Beatrix Potter

by Whitey

As we all know, Beatrix Potter was the author of those wonderful animal stories, the best known being The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Beatrix was born to a well-to-do London family and seems to have had a very lonely childhood, her only friend her brother Bertram. Beatrix was taught at home and spent many hours drawing and painting animals and plants . In the summers her isolation was broken when the family holidayed in the Lake District of England where she could pursue her love of nature. In 1893, Beatrix’s story of that bad bunny, Peter, was published and was followed by her many other books which introduced her animal friends to children all over the world. She married at age forty-seven and lived in her beloved countryside for the remainder of her life. She wrote little after her marriage and instead became a sheep farmer, indulging in her love of animals with many pets, including, of course, cats. Beatrix made animals come to life and surely influenced attitudes of love and caring for them among the millions of boys and girls who read her books.