Beatrix Potter, born in London, was educated privately at home. Both parents were from Unitarian families that became prosperous through the cotton trade. She grew up isolated from most other children, with drawing, nature, pets, her little brother, and governesses as her contacts with the world. In the 1890s, Beatrix Potter carried out experiments in natural history, illustrating plants, lichen, and fungi. When the difficulties of succeeding as a woman scientist became clear, she began a career as an illustrator of children's writing, and also Her best-known book, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, began as a letter to the young son of her former governess. It was first privately published in 1901. After she married at age 47 and bought a farm in the Lake District, her writing tapered off, and she focused on her personal life, her husband, preserving the natural landscape, and raising sheep. In 1930 she became the first woman president of the Herdwick Sheepbreeder's Association. Beatrix Potter wrote a diary in code from ages 14 to 31, deciphered and published in 1966.
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Once upon a time there were four little Rabbits, and their names were -- Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter. They lived with their Mother in a sand-bank, underneath the root of a very big tree. [The Tale of Peter Rabbit]
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"Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality. "
~ Beatrix Potter
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