Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Beatrix Potter
-
Standard Name: Potter, Beatrix
Birth Name: Helen Beatrix Potter
Married Name: Helen Beatrix Heelis
BP
gained fame as a writer of little books for children, about animals which to some degree resemble humans, illustrated in watercolour by herself. Some of them draw on fable, riddles, and fairy stories. She also created scientific drawings of plant life. Her ambitions as an author for adults remained largely unfulfilled.
RMW
's total reviews eventually numbered over one hundred and fifty. In her first year she considered children's books (including a title by Beatrix Potter
), books on design, and second-rate novels. Her efforts were...
Publishing
Alison Uttley
AU
rewrote it for eventual publication by Collins
. She sent a set of the Little Grey Rabbit books as a wedding present to Princess Elizabeth
in 1947 (and had, she said, a charming thank-you...
Friends, Associates
Angela Thirkell
Twelve-year-old Angela Mackail (later AT
) received a picture-letter from Beatrix Potter
(a neighbour and a very recently published author) featuring a rabbit and two squirrels.
Strickland, Margot. Angela Thirkell: Portrait of a Lady Novelist. Duckworth.
19-20, illustration 6
Education
Elizabeth Taylor
Betty Coles's first reading was Beatrix Potter
, then Lewis CarrollAlice in Wonderland and E. Nesbit
, whose Bastable stories she read over and over again. Though her parents were not bookish people she progressed at...
Education
Rosemary Sutcliff
Rosemary's mother was probably her most important teacher. She told her stories which, no matter how outlandish and fantastic, the very young Rosemary accepted as literal truth; she later imparted all kinds of varied information...
In The Palace on the Floor a little boy, Prince Picotee, builds a castle for his toy soldiers; his earnestness as a builder is laughed at by a little girl, Dimples. Dimples is disciplined for...
Textual Production
Flannery O'Connor
At about nine Mary Flannery O'Connor
gathered a small group of friends to whom, in a wooden play-house among the chickens, she would read from her pages and pages of handwritten stories about a family...
Textual Features
E. Nesbit
The guardian of two young cousins blows their inheritance and absconds leaving them nothing but a house and five hundred pounds. Fresh from school, the two girls respond differently: Lucilla is anxious but Jane Quested...
Education
Deborah Moggach
From her early reading DM
chose Richmal Crompton
's William Brown as her hero. She loved the way that Crompton and Beatrix Potter
used words that would be new discoveries to most of their child readers.
Moggach, Deborah. “Autobiography”. Deborah Moggach: About Deborah.
Sanderson, Caroline. “Deborah Moggach interview”. Mslexia, No. 55, pp. 51-3.
53
Textual Production
Rumer Godden
Following Frederick Ashton
's highly successful Beatrix Potter
ballet, filmed by EMI
, RG
published a book entitled The Tale of the Tales: the Beatrix Potter Ballet.
Godden, Rumer. A House with Four Rooms. Macmillan.
271
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Publishing
Rumer Godden
She was commissioned to write this book by Frederick Warne and Company
, Potter's publishers, having established herself as a Potter admirer by talks, an anniversary New York Times article, and her friendship with Leslie Linder
Education
Jane Gardam
When she was little Jean Mary Pearson's father (later unapproachable) would read Hans Andersen
to her, which she loved. She was considered by her family not to be intelligent, but she taught herself to read...
Education
Margaret Forster
As a very small child MF
was noisy and demanding and given to tantrums.
Forster, Margaret. Hidden Lives. Viking.
121-2
At two she talked in long sentences . . . and never stopped asking questions and wanting to try to...
Education
Margiad Evans
An important book in Peggy's early childhood was Tom Kitten by Beatrix Potter
. The delicate little home pictures of that delicious masterpiece spoke to her as potential artist.
Weatherly, Frederic E., and Beatrix Potter. A Happy Pair. Hildesheimer and Faulkner; Geo. C. Whitney, 1890.
Potter, Beatrix. Appley Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes. Frederick Warne, 1917.
Potter, Beatrix. Dear Ivy, Dear June: Letters from Beatrix Potter. Other Press, for the Friends of the Osborne and Lillian H. Smith Collections, Toronto Public Library, 1977.
Potter, Beatrix, and Katherine Sturges. Sister Anne. David McKay, 1932.
Potter, Beatrix. The Fairy Caravan. David McKay, 1929.
Potter, Beatrix. “The Fairy Clogs”. Country Life.
Potter, Beatrix et al. The Journal of Beatrix Potter from 1881-1897. Frederick Warne, 1966.
Potter, Beatrix. The Tailor of Gloucester. Frederick Warne, 1903.
Potter, Beatrix. The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse. Frederick Warne, 1918.
Potter, Beatrix. The Tale of Little Pig Robinson. Frederick Warne, 1930.
Potter, Beatrix. The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher. Frederick Warne, 1906.
Potter, Beatrix. The Tale of Mr. Tod. Frederick Warne, 1964.
Potter, Beatrix. The Tale of Peter Rabbit. Privately printed, Strangeways.
Potter, Beatrix. The Tale of Pigling Bland. Frederick Warne, 1913.
Potter, Beatrix. The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin. Frederick Warne, 1903.
Findlay, Walter Philip Kennedy et al. Wayside and Woodland Fungi. Frederick Warne, 1967.