over 23 children's books and other writings. Most of her estate was left to the National Trust, to preserve the Lake District. William died 18 months later.

Yes, there is “something delicious about writing the first words of a story.” It’s a leap of faith that Madeleine L’Engle likened to walking on water. For Beatrix Potter, those first words took her far, to a place of beauty and serenity at Hilltop Farm and to immortality as a children's writer.

The Stark Raving Mythopath recommends Miss Potter, a 2006 movie version of the life of Beatrix Potter, starring Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor. And of course, I recommend all the charming stories written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter. 


And if you'd like to know more about how The Tale of Peter Rabbit came to be written, click here. It all began with a letter to a sick little boy. . . .