Beatrix was a very lonely child until her brother, 6 years younger, was old enough to join her in her artistic explorations.
She named one of her pet mice Hunca Munca. Her rabbit, of course, was Peter.
She herself published the first edition of Peter Rabbit, printing 250 copies for, as she put it, obliging aunts.
Throughout her childhood, she kept diaries written in a secret code so small that researchers had to use a magnifying glass to decipher it.
The magpie on this page was drawn from birds at the Zoological
Gardens,
her source for live animals she couldnt catch herself.
Though a popular childrens author, she was dismissed by many critics as an amateur.
After 1930, she abandoned writing to raise sheep.
She said about her writing, I have made stories to please myself, because I never grew up.
Bruce Van Patter
