Potter, Beatrix ___ 1866-1943 ___ British ___ writer, illustrator

BIOGRAPHICAL SUMMARY
Beatrix Potter was born in London, the only daughter of a wealthy landlord. She was educated at home, and spent much time painting, using specimens from the nearby Natural History Museum. She also spent time in the Lake District, where the family went for the summer holidays. She kept rabbits and other animals as pets. Her parents entertained many guests, including Hardwicke Rawnsley who was to become one of the founders of the National Trust. From the age of fifteen until her early 30s she wrote a detailed record of her life in a secret code. Rawnsley encouraged her drawings, and another friend, Frederick Warne, published 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit', a book which came about because of the illustrated letters she had been sending to a sick child. Other books - now famous around the world - followed, as did her engagement to Warne. However Warne died tragically, and Potter then remained single until 1913, when she married William Heelis, a solicitor in Hawkshead. Together, they ran a farm in the Lake District, which, with the help of inheritance from Beatrix's father, they were able to enlarge over the course of three decades. In her will she left 14 farms and 4,000 acres to the National Trust, together with some celebrated flocks of Herdwick sheep. The code in her youthful diaries remained undeciphered until the 1950s.
A biography link
Wikipedia bio

DIARY DATES, CONTENT DESCRIPTORS
1881-1897 ___ childhood family domestic travel nature

WEB TEXT LINKS
about and some extracts
a few extracts and about

ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT LINKS
National Trust, Beatrix Potter Gallery

SOME PUBLISHED TITLES
The Journal of Beatrix Potter
 

May 2005, July 2008
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IMPORTANT NOTES AND CAUTIONS: 1) The first line of basic information may be incomplete in several ways: some historical figures have different names (titles, pen-names); their birth and death dates may be unknown or uncertain (g - guess, c - circa); similarly, their occupations may be unknown, or they may have had other jobs; and, for early diarists, I've used 'British' a bit too freely. 2) The biographical summary may not be accurate. It was compiled quickly from various sources, mostly on the internet, and the facts were not checked anywhere near as rigorously as they would have been if they'd been intended for publication in a printed form. 3) The journal dates and descriptors (which are in no particular order) must be treated with caution: since I have not examined the diaries myself, the descriptors are only guesses based on bibliographies, anthologies and internet biographies. 4) For the biography and etext links, I have ignored any sites with charges, and I have avoided, wherever possible, those with pop-ups or too much advertising. I have limited myself to providing three etext links where there is some variety between them. 5) For the original manuscript links, I have limited myself to providing a maximum of two (although, for a few diarists, their original diaries are held in more than two places). 6) I have provided the titles - chosen randomly - for up to three printed editions of the diaries.