Born: July 28, 1866, South Kensington, Middlesex
[now in Greater London], England
Died: Dec 22, 1943, Sawrey, Lancashire [now in Cumbria]
Beatrix Potter was English writer and illustrator of children’s books, born in London, and privately educated. During most of her adult life, she lived in a farm cottage in Sawrey, Westmoreland County, where she kept many animals as pets. Unsuccessful in attempts to publish her serious botanical work (watercolour studies of fungi), she wrote and published privately for an invalid child The Tale of Peter Rabbit. This story about the first of many animal characters she was to create became a children’s classic throughout the world. Other diminutive animal characters created by her include Benjamin Bunny, Jemima Puddle-Duck, and Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle. Inseparable from her whimsical tales are her delicate but exact and detailed watercolour illustrations depicting her characters in domestic scenes. Potter’s other works include The Tailor of Gloucester (1902) and The Tale of Tom Kitten (1907). Interested in the preservation of the natural landscape, she bequeathed her property in Sawrey to the National Trust, which also maintains her home as a museum.
