Beatrix Potter | British Author - Encyclopedia Britannica

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience and security. Ask the Chatbot Games & Quizzes History & Society Science & Tech Biographies Animals & Nature Geography & Travel Arts & Culture ProCon Money Videos Beatrix Potter Introduction References & Edit History Quick Facts & Related Topics Images Quizzes Classic Children’s Books Quiz A Quiz About Children’s Authors Who Said It? Quotations of Women in Literature Quiz Contents Literature Novels & Short Stories Novelists L-Z CITE verifiedCite While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Select Citation Style MLA APA Chicago Manual of Style Copy Citation Share Share Share to social media Facebook X URL https://www.britannica.com/biography/Beatrix-Potter Feedback External Websites Feedback Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Feedback Type Select a type (Required) Factual Correction Spelling/Grammar Correction Link Correction Additional Information Other Your Feedback Submit Feedback Thank you for your feedback

Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.

External Websites

• ABC listen - Overnights - Lady of the Lakes - the story of Beatrix Potter and her cast of characters.
• National Endowment for the Humanities - Beatrix PotterÂ’s Quiet Rebellion
• American Society of Authors and Writers - Beatrix Potter
• National Trust - Beatrix Potter
• Official Site of The Beatrix Potter Society
• Historic UK - Beatrix Potter
• Victoria and Albert Museum - Introducing Beatrix Potter
• The Linnean Society - Beatrix Potter (1866�1943)
• Arkansas Heritage - The Amazing Life and Works of Beatrix Potter
• Spartacus Educational - Biography of Beatrice Potter
• The Victorian Web - Beatrix Potter

Britannica Websites Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students.

• Beatrix Potter - Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)
• Beatrix Potter - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up)

Beatrix Potter British author Ask Anything Homework Help Also known as: Helen Beatrix Potter Written and fact-checked by Britannica Editors Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Britannica Editors Last updated Dec. 18, 2025 •History Britannica AI Ask Anything Homework Help Table of Contents Table of Contents Ask Anything

Beatrix Potter (born July 28, 1866, South Kensington, Middlesex [now in Greater London], England—died December 22, 1943, Sawrey, Lancashire [now in Cumbria]) was an English author of children’s books, who created Peter Rabbit, Jeremy Fisher, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, and other animal characters.

Potter, the only daughter of heirs to cotton fortunes, spent a solitary childhood, enlivened by long holidays in Scotland or the English Lake District, which inspired her love of animals and stimulated her imaginative watercolour drawings. On one of these holidays in Scotland, at age 27, she sent an illustrated animal story to a sick child of a former governess, about four bunnies named Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail, and Peter. The illustrated letter was so well received that she decided to privately publish it as The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1901). In 1902 it was published commercially with great success by Frederick Warne & Company, which in the next 20 years brought out 22 additional books, beginning with The Tailor of Gloucester (1903), The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin (1903), and The Tale of Benjamin Bunny (1904). The tiny books, which she designed so that even the smallest children could hold them, combined a deceptively simple prose, concealing dry North Country humour, with illustrations in the best English watercolour tradition. (In old age, as her sight deteriorated, she lost much of her freshness of vision, and her last few stories, written for publication in the United States, did not match her earlier work in style or draftsmanship.)

Quick Facts In full: Helen Beatrix Potter (Show more) Born: July 28, 1866, South Kensington, Middlesex [now in Greater London], England (Show more) Died: December 22, 1943, Sawrey, Lancashire [now in Cumbria] (aged 77) (Show more) Notable Works: “The Tale of Peter Rabbit” (Show more) On the Web: National Endowment for the Humanities - Beatrix PotterÂ’s Quiet Rebellion (Dec. 06, 2025) (Show more) See all related content

During her summer trips with her parents, Potter also closely studied fungi, of which she made detailed drawings; she wrote a paper on spore germination that was read before the Linnean Society in 1897. Despite strong parental opposition, she became engaged in 1905 to Norman Warne, the son of her publisher, and after his sudden death a few months later she spent much of her time alone at Hill Top, a small farm in the village of Sawrey in the Lake District, bought with the proceeds of a legacy and the royalties from her books. In 1913 she married her solicitor, William Heelis, and spent the last 30 years of her life extending her farm property and breeding Herdwick sheep. She bequeathed her land to the National Trust, which maintains the Hill Top farmhouse as it was when she lived in it.

Britannica Quiz Classic Children’s Books Quiz This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.