Most people growing up would have at least once encountered the charming stories written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter, she certainly made a big appearance to me throughout my childhood. She is an amazing example of how woman born in the 1800s had such a hard time making something of there lives while they were still alive! Beatrix Potter was born on the 28 July 1866 and would become best known for her imaginative children's books that celebrated the British landscape and country life.
Many of her projects and stories started when Beatrix would smuggle small animals into the house or observe her surrounding during her family holidays in Scotland and the Lake District. Her uncle attempted to introduce her as a student at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew but she was very quickly rejected because she was female.
As time went on Beatrix was encouraged to publish her story, The Tale of Peter Rabbit however she struggled to find a publisher who would support her stories until it was finally accepted in 1902. That one small book and the many that followed were extremely well received by the public and she gained an independent income from the sales. (an amazing achievement for the times)
Beatrix was secretly engaged to the publisher Norman Warne but her parents hated the idea of her marrying someone who worked for a living. Sadly he died before their wedding making a breach between Beatrix and her parents.
In total Potter wrote 23 books, they were published in a small format, easy for children to hold and read. Her writing efforts become less around 1920 due to poor eyesight, her last major work was, The Tele of Little Pig Robinson, published in 1930.
Through out her life time Potter achieved so much she was also some what of a scientist, considered an expert in mycology. She was actually the one of the first people to make the connection that lichens were a symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae, her attempts to publish this knowledge was thwarted. She had to have her uncle read her paper at the scientific society because they did not admit females. Her painted recordings of microscopic images of fungi have been widely admired.
In her later years she bought and ran a sheep farm in the English Lake District. She loved the landscape and with her royalties from the books and her inheritance she bought up large areas of local land so the natural beauty could remain unspoiled She befriended one of the founders of the National Trust and in her will her left much of the property to the the Trust to insure her land was untouched. Her legacy is now part of the Lake District National Park.
Potter at the age of 47 married William Heelis, they had no children. She died in her home in Sawrey, Lancashire on the 22 December 1943.
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