The Tale of Beatrix Potter
Beatrix Potter was born July 28, 1866, London. When Beatrix Potter was a kid, women still didn’t have much rights. Beatrix was sad. She wanted to have her own rights. Not only that, there were bars on the widow in her room to prevent her escape! Beatrix was always lonely. Since she couldn’t go to school, she had a governess. Like most wealthy English families, Beatrix and her brother scarcely saw any of their parents. Beatrix’s only friends were her pets. She managed to sneak frogs, lizards, newts, snakes, salamanders, bats, mice, turtles, and a rabbit named Peter without her parents knowing.
Her first book was a letter to a sick boy with pneumonia. The book was called The Tale of Peter Rabbit. But Since no publishers would publish her books, she printed all of her books by herself. In 1902, an editor at Frederick Warne Publishers saw one of her books,. He wanted her to make the drawings larger and rewrite the book. Beatrix agreed to rewrite the story, but she said the book needed to be small enough to fit in a child’s hands. Beatrix finally got her way and The Tale of Peter Rabbit was printed. Later, she fell in love with her editor, Norman Warne.
In 1905, Norman asked Beatrix to marry him. Even though her parents disagreed, Beatrix still took the ring and they engaged. Three days after their engagement, Norman Warne died by pneumonia. Beatrix decided she would never love again.
But in 1909, she bought a farm called Castle Cottage and married William Heelis. Beatrix’s eyesight was too poor to continue drawing and writing. So she retired and started to spend more time with her husband and with the animals on the farm. In 1943, at the age of 77, Beatrix Potter died. And to this day, many children all over the world are still reading her 23 tales she wrote.
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