Potter got to know several influential artists and writers through her parents, including painter John Everett Millais. Her mother Helen was skilled at embroidery and watercolors. Instead, he devoted himself to photography and art. Her father trained as a lawyer, but he never actually practiced. She was the daughter of Rupert and Helen Potter, both of whom had artistic interests.
Early Yearsīorn Helen Beatrix Potter on July 28, 1866, in London, England, Potter is one of the most beloved children's authors of all time. Potter's tales of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Benjamin Bunny and others have become children's classics. More than 20 other books for young audiences soon followed. In 1902, Potter published The Tale of Peter Rabbit, which launched her career as a children's author.
She loved to sketch animals and later invented stories about them. NEXT: Leader Resource 1: Picture of Beatrix Potterĭownload all of Faithful Journeys (Word) ( PDF) to edit or print.Beatrix Potter spent a solitary childhood with long holidays in the country.By observing, loving, and drawing her friends, she preserved her connection with the world of nature for children like all of you, and all of us, to share. Yet you need only to open one of her books to meet the animals and plants she loved. You can walk in the countryside, just as she did so many years ago when she was a young child. If you travel to England today, you can visit Beatrix Potter's farmhouse. When Beatrix Potter died in 1943, she gave four thousand acres to the National Trust, an English organization that protects and preserves beautiful, natural lands. Over time she bought more country land, to keep it as a natural home for animals and plants and not used for factories and houses. She knew them very well from spending time among them and observing their ways.īeatrix earned enough money from her books to buy a farm in the English Lake District, a place she had always loved. So began the tale of Peter Rabbit, which you may know, and children have been enjoying for more than a hundred years.īeatrix wrote and illustrated twenty-two more books, all about the animals that had been her friends in the English countryside: hedgehogs, frogs, ducks, house mice and field mice, and squirrels. She drew Noel a picture of the four young rabbits and their mother. She started her letter, "I don't know what to write to you, so I shall tell you a story about four little rabbits whose names are Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter." Have you ever heard of these little rabbits? Well, Beatrix Potter made them up, based on rabbits she had watched closely, and on her imagination. In 1893, Beatrix sat down to write a letter to five-year-old Noel, who had been sick in bed for a long time. But when Beatrix was grown up, her loving attention to the natural world earned her a different success than she had ever imagined. Her scientific sketches of nature, even though they helped make discoveries, were not the same as having a real job as a scientist. By observing these plants, she discovered that the lichen that grows on rocks and trees is actually a combination of a moss and a fungus. Beatrix was especially interested in mushrooms and mosses. The drawings and paintings she made were greatly respected by scientists who wanted to learn more about animals and plants and appreciated a close and careful look at nature. No one encouraged her to draw animals and plants, but Beatrix kept studying her friends in the natural world on her own. Beatrix's parents were very concerned that she grow up to be a proper young lady. It wasn't considered proper for a middle-class girl to have a job, particularly as a scientist. She planned to be a scientist when she grew up.īut Beatrix was young more than a hundred years ago. She wanted to know everything about the natural world. She drew detailed pictures of the plants and the animals she found. She kept country mice in a cage, and also lizards, snakes, and even a pet bat! In the countryside, Beatrix loved to spend hours out of doors. She brought the countryside back to London by taming wild rabbits as pets. Beatrix's family took long vacations in Scotland and the Lake District of England. She had the friendship she felt for all the animals and plants she met on her rambles through the countryside. There were no other children her parents would let her play with in their London neighborhood.īut Beatrix was not as lonely as you might think. Beatrix had no school friends, because she didn't go to school instead, a governess taught her at home.
True, the only child she had to play with was her brother, Bertram, and he was usually away at boarding school. True, she lived in a large city: London, England. You might think that Beatrix Potter was a lonely child.
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