So Much More than Peter

Although she is certainly best remembered - and arguably most loved - for her creation of Peter Rabbit and his woodland and barnyard friends, Beatrix Potter was so much more than the author/illustrator of children's books. That became evident the further I read in Linda Lear's marvellous biography Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature. In fact, years before Peter, Beatrix was a very knowledgeable amateur scientist, with a particular interest in fungi. She made incredibly detailed illustrations of these as well as other plants which are still studied today. And some of her observations about fungal reproduction and spores were decades ahead of their time. While not appreciated when she made them (especially with the double curse of being an amateur and female), they were subsequently borne out.


Despite having to deal with somewhat difficult parents, Beatrix was a very fortunate girl and young woman. She was well educated, albeit at home with governesses, never attending school (something she was grateful for later, saying school would have rubbed off some of her originality). Her parents were very well off and able to indulge her interests, whether she needed new reference books or art lessons. She was able to experience life outside of London on annual holidays to places like Scotland, Wales and the Lake District. And her parents were tolerant enough to accept the wide variety of creatures she and her brother kept in their third-floor schoolroom. Really, her parents were probably just conventional Victorians of a certain class who expected a dutiful daughter to care for them - not one as ambitious and energetic as Beatrix. All things considered, Beatrix was certainly far better off than most women of her era I'm sure.

Beatrix's most productive years, literature-wise, actually constitute a relatively small portion of her life, mainly in the first decade and a half of the 1900's. Subsequently, with her Peter Rabbit et al proceeds as well as some family inheritances, her focus turned increasingly to farming and land preservation. In conjunction with the National Trust, Beatrix was almost single-handedly responsible for saving huge swaths of land in her beloved Lake District. She was also a canny shepherd, and worked hard to preserve and promote the hardy Herdwick breed of sheep native to the region. Other areas of interest included the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides whose camps she welcomed on her land and classic furniture (especially old oak pieces from the area). And, although she really didn't write or illustrate much in her later years, she did become close with the editor of Horn Book magazine and kept abreast of the world of children's literature.

She certainly was a busy and active woman, very much involved in her community. Just reading about all her work left me feeling slightly exhausted! Although it would have been nice had she written more, I respect her choice to move on to other things that she found more interesting and important. Unlike many authors, she had a relatively happy life in later years. She didn't let the tragic loss of her first love and fiancé blight her, enjoying a happy thirty year marriage with a local lawyer, despite her demanding parents' disapproval. All in all Beatrix Potter Heelis was a remarkable woman who left England a rich legacy in both literature and land.