Beatrix Potter  

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Helen Beatrix Potter (28 July 1866 – 22 December 1943) was an English author, illustrator, mycologist and conservationist who was best known for her many best-selling children's books that featured animal characters, such as Peter Rabbit.

Born into a privileged household, Potter was educated by governesses and grew up isolated from other children. She had numerous pets and, through holidays spent in Scotland and the Lake District, developed a love of landscape, flora and fauna, all of which she closely observed and painted. Her parents discouraged her intellectual development as a young woman, but her study and watercolors of fungi led her to be widely respected in the field of mycology.

In her thirties, Potter published the highly successful children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and became secretly engaged to her publisher Norman Warne. This caused a breach with her parents, who disapproved of her marrying someone of lower social status. Warne died before the wedding could take place.

Potter began writing and illustrating children's books full time. Having become financially independent of her parents, she was able to buy a farm in the Lake District, which she extended with other purchases over time. In her forties, she married William Heelis, a local solicitor. She became a sheep breeder and farmer while continuing to write and illustrate books for children. She published a total of twenty-three books.

Potter died in 1943, and left almost all of her property to her husband who, after his death in 1945, left it to The National Trust to preserve the beauty of the Lake District as she had known it and protect it from developers.

Potter's books continue to sell well throughout the world, in multiple languages. Her stories have been retold in various formats, including a ballet, films and in animation.




Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Beatrix Potter" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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