"Once upon a time there were four little rabbits, and their names were — Flopsy, Mopsy, Cotton-tail and Peter."
With those words, English author Beatrix Potter created a character that has charmed children and adults alike for more than a century — and launched a career that added dozens more whimsical characters to her repertoire.
Potter, who was born in 1866 and died in 1943, lived an interesting life and left a lasting legacy not only in children's literature but in other areas, as well.
She found success at a time when options for women were severely limited; she was active in the conservation movement; she survived personal sorrow and the disapproval of her family.
Her books have become some of the best-selling children's classics of all time. "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" alone has sold more than 40 million copies worldwide and has been translated into more than 35 languages — including a recent heiroglyphics edition produced by the British Museum.
Her characters have been turned into collectible figurines, stuffed animals and other such forms. Her art has been shown in famous art galleries. Potter herself introduced a Peter Rabbit board game, and other accessories have come along.
Her stories have always been out there, but in recent months, her life has received new attention with the publishing of some new biographies and the release of a theatrical movie.
"Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature," by Linda Lear (St. Martin's Press, $30) focuses on the strong connections Potter had with the natural world, from the time she was a young girl through her years living in England's Lake District as a country farmer. "At a time when plunder was more popular than preservation, she brought nature back into the English imagination," writes Lear.
"Beatrix Potter: A Journal," (The Penguin Group, $19.99) is a picture book of sorts based on the journal Potter started at age 16 — and written in a secret code that was not decoded until years after her death.
"Miss Potter" (now playing at the Trolley Square Regency Theatre in Salt Lake City) stars Renee Zellweger, Ewan McGregor and Emily Watson and tells the story of Potter as she becomes a published author and struggles to overcome a domineering mother and the chauvinism of Victorian England.
The woman who has sparked all this interest was born in London, the daughter of wealthy and socially aspiring parents. Her parents tended to be overprotective and discouraged contact with other children. A younger brother, Bertram, was born when Beatrix was 6, and the two of them were educated at home by a succession of governesses. When Bertram was old enough, he went off to school, but Beatrix stayed at home, learning reading, writing, music and art.
The family summered in Scotland for the first 11 years of her life and later in England's Lake District. It was on these outings that young Beatrix fell in love with both nature and animals, and began sketching them.
While at the Lake District in the summer of 1882, the family became acquainted with a local vicar, Canon Harwicke Rawnsley, a man already concerned about the toll tourism and industry was taking on the area. He would go on to help found The National Trust, an organization designed to preserve and protect land and buildings of importance. Potter would become involved with their work in her later years.
When Potter finished her school work, her parents appointed her their housekeeper and discouraged further intellectual studies — but she was not content to be just a domestic servant. She began studying lichens and fungi, and began painting images of them. Because she was female, she was not allowed to become a student at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. In 1897, she wrote a paper on the germination of spores that was presented to the Linnean Society by her uncle, as females were also banned from those meetings.
Potter had always kept a number of pets, including rabbits she named Benjamin Bouncer and Peter Piper, and a hedgehog named Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle. They became the basis for not only a series of drawing but also her stories.
In 1893, she wrote a story of a naughty rabbit named Peter that she sent as a picture letter to the 5-year-old son of a former governess. She later decided to write it as a book for children, but it was rejected by a number of publishers. She printed a version herself, and in 1902, Frederick Warne & Co. agreed to publish it. The book was an instant hit, and more soon followed.
Most of her dealing with the publisher were with the family's youngest son, Norman, and the two became friends. When Norman asked her to marry him, she accepted, even though her parents did not approve of her marrying someone in "trade."
The wedding never took place, however. Soon after the engagement Norman became ill and died of pernicious anemia.
In her grief, Potter decided to move from London. She took some of the money she was earning from her books and bought Hill Top Farm, in the village of Sawrey in the Lake District.
Over the following decades, Potter added to her land holdings in the area, in order to save it from development and preserve its natural beauty. In this cause, she worked with a local solicitor named William Heelis, who shared her interest in conservation. The two were married in 1913.
Many of her later stories were set in this area. She also devoted herself to farming and the breeding of Herdwick sheep, a rare breed indigenous to the area.
When Beatrix Potter Heelis died in 1943, she bequeathed some 4,000 acres — and her herd of sheep — to the National Trust.
E-mail: carma@desnews.com