Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature

Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature
by Linda Lear

Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature
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Book Summary Information

Author: Linda Lear
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-03-04
ISBN: 0312377967
Number of pages: 608
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin

Book Reviews of Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature

Book Review: More Than a Rabbit
Summary: 4 Stars

Linda Lear's story about Beatrix Potter opens up a world so very far beyond the image of a Victorian author dabbling in children's books. Ms Potter was a self-taught naturalist who also happened to write stories and poetry for children. If you stop and really look at her illustrations, you understand how intimately she knew each animal she drew.

The first part of the book heavily concentrates on Beatrix's studies of fungi and her struggle to have her research accepted by the Natural History Museum's "experts". It is painfully obvious that she is being treated like a silly woman who doesn't really understand things like germination of spores and symbiotic relations, even though she was better informed than they. Beatrix will run into this chauvinism throughout her life but has the mettle to persevere until she succeeds. In 1942 when the antibiotic properties of penicillin were being investigated as having curative possibilities, Potter wrote in her notebook of how she and her mentor, the naturalist Charles McIntosh, had speculated about the application of a number of fungi in the same manner.

Her relation with Publisher Norman Warne brings her books and illustrations to publication; but more importantly, it gives her the financial independence which she seeks. It's not that she feels a burden to her parents, I think quite the opposite. They are, in fact, dependent on her to keep the house and staff running smoothly as well as arranging the moves to the properties which her father leases each summer in the Lake District. Thus her mother resists Beatrix's desire to marry Norman, judging him most unsuitable as a man in trade. She carries on, making up stories and poems and drawing the nature surrounding her. Her picture letters to the children of her former nanny form the basis for Peter Rabbit as well as Benjamin Bunny. The sketchbooks from a lifetime in the country provide the background to her stories, from Farmer McGregor's remarkable resemblance to Charles McIntosh to the pictures of fabrics she copied from the Victoria & Albert and used in The Tailor of Gloucester.

As Beatrix gains financially she buys Hill Top Farm near where the family spent their summers. The author's descriptions of the Lake District and Beatrix working to preserve the area through the National Trust make you yearn to jump on the next plane so you can walk the fells, visit Near Sawry and see for yourself Hill Top Farm and Castle Cottage knowing that they're still exactly as they were in the first half of the 20th century. She was so firm in her intention to maintain the character of the district, she refused to have electricity put into Hill Top Farm. Her writing and painting seem to have become secondary to the maintenance of her fell farms, breeding of Herdwicke Sheep & the preservation of the Lake District. She used her royalties plus the not inconsiderable inheritances from her family to enlarge her holdings. All of her properties were left to the National Trust & are all now contained in the Lake District National Park, just waiting for us to visit.

Even with her devotion to the character of the Lake District, Beatrix will always be best known for her stories and her wonderful paintings. The royalties & copyrights were bequeathed to Frederick Warne upon her husband's death. Warne Publishing has issued Beatrix Potter: The Complete Tales. It is a welcome companion to Linda Lear's book which suffers only because there is not room for all the illustrations. No need to have a grandchild in hand to enjoy these tales with their very personal illustrations. They are for all of us.

Summary of Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature

In this remarkable biography, Linda Lear offers a new look at the extraordinary woman who gave us some of the most beloved children?s books of all time. Potter found freedom from her conventional Victorian upbringing in the countryside. Nature inspired her imagination as an artist and scientific illustrator, but The Tale of Peter Rabbit brought her fame, financial success, and the promise of happiness when she fell in love with her editor Norman Warne. After his tragic and untimely death, Potter embraced a new life as the owner of Hill Top Farm in the English Lake District and a second chance at happiness. As a visionary landowner, successful farmer and sheep-breeder, she was able to preserve the landscape that had inspired her art. Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature reveals a lively, independent and passionate woman, whose art was timeless, and whose generosity left an indelible imprint on the countryside.

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