Bio & Information
Helen Beatrix Potter (1866 –1943) Bio
Beatrix Potter was an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist; she was best known for her children’s books featuring animals, such as those in The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Born into an upper-middle-class household, Beatrix Potter was educated by governesses and grew up isolated from other children. She had numerous pets and spent holidays in Scotland and the Lake District, developing a love of landscape, flora, and fauna, all of which she closely observed and painted. Beatrix Potter’s study and watercolours of fungi led to her being widely respected in the field of mycology. In her thirties, Beatrix Potter self-published the phenomenally successful children’s book The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Following this, Beatrix Potter began writing and illustrating children’s books full-time. Potter wrote thirty books: the best known being her twenty-three children’s tales. With the proceeds from the books and a legacy from an aunt, Beatrix Potter bought Hill Top Farm in Near Sawrey in 1905; this is a village in the Lake District which, at that time, was in Lancashire. Over the following decades, she purchased additional farms to preserve the unique hill country landscape. In 1913, at the age of 47, she married William Heelis, a respected local solicitor from Hawkshead. Beatrix Potter was also a prize-winning breeder of Herdwick sheep, and a prosperous farmer keenly interested in land preservation. She continued to write and illustrate, and to design spin-off merchandise based on her children’s books for British publisher Warne until the duties of land management and her diminishing eyesight made it difficult to continue. Beatrix Potter almost left all her property to the National Trust. She is credited with preserving much of the land that now constitutes the Lake District National Park. Beatrix Potter’s books continue to sell throughout the world in many languages with her stories being retold in songs, films, ballet and animations, and her life depicted in a feature film and television film.
