Picture Letters ll

First page of Beatrix Potter's letter to Noel Moore of 4 September 1893 - telling the story of Peter Rabbit for the first time.

The Tailor of Gloucester

Cover (later)

The success of Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit was partly based on her study, the real lovable rabbit of hers, Peter. Beatrix also did watercolours of the gardens, the potting shed, the tools, plants, nature and so the connection to the human activity of gardening entered the story. This success encouraged Beatrix to explore the picture letters and other ideas she had based on real life human endeavours. Consider her second and third books the Tailor of Gloucester & The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin. The picture letter about squirrel nutkin to Norah Moore formed the basis of The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin. It was an elaboration of an earlier letter to Noel about squirrels adventures on a river. All that summer(1901) she studied the red squirrels in the grounds of Lingholm, Derwentwater in the Lakes District of Cumberland, a favourite holiday place of the Potters.



Concurrently Beatrix worked on the other story based on a tale she had heard in Gloucester about a poor tailor in that town. The tale was about the tailor who went home leaving an unfinished suit only to return after the weekend to find it finished except for one buttonhole with a note 'there was no more twist' and then for him to conjecture that the "fairies" had completed it.
The tale was based on an actual tailor in Gloucester. Beatrix visited Gloucester to search out the shop and did studies of both the exterior and interior and features of the tailoring trade. In Beatrix's story the mice were the jolly tailors who completed the waistcoat sans buttonhole in return for the tailor saving them from a cat. This was to be her much loved Rhyme book much in the style of Caldecott and Crane whose work she admired. The rhymes were Christmas rhymes recited by carollers. The 18C costumes on display at South Kensington Museum where she went to do studies set the period although initially she went to study the owls there.
Beatrix again decided to go the route of self publishing and privately printed 500 copies. Warne was again to take up the book and publish them. A deluxe edition was published. The covers were fabric sought out by Beatrix from a mill in the Potter family.

Tomorrow the Pre-Raphaelite connection.

The Picture Letters of Beatrix Potter

Beatrix Potter drew from an early age. She had lots of pets and took to drawing them. Beatrix was close to her governess and when she married and moved away Beatrix kept up a good relationship with her. It was Beatrix's love of drawing and storytelling that prompted her to write her former governesses (Annie Moore) children on many occasions. Often the Potter family would holiday in the country and Beatrix would gather ideas from her pets, the farms, the people and the animals.
Beatrix wrote to Annie Moores children on a regular basis. She wrote the first picture letter to Noel, Annie's first son around 1892, it was about her trip to Cornwell and the harbour. By 1899 there were six Moore children, all of whom Beatrix wrote picture letters to.Her letters were about real people, real animals and real places. Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny, for instance were her own pets whom she wrote fantastic stories about.
In January of 1900 on visiting the Moores, Beatrix was encouraged by Annie to consider making the picture letters into books.
Beatrix was taken with the idea and as the children cherished their letters from Aunt Beatrix they had kept them and Beatrix asked if she may gather them up to copy them.
She selected a letter about Peter Rabbit that she had written to Noel in 1893. She added text and new illustrations to make it something more suitable for a book. She sent it off to 6 publishers who replied that they wanted colour illustrations which by 1900 were proving popular.
Beatrix however had other ideas. She wanted them in black & white to keep the cost down and therefore the purchase price as Beatrix was concerned about making a book affordable to most children. S0 she just went ahead and self published the Tale of Peter Rabbit, printing 250 copies privately, in black and white and distributing them herself. She sold out and ordered 200 more copies and they too were soon sold out. Warne & Co had expressed interest in the book but wanted it in colour. Norman Warne was finally able to convince Beatrix that colour copy would have a broader appeal and that it could be produced affordably. Even before the October of 1902
publishing date the edition of 8,000 copies was sold out. By years end 28,000 copies had been printed . By 1905 it was in it's 5th edition. It was a wholesale success.
Beatrix in effect had created a new form of animal fable, one in which anthropomorphising animals behaved as real animals, with animal instincts. In real terms Potter was successful in melding text and image in such a way that the illustrations enhanced the text.

Sources: Beatrix Potter by Linda Lear

Beatrix Potter - Renaissance Woman

In my opinion Beatrix Potter was a true Renaissance woman, and ... she was bloody brilliant. Not only was she a storyteller and illustrator extraordinaire, she was very observant, principled, determined and delightful person. She was way ahead of her time. In fact at first she did lots of watercolour studies of mushrooms and fungi amongst other things. Her powers of observation led her to discover the unknown reproductive qualities, the underground Mycellia of fungi. Of course she wasn't a scientist and was a mere woman so who would listen to her... you guessed it nobody as in those days it was the old boys club at Kew Gardens.

I have so much to say Idon't know where to start except to say you must read Linda Lear's biography, Beatrix Potter and do catch Miss Potter the movie, delightful. Tommorow the picture letters.

Just a tidbit today!

Miss Potter poster image-Wikipedia