About
Beatrix Potter was born in South Kensington, London, as the only daughter of Rupert Potter, a wealthy rentier. His father's property came from the Lancashire cotton industry. Potter spent a sheltered childhood with her brother Bertram, who was five years younger. She amused herself by painting, using specimens from the Natural History Museum or sketching the nature in the Lake District, where the family spent summer holidays. Potter also had pets, including rabbits. Her London home she later described as "my unloved birthplace". Potter never went to school, but was taught at home by a governess. She learned to read from Sir Walter Scott's novels and Maria Edgeworth's works. As a young woman she still lived at her parent's house. From the age of fifteen until she was past thirty, she recorded her everyday life in her own secret code-writing."Thank goodness, my education was neglected," Potter later wrote in an article, but actually she was much interested in science and spent much time in developing a theory of the germination of fungus spores. As a writer and artist Potter made her debut in the 1890s when she sent to a sick child illustrated animal stories, which found their way to the publisher (Frederick Warne and Company) and made her famous. In 1890 she published under the signature H.B.P. a small book of animal drawings, A HAPPY PAIR, which was accompanied by verses by Fredric Weatherley.
In 1893 Potter wrote a letter to a young friend, Noël Moore, the five-year-old son of a former governess. The text was illustrated with drawings of animals and contained the first version of THE TALE OF PETER RABBIT, the high-spirited bunny. Also some other characters, such as Squirrel Nutkin, first appeared in Potter's letters. The book was privately printed in 1901, and then published by Frederick Warne and Co; the publishing company which had first rejected it. Potter and one of the publishers, Norman Warne, engaged in 1905, but he died of leukemia only a month later. Potter turned back to her books as the one creative impulse left to her.
From 1905 onwards she spent her time on a farm in Sawrey in the Lake District. Since 1905 she had owned Hill Top Farm in Sawrey, but never lived there. The following years until 1913 were Potter's most productive. She published a number of children's books with watercolor illustrations, and oversaw the production and design. Later her works created an entire industry around them: pottery, tea-towels, soft toys, animated films. Her illustrations usually showed animal characters wearing human clothes, but otherwise Potter treated her characters, human and animal, without too much sentimentality. Betsy, the fisherman's wife from THE TALE OF LITTLE PIG ROBINSON (1930), has rheumatics, and Peter Rabbit is nearly caught by Mr. McGregor, who chases the frightened rabbit determinedly. It was important for her to write the stories both simple and direct. When an attempt to issue THE PIE AND THE PATTY PAN (1905) and THE ROLY-POLY PUDDING (1908) in a larger format did not gain success, the original small format of the book was found best and suitable for small hands.
At the age of 47 Potter married the solicitor William Heelis and gradually stopped writing. Potter died in Sawrey, Lancashire on December 22, 1943. Her home in the Lake District is open to the public. She left several thousand acres of land, including Hill Top Farm, the setting of several of her books, to the National Trust. Potter's journal, which she kept from the age of fifteen and which was written in an elaborate code, was deciphered and published in 1964. From 1992 to 1995 an animated series based on Potter's characters, was broadcast every Christmas and Easter around the world.
taken from here
Bibliography
Here is a complete list of books written by Beatrix Potter and the year they were published:The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902)
The Tailor of Gloucester (1902)
The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin (1903)
The Tale of Benjamin Bunny (1904)
The Tale of Two Bad Mice (1904)
The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle (1905)
The Pie and the Patty-pan (1905)
The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher (1906)
The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit (1906)
The Story of Miss Moppet (1906)
The Tale of Tom Kitten (1907)
The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck (1908)
The Roly-Poly Pudding (or: The Tale of Samuel Whiskers) (1908)
The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies (1909)
Ginger and Pickles (1909)
The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse (1910)
Peter Rabbit's Painting Book (1911)
The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes (1911)
The Tale of Mr. Tod (1912)
The Tale of Pigling Bland (1913)
Tom Kitten's Painting Book (1917)
Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes (1917)
The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse (1918)
Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes (1922)
Jemima Puddle-Duck's Painting Book (1925)
Peter Rabbit's Almanac for 1929 (1928)
The Fairy Caravan (1929)
The Tale of Little Pig Robinson (1930)
Sister Anne (1932)
Wag-by-Wall (1914)
The Tale of the Faithful Dove (1955)
The Sly Old Cat (1971)
The Tale of Tuppenny
Amazon links
These tales are a must to have, even if you aren't a child :) All links go back to amazon.com and open in a new window.book
Beatrix Potter: The Complete Tales
DVDs
Beatrix Potter Vol. 1
Beatrix Potter Vol. 2