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Tale of Beatrix Potter – Know the Author

Tale of Beatrix Potter – Know the Author


The celebrated children’author Helen Beatrix Potter was born on 28 July 1866 to Rupert and Helen Potter in Kensington, London. Both her parents were from an artistic background and they encouraged both their kids to draw. Beatrix had a habit of writing journal in codes. She is known for her simple tales for children. What made her stories unique is that the beautiful drawings of nature and animals that complimented the stories were drawn by herself.

Beatrix Potter in Her Childhood
Most of her animal characters were taken from her life. Beatrix Potter kept a lot of pets like rabbits, mice, frogs, snakes, lizard and even a bat. It was her rabbit, Benjamin that became an inspiration to write Peter Rabbit. The second rabbit she owned was named Peter Piper. Every year she and her family traveled to Scotland to spend the summer, which was her favourite time of the year when she explored the countryside. No wonder her stories have the flavour and fragrance of a countryside. Her love for nature, plants, animals and children are made obvious in her stories. She was a naturalist of her time when women were not. Beatrix Potter was an award winning farmer and in 1943, she became the first woman elected as the President of the Herdwick’s Sheep Breeder’s Association.
Beatrix Potter with Her Dog, Kep 
Did you know the original Tale of Peter Rabbit was a letter? It was written to entertain one of her governess Annie’s son, Noel who fell ill often. She drew picture along with the story. Later it was Annie who suggested to publish her stories. However, her stories were rejected by most of the publishers, so Beatrix Potter self –published her first story- The Tale of Peter Rabbit and distributed to her family and friends. Its success made Frederick Warne & Co. to reconsider if Beatrix Potter could do the illustration in colour. It became a bestseller in 1902 and was followed  by other stories. Every year Beatrix Potter published two or three little books and wrote a total of 23 books in her lifetime. As her eyesight diminished a few sketches from her sketch book had to be combined together for her later books. Her last picture book was The Tale of Little Pig Robinson, published in 1930.


The Tale of Kitty in Boots
The Tale of  Beatrix Potter
One of her story ‘The Tale of Kitty- in- Boots was hidden in the archives and the publisher Jo Hanks found the sketch and the rough manuscript in 2013.

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