The Tale of Beatrix Potter Traci Nissen Bemidji State University VSAR 3600 Fall

Once upon a time, on July 28, 1866, a little girl was born in Kensington, London. She was named Helen Beatrix Potter. Her family was wealthy but she was raised by many nurses and spent a lot of time alone, even after her brother was born. 2

Little Beatrix had very protective parents so her best friends were her pets … frogs lizards snakes tortoises and rabbits 3

Beatrix loved her pets so much that she began to draw them, especially her bunnies Benjamin Bouncer and Peter Piper. 4

5 Beatrix and her family went on many vacations to a beautiful place called the Lake District. Here Beatrix explored the woods and fields and caught wild creatures with her brother. And she drew and painted all of it.

In September, 1893, Beatrix wrote a picture letter to five-year-old Noel Moore, the son of her last nurse. He was very sick and she thought she could cheer him up with a story. “Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail and Peter.” And so began her writing career. 6

Miss Potter went on to write a total of 23 stories based on her pets. 7 The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902) Cecily Parsley’s Nursery Rhymes (1922) The Story of A Fierce Bad Rabbit (1906) The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes (1911) The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan (1905) The Tale of Tom Kitten (1907)

Around age 15, Beatrix began writing a special diary … a diary in a secret code! It was such a good code that when Beatrix grew up, even she had a hard time remembering the code. 8 Dear Diary –

But Beatrix had other loves in her life … 9

Beatrix was a dedicated scientist. She studied, and drew, fungi almost as often as she drew her pets. 10

And Miss Potter’s artistic skills didn’t end with bunnies and fungi … she also painted beautiful landscapes. Some of those paintings were used as backgrounds in her Peter Rabbit stories. 11

Beatrix met, befriended, and eventually fell in love with a man named Norman Warne, the youngest son of her book publisher. She accepted his proposal, but they never married … soon after the engagement he became very ill and died within a few weeks. 12 Norman Warne and nephew Fred; courtesy of a private collector

Miss Potter was in love with the Lake District she had visited as a child. When she grew up she bought Hill Top Farm in Sawrey. Many of her stories were about animals on the farm. 13

Hill Top Farm had much more to offer than just love of the land … for this is where she met her husband, William Hellis. They were married in October,

Beatrix Potter became very concerned with saving her precious countryside. With her profits from The Peter Rabbit books she began buying land for the National Trust, an organization which protects and preserves land and buildings. 15

Helen Beatrix Potter died on December 22, Her farm land, now totaling 4,000 acres, was left to the National Trust. Her cottage remains as it was when she was alive. And her voice lives on through the stories of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddleduck, Jeremy Fisher, and so many more. 16

References: x_en/TRA14360.html 17