Editing Beatrix Potter (section)

===Artistic and literary career===
[[File:Peter Rabbit first edition 1902a.jpg|thumb|upright|First edition, 1902]]
Potter's artistic and literary interests were deeply influenced by fairy tales and fantasy. She was a student of the classic fairy tales of Western Europe as well as stories from the [[Old Testament]], [[John Bunyan]]'s ''[[The Pilgrim's Progress]]'' and [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]]'s ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]''. She grew up with ''[[Aesop's Fables]]'', the fairy tales of the [[Brothers Grimm]] and [[Hans Christian Andersen]], [[Charles Kingsley]]'s ''[[The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby|The Water Babies]]'',<ref>Lear 2007, pp. 30–1</ref> the folk tales and [[Scottish mythology|mythology of Scotland]], the [[German Romanticism|German Romantics]], [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]],<ref>Lear 2007, p. 95. She liked to memorise his plays by heart.</ref> and the romances of [[Sir Walter Scott]].<ref>Lear 2007, p. 35. Beatrix said she learnt to read "on" Scott</ref> As a young child, before the age of eight, [[Edward Lear]]'s ''[[:s:The Book of Nonsense|A Book of Nonsense]]'', including the much-loved ''[[The Owl and the Pussycat]]'', and [[Lewis Carroll]]'s ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland|Alice in Wonderland]]'' had made their impression, although she later said of ''Alice'' that she was more interested in [[John Tenniel|Tenniel]]'s illustrations than what they were about.<ref>Lear 2007, p. 34</ref>

The ''[[Brer Rabbit]]'' stories of [[Joel Chandler Harris]] had been family favourites, and she later studied his ''[[Uncle Remus]]'' stories and illustrated them.<ref>Lear 2007, p.131. She began eight ''Uncle Remus'' drawings in the same year 1893 she began writing the ''Peter Rabbit'' picture letters to Noel Moore, completing the last in 1896.</ref> She studied book illustration from a young age and developed her own tastes, but the work of the picture book triumvirate [[Walter Crane]], [[Kate Greenaway]] and [[Randolph Caldecott]], the last an illustrator whose work was later collected by her father, was a great influence.<ref>Lear 2007, p. 33</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=The Toads' Tea Party |url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1311941/the-toads-tea-party-drawing-beatrix-potter/ |access-date=9 October 2022 |work=V&A Museum}}</ref> Her earliest illustrations focused on traditional rhymes and stories like ''[[Cinderella]]'', ''[[Sleeping Beauty]]'', ''[[Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves]]'', ''[[Puss in Boots]]'', and ''[[Little Red Riding Hood]]''.<ref>Lear 2007, pp. 127–8</ref> However, most often her illustrations were fantasies featuring her own pets: mice, rabbits, kittens, and guinea pigs.<ref>Taylor, et al., ''The Artist and her World,'' pp. 49–70;  Potter, ''Journal, 1884–1897''; Humphrey Carpenter (1985), ''Secret Gardens: The Golden Age of Children's Literature.''</ref>

In her teenage years, Potter was a regular visitor to the art galleries of London, particularly enjoying the summer and winter exhibitions at the [[Royal Academy]] in London.<ref>Lear 2007, p. 47-8. [[J. M. W. Turner]] was the first artist to impress her.</ref> Her ''Journal'' reveals her growing sophistication as a critic as well as the influence of her father's friend, the artist [[Sir John Everett Millais]], who recognised Potter's talent of observation. Although Potter was aware of art and artistic trends, her drawing and her prose style were uniquely her own.<ref>Taylor, ''Artist, Storyteller,'' pp. 70–95; Taylor, ed. 1989, ''Beatrix Potters Letters''.</ref>

[[File:Beatrix Potter 'Toads Tea-party' c.1905 Bk of Rhymes (1917).jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|Potter illustration, "Toad's Tea Party", {{Circa|1905}}, which appears in her ''[[Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes]]'', 1917]]
As a way to earn money in the 1890s, Potter printed [[Christmas cards]] of her own design, as well as cards for special occasions. These were her first commercially successful works as an illustrator.<ref>{{cite news |title=Christmas cards designed by a young Beatrix Potter to go on display |url=https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/news/christmas-cards-designed-by-a-young-beatrix-potter-to-go-on-display-41166546.html |access-date=9 October 2022 |work=Belfast Telegraph}}</ref> Mice and rabbits were the most frequent subject of her fantasy paintings. In 1890, the firm of Hildesheimer and Faulkner bought several of the drawings of her rabbit [[Benjamin Bunny]] to illustrate verses by [[Frederic Weatherly]] titled ''A Happy Pair''. In 1893, the same printer bought several more drawings for Weatherly's ''Our Dear Relations'', another book of rhymes, and the following year Potter sold a series of frog illustrations and verses for ''Changing Pictures'', a popular annual offered by the art publisher Ernest Nister. Potter was pleased by this success and determined to publish her own illustrated stories.<ref>Taylor, et al. 1987, pp. 107–148; Katherine Chandler, "Thoroughly Post-Victorian, Pre-Modern Beatrix." ''Children's Literature Quarterly''. 32(4): 287–307.</ref>

Whenever Potter went on holiday to the [[Lake District]] or [[Scotland]], she sent letters to young friends, illustrating them with quick sketches. Many of these letters were written to the children of her former governess Annie Carter Moore, particularly to Moore's eldest son Noel, who was often ill. In September 1893, Potter was on holiday at Eastwood in [[Dunkeld]], Perthshire. She had run out of things to say to Noel, and so she told him a story about "four little rabbits whose names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter". It became one of the most famous children's letters ever written and the basis of Potter's future career as a writer-artist-storyteller.<ref>Judy Taylor 1992, ''Letters to Children from Beatrix Potter''.</ref>

[[File:Beatrix Potter dummy manuscripts.jpg|thumb|left|Potter's dummy manuscripts of three of her books – designed to see how the printed book would look]]
In 1900, Potter revised her tale about the four little rabbits, and fashioned a dummy book of it – it has been suggested, in imitation of [[Helen Bannerman]]'s 1899 bestseller ''[[The Story of Little Black Sambo]]''.<ref>Stevenson, Laura C. "A Vogue for Small Books": The Tale of Peter Rabbit and its Contemporary Competitors" [http://www.lauracstevenson.org/avogueoflittlebooks.htm] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120322073135/http://www.lauracstevenson.org/avogueoflittlebooks.htm|date=22 March 2012}}</ref> Unable to find a buyer for the work, she published it for family and friends at her own expense in December 1901. It was drawn in black and white with a coloured frontispiece. Rawnsley had great faith in Potter's tale, recast it in didactic verse, and made the rounds of the London publishing houses. [[Frederick Warne & Co]] had previously rejected the tale but, eager to compete in the booming small format children's book market, reconsidered and accepted the "bunny book" (as the firm called it) following the recommendation of their prominent children's book artist [[L. Leslie Brooke]].<ref>Lear 2007, pp. 144–7</ref> The firm declined Rawnsley's verse in favour of Potter's original prose, and Potter agreed to colour her pen and ink illustrations, choosing the new [[Edmund Evans#Later work and retirement|Hentschel three-colour process]] to reproduce her watercolours.<ref name="Hobbs15">Hobbs 1989, p. 15</ref>

[[File:Tower Bank Arms.jpg|thumb|right|Potter used many real locations for her book illustrations. The Tower Bank Arms, Near Sawrey appears in ''The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck''.]]
On 2 October 1902, ''[[The Tale of Peter Rabbit]]'' was published and became an immediate success.<ref>Taylor 1996, p. 76</ref> It was followed the next year by ''[[The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin]]'' and ''[[The Tailor of Gloucester]]'', which had also first been written as picture letters to the Moore children. Working with [[Norman Warne]] as her editor, Potter published two or three little books each year: 23 books in all. The last book in this format was ''[[Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes]]'' in 1922, a collection of favourite rhymes. Although ''[[The Tale of Little Pig Robinson]]'' was not published until 1930, it had been written much earlier. Potter continued creating her little books until after the [[First World War]] when her energies were increasingly directed toward her farming, sheep-breeding, and land conservation.<ref>Judy Taylor 2002, ''That Naughty Rabbit: Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit'';  Lear 2007, pp. 207–247; Anne Stevenson Hobbs, ed. 1989, ''Beatrix Potter's Art: Paintings and Drawings''.</ref>

The immense popularity of Potter's books was based on the lively quality of her illustrations, the non-didactic nature of her stories, the depiction of the rural countryside, and the imaginative qualities she lent to her animal characters.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qdVTAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA165|last=Kutzer|first=M. Daphne|title=Beatrix Potter: Writing in Code|page=165|publisher=Routledge|isbn=0415943523|year=2002|access-date=8 July 2019|archive-date=5 February 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210205185527/https://books.google.com/books?id=qdVTAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA165|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EvQcDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT99|last=Gristwood|first=Sarah|title=The Story of Beatrix Potter|page=99|publisher=[[National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty|National Trust]]|isbn=978-1909881808|year=2016|access-date=8 July 2019}}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Potter was also a canny businesswoman. As early as 1903, she made and patented a [[Peter Rabbit]] doll. It was followed by other merchandise over the years, including painting books, board games, wall-paper, figurines, baby blankets and china tea-sets. All were licensed by [[Frederick Warne & Co]] and earned Potter an independent income, as well as immense profits for her publisher.<ref>See Judy Taylor 2002, "That Naughty Rabbit"</ref>

In 1905, Potter and [[Norman Warne]] became unofficially engaged. Potter's parents objected to the match because Warne was "in trade" and thus not socially suitable. The engagement lasted only one month—Warne died of [[pernicious anaemia]] at age 37.<ref>Lear 2007, pp.198- 201</ref> That same year, Potter used some of her income and a small inheritance from an aunt to buy [[Hill Top Farm]] in [[Near Sawrey]], located {{convert|6|mi|adj=off}} west of Lake [[Windermere]] in the English [[Lake District]]. Potter and Warne may have hoped that Hill Top Farm would be their holiday home, but after Warne's death, Potter went ahead with its purchase as she had always wanted to own that farm and live in "that charming village".<ref>Lear 2007, p. 207</ref>