Cold Open

It’s September 4th, 1893, in a large house in the Scottish countryside.

As she does often while on vacation, Beatrix Potter sits down to write a letter to the children of her close friend and former tutor, Anne Moore. Anne’s oldest son, Noel, is recovering from scarlet fever. The problem is…

Noel is often sick, and 27-year-old Beatrix has already sent him many letters. She fears she’s running out of things to say that a child might find amusing. So, she sighs and looks out the window at the forests and mountains for inspiration. Her mind begins to wander.

Across the room, Beatrix’s pet rabbit rustles in its cage, and then inspiration strikes.

Excited to follow the thought right away, she puts pen to paper.

“My dear Noel, I do not know what to write to you, so I shall tell you a story about four little rabbits whose names were…Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail, and Peter.”

They lived with their mother in a sand bank under the root of a big fir tree. “Now, my dears,” said old Mrs. Bunny, “you may go into the field or down the lane, but don’t go into Mr. McGregor’s garden.”

Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail, who were good little rabbits, went down the lane to gather blackberries. But Peter, who was very naughty, ran straight away to Mr. McGregor’s garden and squeezed underneath the gate. Beatrix looks over at her own rabbit, imagining what mischief he might do if she were to let him loose in a farmer’s garden. Smiling at the thought, she keeps writing.

When she’s satisfied with how this short tale has turned out, Beatrix Potter sketches some illustrations to complement the story, then seals the letter. She addresses the envelope and sets it aside to go out with tomorrow’s mail, having already put thoughts of troublesome rabbits out of her mind. But this small act of kindness will change her life, and indeed, the world—a legacy that will endure long after this moment of inspiration that created Peter Rabbit on September 4th, 1893.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham, and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is September 4th, 1893: Peter Rabbit’s First Tale.

Act One: Scientist & Author

It’s 1897 in West London, four years after Beatrix Potter first wrote about Peter Rabbit.

In a bright parlor, Beatrix pivots between a microscope and her journal, sketching pictures of spores. Beatrix is 31 years old, and at this moment, her passion isn’t writing. It's mycology: the study of mushrooms. She is convinced that the accepted theory of how they reproduce is wrong, and she’s writing a paper to prove it.

Beatrix's fierce love of nature was formed at a young age. Her wealthy parents employed private tutors to teach her, and their house was filled with small pets like mice, butterflies, and rabbits. The Potters loved taking the children and their pets on long summer vacations where Beatrix was free to explore the Scottish coast or England's Lake District. She occupied herself by studying and sketching nature. She started her first sketchbook at age eight, and by fourteen, she was journaling in a coded cipher she invented herself. A natural writer, she wrote of anything that interested her: art, society, her everyday life, but most of all, nature.

Thanks to her family’s connections, Beatrix met an amateur mycologist who taught her taxonomy: the study of naming, defining, and classifying groups of biological organisms. He also gave her a supply of mushroom spores so she could continue her studies on her own. Observing those spores is how Beatrix developed her theory of mushroom reproduction, that goes against the scientific consensus of the time. She plans to submit her paper to the Linnean Society, an organization dedicated to the study of the natural world. It seems the perfect place for Beatrix’s ideas, but the society’s rules officially ban women from attending proceedings or presenting their work. So, Beatrix has to think of a workaround.

She asks a male botanist friend to introduce the paper on her behalf. But although he happily does so, the paper is never published. Beatrix discovers that several samples she referenced in her paper are contaminated, which may have affected her findings. With a heavy heart, she withdraws the paper before the Linnean Society can officially comment on her theory. Beatrix continues to study mycology, but as time goes by, her attention is increasingly divided between science and the arts.

Beatrix is already earning an income by illustrating Christmas cards. But in the late 1890s, one publisher takes notice of Beatrix’s work and commissions her to illustrate some books. After that, a magazine buys a series of frog illustrations from her. This gives Beatrix confidence, and by 1900, she has set her sights on publishing her own illustrated stories. She shares this dream with her longtime friend Anne Moore, who encourages Beatrix to publish the stories she's written for Anne’s children over the years. The family has treasured and saved the letters, so Beatrix borrows them for inspiration. And after careful thought, she decides to base her book on the letter she wrote about a small rabbit named Peter. She revises the story and adds more pictures to flesh out the action.

But despite her track record as an illustrator, she is unable to find a publisher for the book. Not willing to abandon the idea, though, she self-publishes 250 copies of The Tale Of Peter Rabbit at her own expense and distributes copies to her family and friends. Among the recipients is Hardwicke Rawnsley. He’s published forty books of his own and is enchanted with Beatrix’s story. So, he decides to promote it personally and tours London’s publishing houses, advocating for Beatrix and her creation. One firm, Frederick Warne & Co., is eager to break into the growing children’s book market, so, decides to purchase the “bunny book,” as they call it.

Beatrix is excited by the news, but she isn’t complacent. She wants to make her book the best it can be, and insists on being involved at every stage of publication. She expands the book to thirty-two pages and demonstrates exacting standards when it comes to reproducing her original black-and-white illustrations in full color.

After all this hard work, The Tale of Peter Rabbit hit shelves on October 2nd, 1902, nine years after Beatrix first dreamed up the character. The book is an instant hit, selling 20,000 copies by Christmas. Thrilled with her success, Beatrix publishes two new books the following year, The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin and The Tailor of Gloucester, both of which are also based on letters to Anne Moore’s children.

But Beatrix’s books deliver more than just literary success. Through her work on Peter Rabbit and the other stories, Beatrix falls in love with her editor, Norman Warne. In 1905, Norman proposes, and Beatrix accepts.

But Beatrix’s parents disapprove of Norman. They don’t consider an editor to be of high enough stature for their daughter. So, they take Beatrix away on a family vacation, hoping time apart might cool off the couple’s excitement. But while they are away, tragedy strikes. Norman dies suddenly at the age of just 37.

Beatrix is devastated. She was engaged for just one month. Mourning the loss of her fiancé, she will flee her parents and take refuge in the Lake District. And for months, she won’t be able to face writing or illustrating another story. Instead, she will find new outlets for her creativity and new ways to heal her broken heart.

Act Two: Businesswoman

It’s 1905 in the Lake District on the northwest coast of England, a few months after the death of Beatrix Potter’s fiancé, Norman Warne.

39-year-old Beatrix walks a dirt path beside a field on her property, Hill Top Farm. Beatrix was able to buy Hill Top with the proceeds from her book sales. She'd hoped that the farm would be a private hideaway for her and Norman. But following his death, these thirty-four acres have become a place of solitude for Beatrix in her grief.

In her hands is a large package, she’s just picked up. She doesn’t need to open it to know what it is. She’s been expecting this: the newest item of Peter Rabbit merchandise, a china tea set.

After seeing how much children loved her characters, Beatrix wondered how she could bring Peter to life beyond the page. So, she designed and patented a stuffed rabbit wearing Peter’s blue coat. Children loved the story, and other products followed soon after.

So when Beatrix reaches the house, she unwraps the tea set and places it on a special shelf, alongside the original Peter Rabbit toy, a branded baby blanket, and a board game. Then she gets to work applying a new coat of paint to the living room wall. Improving Hill Top keeps Beatrix moving as she still mourns Norman. But it’s not just decorating her new home that takes up her time. During her first year at the farm, she throws herself into learning traditional farming techniques, and soon, her property is filled with pigs, cows, chickens, and sheep.

Slowly but surely, the combination of manual labor and the natural splendor of the Lake District helps Beatrix to heal. Finally, she feels able to return to writing. And over the next five years, she publishes two more books, The Tale of Ginger and Pickles, and The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse. The success of these titles brings her even more wealth and fame, and in 1909, Beatrix puts some of her money into buying Castle Farm, another property just across the road from Hill Top.

The deal was arranged by local lawyer William Heelis, and he stays on after to assist Beatrix with managing the two working farms. The pair grow close, and in the summer of 1912, William asks Beatrix to marry him. Beatrix has been here before. She knows her parents won’t approve of William—they’ll see him only as a small-town lawyer. But she does love him. And at forty-six years old, she’s an acclaimed author, a successful businesswoman, and completely self-sufficient. She is well past the point of needing her parents’ approval. So, she accepts William’s proposal, excited for the new adventure she’s about to embark on.

After their wedding, Beatrix and William move to Castle Farm. Beatrix rents Hill Top to tenants, keeping a portion for her private studio and workshop. And there, she pours her new happiness into two new books, The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck and The Tale of Tom Kitten. But finding time to write soon becomes more difficult, thanks to her latest passion: the breeding of the Lake District’s indigenous Herdwick sheep. Returning to her early interest in science, Beatrix experiments with the latest methods and employs the best shepherds and breeders. By the 1920s, Beatrix finds that the satisfaction of working with live animals makes it hard to return to her fictional ones.

But 260 miles away in London, Beatrix’s publishers, Frederick Warne & Co, are not pleased that their top author’s attention is divided. They send a pointed letter, stressing that they are eager for Beatrix’s next book. In an angry reply, Beatrix exclaims she is tired of writing the same stories over and over. Since Peter’s debut, she's written more than 20 books in her distinctive style, and now she feels that part of her life is done. She adds the finishing touches to The Tale of Little Pig Robinson and ships it off to her editor in 1930. This will be her final book.

After that, Beatrix will feel that she's met her obligations to her publisher and can turn the page. She will focus her boundless energy and passion on another new project, one that will return her to her beginnings and occupy Beatrix for the rest of her life.

Act Three: Land Conservation & Legacy

It’s January 1930, at a tidy office in England’s Lake District, around the time Beatrix Potter completed work on her final children’s book.

The now 63-year-old Beatrix and her husband William Heelis sit at a table alongside another man, the beaming Hardwicke Rawnsley. Hardwicke is Beatrix’s longtime friend and advocate who helped her first publish Peter Rabbit. Papers pass between the trio for signatures—but it’s not a book deal they’re discussing today.

35 years ago, in 1895, Hardwicke co-founded a charity called the National Trust. Its mission is to preserve the natural beauty of the United Kingdom. Today’s small ceremony marks the beginning of Beatrix’s official partnership with the Trust. The agreement states that she and William will purchase several farms in the north-west of England, then hold the properties until the Trust can afford to purchase them in seven years' time. It marks an important moment for Beatrix: the deal will secure the natural beauty of the land and guarantee her beloved Herdwick sheep ample grazing for many years to come.

After all her success as an author and decades after her early studies of mushrooms, the natural world is still Beatrix’s greatest passion—and she dedicates her remaining years to it.

When she dies in 1943 on Castle Farm at the age of 77, Beatrix leaves behind a vast and diverse legacy. Not only did she give the world Peter Rabbit and her other creations, but her merchandising strategies paved the way for characters like Mickey Mouse, Bugs Bunny, and countless others to enter the homes of children all around the world. And in scientific circles, her mycology work is still being evaluated more than a century later. But perhaps her most enduring gift is the one she felt the strongest about. In her will, she left most of her property to the National Trust: 4,000 acres of land, sixteen farms, and herds of livestock. Today, that bequest lives on as the Lake District National Park in the United Kingdom.

At its heart is Beatrix’s sanctuary: Hill Top. Her studio has been preserved exactly as she left it and is open to visitors from all over the world, people whose lives have been touched in ways Beatrix Potter could never have imagined when she sat down to write a letter to a sick child on September 4th, 1893.

Outro

Next on History Daily. September 5th, 1774. 56 delegates assemble in Philadelphia for the first-ever Continental Congress.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Supervising Sound Designer Matthew Filler.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Joe Godley.

Edited by Joel Callen.

Managing producer Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.