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Henry F. Potter (commonly referred to as "Mr. Potter" or just "Potter") is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the 1946 Frank Capra film It's a Wonderful Life. He occupies slot #6 on the American Film Institute's list of the 50 Greatest Villains in American film history (in its 2003 list entitled AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains). Mr. Potter was portrayed by veteran actor Lionel Barrymore.

The persona of Mr. Henry F. Potter[link]

Throughout the entire film, Henry F. Potter is a heartless, cold, apathetic, and downright evil man. Everything that Mr. Potter does in the film is motivated by money and greed. Be it "saving" George Bailey's clients during a bank run or offering George the job of his dreams, all are thinly veiled plots to fill his own wallet.

Not much is revealed about his personal life aside that he is single, and never has had a wife, children or any close or distant family members, and he uses a wheelchair for reasons that are never explained (which is due to the actor Lionel Barrymore's real-life health conditions). Because of his disability, Potter always has the same mute bodyguard by his side, who travels with him wherever he goes and pushes his wheelchair for him.

Though he is also a mill owner, banker and slumlord, Mr. Potter is a businessman at heart. If there's one thing he's talented at besides making people's lives miserable, it's his ability to manage, plan, and keep order. During the whole length of the film, he seems particularly deft in the ways of finance and business, much to the chagrin of the good people of Bedford Falls. His business propositions may seem fair, even charitable at first, but his ulterior motives are of a far more sinister nature. Thus, he will stop at nothing so long as it means more money in his coffer and the downfall of the Bailey Building & Loan. In his first appearance in the film, he is seen being transported in a decorative horse and buggy, which causes the Angel 2nd Class Clarence Odbody (who is researching George's life) to ask "Who's that, a king?", to which his superior, Joseph, answers "That's Henry F. Potter, the richest and meanest man in the county!"

Early encounters[link]

In 1919, Mr. Potter, even before the story starts, has already tried many times (albeit fruitlessly) to nab the Building & Loan company from Peter Bailey, proprietor for many years. His first run-in with George Bailey was in the middle of a business meeting, when a very young George needed to ask his father, Peter Bailey, an urgent question about chemicals as he found cyanide in a child's medicine bottle at work. Potter is annoyed at Peter Bailey for refusing to foreclose on debtors who are past due, whereas Peter rebuts by saying the economic downturn has hit people hard, which will only be worsened by immediate foreclosures. When Henry Potter berates the elder Bailey, this infuriates the younger Bailey, who interrupts the business meeting to tell Potter he is nothing but mean-spirited. To Potter, this action by George convinced him further that the Bailey clan was annoyingly upstanding.

When Peter Bailey dies from a sudden stroke some years later, a 20-year old George must abandon his dreams of going off to college or traveling the world. Mr. Potter takes advantage of the crisis by attempting to take control of the Bailey Bros. Building & Loan, which he admittedly has the right to do as the principal shareholder in the company. The bereaved George must fend off Potter in order to save the Building & Loan. The rest of the savings bank's board of trustees endorses George's leadership, thwarting Potter's plans to take complete control of the Bedford Falls financial market; but it ends up costing George heavily. The board's decision is contingent upon the son taking over full-time management of the struggling, marginal business.

In one scene, Potter scoffs at the idea of a lowly man such as Ernie Bishop, the taxi driver, receiving a loan because George can vouch for his character. Potter snorts, "What does that get us? A discontented, lazy rabble instead of a thrifty working class." At that, George Bailey protests that those hard working people deserve a decent standard of living such as owning a properly equipped home, which the reasonable loans provided by the Building and Loan makes possible.

Later, in around 1930, when there is a bank run at the Building & Loan, Mr. Potter tries again to cripple the company. He offers fifty cents ($0.50) on the dollar for George's clients to put their accounts in Potter's bank. George refuses, and instead creatively offers each client his own honeymoon money ($2,000) to hold them over until the week ends, when the money arrives in the Building & Loan vaults, and the depositors decide to trust George, withdrawing no more than what they need for the week.

First real attempt: Temptation[link]

Years later, Mr. Potter's own investments and income are threatened by Bailey Park, a new suburb-like development upstart by George's company. Complaining that the Building & Loan has "been a boil on my neck long enough," Mr. Potter summons George to his office and extends him the job offer of his dreams. On condition that he turn the Building & Loan over to Potter, George will receive a plentiful salary with a bonus.

Mr. Potter, by this time, knows that George has always wanted but never received. There are four things Potter knows that George has always desired, and implements these in a dastardly scheme to coax the Building & Loan from George's safe hands.

Sensing George's desire to leave Bedford Falls behind and see the world, Mr. Potter proposes George an incredibly profitable career at Potter's company, running all of Potter's properties and financial affairs. George is offered an immense salary, benefits and business trips to New York City and maybe even Europe.

George initially takes the bait, and asks for 24 hours to talk it over with his wife, Mary. Potter agrees to let George think his offer over. But once he shakes Mr. Potter's hand, George somehow has an epiphany when he realizes Potter's true intentions, and refuses him.

Second real attempt: Arrest (and making George consider suicide)[link]

During World War II, Mr. Potter becomes head of the draft board in Bedford Falls. He is satisfied to see that George is ineligible to serve on the war front because of deafness in one of his ears; it is a scar and trophy from when his brother Harry fell through the ice at the age of nine and George rescued him from the freezing waters. Instead, George stays behind and fights the "Battle of Bedford Falls", supervising scrap metal and rubber drives, allocating ration coupons, and volunteering as an air raid warden.

On Christmas Eve 1946, George's brother Harry (serving as a U.S. Naval Aviator) is to return to Bedford Falls after being decorated with the Medal of Honor for saving the lives of countless soldiers on a troop transport in the war. George's scatterbrained Uncle Billy, an associate of the Building & Loan since Peter Bailey's days, arrives in Potter's bank with $8,000 to deposit and a newspaper in his hand. The miser is wheeled into the bank in his wheelchair by his long-term bodyguard, is greeted by four bankers and then, sarcastically, by Billy, who is brandishing a copy of the Bedford Falls Sentinel.

Well, good morning, Mister Potter! What's the news? Oh, well, well, well: Harry Bailey wins Congressional Medal. That couldn't be one of the Bailey boys. You just can't keep those Baileys down, now, can you, Mister Potter?

And after Potter acknowledges "Slacker" George's 4-F status (his deaf ear already having rendered him unfit for military service), Billy adds the frosting to the cake:

Some people HAD to stay behind. Not every heel was in Germany or Japan!

Uncle Billy then throws the newspaper (and the money he inadvertently wrapped inside of it) down on Potter's lap, and happily trots back to the register. Meanwhile, Potter goes into his office and discovers the $8,000 in an envelope, neatly wrapped, lying on the Sentinel. In his office, when Potter sees the money, he asks his bodyguard to wheel him back to the door. Taking a peek into the lobby and seeing the absentminded Uncle Billy frantically searching the bank for his envelope, Potter takes delight in the misfortune of the man who just taunted him. He hides inside his office, stealing the money, knowing the ensuing ruin that will happen for George's company.

Later that night, George has discovered Billy's slip-up. The company is inexplicably short $8,000 and the bank examiner is due shortly. George realizes what this means: bankruptcy of the company, scandal, and jail for whoever is responsible. If George goes to jail, Potter will control the Building & Loan, his family will suffer, and he will be shamed for the rest of his life. At first, he briefly entertains the notion of having his uncle accept responsibility for the act, but he realizes that he must save the bank. Obsessed with clearing his own name and saving the business his father started, George goes to the only person he knows who has enough money: Mr. Potter.

In this, George's ultimate moment of need, Potter merely taunts the desperate George cruelly.

Look at you... you used to be so cocky. You were going to go out and conquer the world. You once called me "a warped, frustrated old man"! What are you but a warped, frustrated young man? A miserable little clerk... crawling in here on your hands and knees and begging for help.

Although it is George, Potter also thinks about money: a meager loan would be enough to hold George over. When Potter asks for collateral for the loan, and George offers a $15,000 life insurance policy with a $500 cash value. Once more, Potter has an obsession over money and a disregard for human feeling, and delivers his most vile line in the film.

Why, George... you're worth more dead than alive.

Potter then telephones the police and puts out a warrant for George's arrest. The charges are of malfeasance and manipulation of funds. George, realizing Potter's statement might be true, walks out of the building and drives off, having lost faith in the world and mankind.

After the "Pottersville Sequence"[link]

Later that night, Potter sees George once more, happy, as if he had never lost $8,000 and was positively overjoyed at the thought of a prison term. "Merry Christmas, Mr. Potter!" he shouts. Mr. Potter responds: "And a Happy New Year to you, too! ...In jail!" This is Mr. Potter's final scene in the movie.

What Potter does not know is that George has just been shown a vision by his guardian angel. George was on the verge of suicide after his conference with Potter and made a wish that he had never been born. So, his guardian angel (Clarence Oddbody, played by Henry Travers) showed him what would have become of Bedford Falls had the man known as George Bailey never been born. The ensuing town is called Pottersville, which is a sleazy and dangerous city filled with jitterbug dance halls, whiskey joints, petty crime, and unhappy people with meaningless, amoral lives. This is the "thrifty working class" Potter had allegedly envisioned years earlier. With this George now realizes how malevolent and heartless Potter really is.

When George returns to town, he has triumphed over Potter, because he finally realizes that all he has done for Bedford Falls has resulted in a constituency that supports George more than they do Potter, making him an important leader of his community, deeply respected and admired. This is evident when most of the town raises a collection to help make up the financial loss, culminating with a massive advance supplied by George's wealthy industrialist friend Sam Wainwright that more than makes up the difference. Even though Potter still remains George's rival in business, he does not hold their trust or their love. With that kind of support, the young Bailey's eventual triumph over the aged Potter is all but assured.

Deleted scenes[link]

There was to have been a scene of Clarence appearing before Potter at his house to shame him for driving George nearly to suicide. Upon learning of the fate that awaits him after death, Potter is terrified and suffers a heart attack. The scene was deleted by director Frank Capra as Clarence's narration made it seem too macabre.^{[citation needed]}

Legacy[link]

Barrymore's screen persona inspired the mad scientist Simon Bar Sinister in the Underdog cartoon series.

External links[link]

• IMDB listing for "It's a Wonderful Life"
• IMDB listing and filmography for actor Lionel Barrymore

References[link]

Look up mister or Mister in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Mister may refer to:

• Mister (Mr), a common English language honorific
• MISTER, a personal rapid transit system
• A device that makes or sprays mist
• Mr. Mister, a 1980s pop band
• Mister (band), a Canto-rock band
• Mister (song), a song by Korean girl group Kara

See also[link]

• All pages beginning with "Mister"
• All pages with titles containing "Mister"
• Meister
• Master (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (July 2010)

Jeremy Fisher
Jeremy Fisher - 2009
Background information
Born	(1976-12-15) December 15, 1976 (age 35)
Origin	Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Genres	Breakbeat, folk
Years active	2001–present (solo)
Labels	Sony Music BGM Fish Hook Music Aquarius Records Wind-up Records
Website	jeremyfishermusic.com

Jeremy Fisher (born Jeremy Binns, December 15, 1976, Hamilton, Ontario) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. Fisher is based in Montreal, Quebec and was previously based on Vancouver Island, B.C. and in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.. Fisher's work is heavily influenced by folk and blues music, and his songs feature accompaniment by acoustic guitar, slide guitar and harmonica.

Life and career[link]

Fisher's mother is from Newfoundland. Fisher was a member of the Hamilton All-Star Jazz Band at Westdale Secondary School (Class of 1995), attended Camp Gesher in 1999, and became a camp counsellor at YMCA Wanakita.

He performed with the band The Obvious under the name Jeremy Binns, and some of his early songs that he performed with The Obvious, including "Lemon Meringue Pie" and "Kiss the Moon" are on his later albums. In 1999, The Obvious put out a self-titled CD.

To support his 2001 independent debut album, Back Porch Spirituals, Fisher spent six months touring from Seattle, across Canada to Halifax, Nova Scotia by bicycle.^[1] The tour, dubbed "One Less Tourbus", travelled 7500 kilometres, included 30 performances, and worked with the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy to raise funds for the "Tour des", promoting access to bicycle transport and to education for girls in Africa. Fisher has also performed as a sidewalk busker.

Let It Shine, his first album on a major label (Sony BMG Music Canada), was released on October 12, 2004. "High School", the second single from the album, won wide airplay on Canadian commercial radio and music television in early 2005.

In February and March 2005, Fisher toured Canada with Sarah Slean, and in April, he was a featured performer in the Canada Performing Arts Program at Expo 2005 in Aichi Prefecture, Japan.

In 2006 Jeremy toured with Xavier Rudd and opened for Rex Goudie on Rex's Outports Tour 2006.

Jeremy Fisher dueted with Canadian industrial music supergroup Jakalope on the track "Unsaid" from their Born 4 album, released in 2006.

His third album, entitled Goodbye Blue Monday, with fellow Canadian Hawksley Workman, was released on March 27, 2007 by his new record label, Aquarius Records. The single "Cigarette" was serviced to radio in Canada after a surprise add at Toronto radio station 104.5 CHUM-FM in early 2007. A home-made video for the song has been viewed over two million times on YouTube. On August 20, 2007, Fisher made his U.S. television debut on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. The following night, he again appeared on the Late Late Show but this time with Craig Northey and Pat Steward of Odds. Goodbye Blue Monday was released in the United States on August 28, 2007 through Wind-up Records.

In April and May 2008, Fisher opened for The Proclaimers on their North American tour. He also opened for several of Great Big Sea's Ontario shows in September 2009, eventually making a guest appearance on their 2010 album: Safe Upon the Shore.

His latest album Flood was released on October 26, 2010.

Fisher is currently on tour supporting LIGHTS. He appeared on the CBC broadcast of The Homestretch to perform "Naked Girl".[1]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

Singles[link]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sony BMG Jeremy Fisher site
• Jeremy Fisher Official Website
• Jeremy Fisher on Myspace
• Acoustic performance and audio interview, recorded April 2007 in Toronto, Canada

Beatrix Potter
Beatrix Potter
Born	Helen Beatrix Potter 28 July 1866 Kensington, London, England
Died	22 December 1943(1943-12-22) (aged 77) Near Sawrey, Cumbria, England
Occupation	Children's author and illustrator
Genres	Children's literature
Notable work(s)	The Tale of Peter Rabbit
Spouse(s)	William Heelis

Helen Beatrix Potter (28 July 1866 – 22 December 1943) was an English author, illustrator, natural scientist and conservationist best known for her imaginative children’s books featuring animals such as those in The Tale of Peter Rabbit which celebrated the British landscape and country life.

Born into a privileged Unitarian family, Potter, along with her younger brother, Walter Bertram (1872–1918), grew up with few friends outside her large extended family. Her parents were artistic, interested in nature and enjoyed the countryside. As children, Beatrix and Bertram had numerous small animals as pets which they observed closely and drew endlessly. Summer holidays were spent in Scotland and in the English Lake District where Beatrix developed a love of the natural world which was the subject of her painting from an early age.

She was educated by private governesses until she was eighteen. Her study of languages, literature, science and history was broad and she was an eager student. Her artistic talents were recognized early. Although she was provided with private art lessons, Potter preferred to develop her own style, particularly favouring watercolour. Along with her drawings of her animals, real and imagined, she illustrated insects, fossils, archeological artefacts, and fungi. In the 1890s her mycological illustrations and research on the reproduction of fungi spores generated interest from the scientific establishment. Following some success illustrating cards and booklets, Potter wrote and illustrated The Tale of Peter Rabbit publishing it first privately in 1901, and a year later as a small, three-colour illustrated book with Frederick Warne & Co. She became unofficially engaged to her editor Norman Warne in 1905 despite the disapproval of her parents, but he died suddenly a month later, of leukemia.^[1]

With the proceeds from the books and a legacy from an aunt, Potter bought Hill Top Farm in Near Sawrey, a tiny village in the English Lake District near Ambleside in 1905. Over the next several decades, she purchased additional farms to preserve the unique hill country landscape. In 1913, at the age of 47, she married William Heelis, a respected local solicitor from Hawkshead. Potter was also a prize-winning breeder of Herdwick sheep and a prosperous farmer keenly interested in land preservation. She continued to write, illustrate and design spin-off merchandise based on her children’s books for Warne until the duties of land management and diminishing eyesight made it difficult to continue. Potter published over twenty-three books; the best known are those written between 1902 and 1922. She died on 22 December 1943 at her home in Near Sawrey at age 77, leaving almost all her property to the National Trust. She is credited with preserving much of the land that now comprises the Lake District National Park.

Potter’s books continue to sell throughout the world, in multiple languages. Her stories have been retold in song, film, ballet and animation.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Potter at fifteen years with her springer spaniel, Spot

Potter’s family on both sides was from the Manchester area.^[2] They were English Unitarians,^[3] a Dissenting Protestant sect who rejected the doctrine of the Trinity and were socially and politically discriminated against. Potter’s paternal grandfather, Edmund Potter, from Glossop in Derbyshire, owned the largest calico printing works in England at the time, and later served as a Member of Parliament.^[4] Beatrix’s father, Rupert William Potter (1832–1914), was educated in Manchester and trained as a barrister in London. He married Helen Leech (1839–1932), the daughter of another wealthy cotton merchant and shipbuilder from Stalybridge, at Gee Cross on 8 August 1863. Rupert practiced law, specializing in equity law and conveyancing. They lived comfortably at No. 2 Bolton Gardens, South Kensington, where Helen Beatrix was born on 28 July 1866 and her brother Walter Bertram on 14 March 1872.^[5] Both parents were artistically talented,^[6] and Rupert was an adept amateur photographer.^[7] Rupert had invested in the stock market and by the early 1890s was extremely wealthy.^[8]

Beatrix was educated by three able governesses, the last of whom was Annie Moore (née Carter), just three years older than Beatrix, who tutored Beatrix in German as well as acting as lady's companion.^[9] She and Beatrix remained friends throughout their lives and Annie's eight children were the recipients of many of Potter’s delightful picture letters. It was Annie who later suggested that these letters might make good children’s books.^[10]

In their school room Beatrix and Bertram kept a variety of small pets, mice, rabbits, a hedgehog, some bats, along with collections of butterflies and other insects which they drew and studied.^[11] There is no evidence to support claims that any of these creatures were mistreated, or that the motive for their study was anything more sinister than natural curiosity and a desire to draw from life. Quite the contrary, Beatrix was devoted to the care of her small animals, often taking them with her on long holidays.^[12]

For most of the first fifteen years of her life, Beatrix spent summer holidays at Dalguise, an estate in Scotland in Perthshire on the River Tay. There she sketched and explored an area that nourished her imagination and her observation.^[13] Beatrix and her brother were allowed great freedoms in the country and both children became adept students of natural history. In 1887, when Dalguise was no longer available, the Potters took their first summer holiday in Lancashire in the English Lake District, at Wray Castle near Windermere.^[14] As a result, Beatrix came to meet Hardwicke Rawnsley, incumbent vicar at Wray and later the founding secretary of the National Trust, whose interest in the countryside and country life inspired the same in Beatrix and who was to have a lasting impact on her life.^[15][16]

About age 14 Beatrix, like many girls at the time, began to keep a diary. Beatrix's was written in a code of her own devising which was a simple letter for letter substitution. Her Journal was an important laboratory for her creativity serving as both sketchbook and literary experiment where in tiny handwriting she reported on society, recorded her impressions of art and artists, recounted stories, and observed life around her.^[17] The Journal, decoded and transcribed by Leslie Linder in 1958, does not provide an intimate record of her personal life, but it is an invaluable source for understanding a vibrant part of British society in the late 19th century. It describes Potter’s maturing artistic and intellectual interests, her often amusing insights on the places she visited, and her unusual ability to observe nature and to describe it. Begun in 1881, her Journal ends in 1897 when her artistic and intellectual energies were absorbed in scientific study and in efforts to publish her drawings.^[18] Precocious but reserved and often bored, she was searching for more independent activities and a desire to earn some money of her own whilst dutifully taking care of her parents, dealing with her especially demanding mother,^[19] and managing their various households.

Scientific illustrations and work in mycology[link]

Beatrix Potter’s parents did not discourage higher education. As was common in the Victorian Era, women of her class were privately educated and rarely sent to college.^[20]

Beatrix Potter was interested in every branch of natural science save astronomy.^[21] Botany was a passion for most Victorians and nature study was a popular enthusiasm. Potter was eclectic in her tastes; collecting fossils,^[22] studying archeological artifacts from London excavations, and interested in entomology. In all of these areas she drew and painted her specimens with increasing skill. By the 1890s her scientific interests centered on mycology. First drawn to fungi because of their colours and evanescence in nature and her delight in painting them, her interest deepened after meeting Charles McIntosh, a revered naturalist and mycologist during a summer holiday in Perthshire in 1892. He helped improve the accuracy of her illustrations, taught her taxonomy, and supplied her with live specimens to paint during the winter. Curious as to how fungi reproduced Potter began microscopic drawings of fungi spores (the agarics) and in 1895 developed a theory of their germination.^[23] Through the aegis of her scientific uncle, Sir Henry Enfield Roscoe, a chemist and vice chancellor of the University of London, she consulted with botanists at The Royal Gardens at Kew, convincing George Massee of her ability to germinate spores and her theory of hybridisation.^[24] She did not believe in the theory of symbiosis proposed by Simon Schwendener, the German mycologist as previously thought, rather she proposed a more independent process of reproduction.^[25]

Rebuffed by William Thiselton-Dyer, the Director at Kew, because of her gender and her amateur status, Beatrix wrote up her conclusions and submitted a paper “On the Germination of the Spores of the Agaricineae” to the Linnean Society in 1897. It was introduced by Massee because, as a female, Potter could not attend proceedings or read her paper. She subsequently withdrew it realizing that some of her samples were contaminated, but continued her microscopic studies for several more years. Her paper has only recently been rediscovered, along with the rich, artistic illustrations and drawings that accompanied it. Her work is only now being properly evaluated.^[26][27][28] Potter later gave her other mycological drawings and scientific drawings to the Armitt Museum and Library in Ambleside where mycologists still refer to them to identify fungi. There is also a collection of her fungi paintings at the Perth Museum and Art Gallery in Perth, Scotland donated by Charles McIntosh. In 1967 the mycologist W.P.K. Findlay included many of Potter’s beautifully accurate fungi drawings in his Wayside & Woodland Fungi, thereby fulfilling her desire to one day have her fungi drawings published in a book.^[29] In 1997 the Linnean Society issued a posthumous apology to Potter for the sexism displayed in its handling of her research.^[30]

Artistic and literary career[link]

Potter’s artistic and literary interests were deeply influenced by fairies, fairy tales and fantasy. She was a student of the classic fairy tales of Western Europe. As well as stories from the Old Testament, John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress and Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, she grew up with Aesop’s Fables, the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies,^[31] the folk tales and mythology of Scotland, the German Romantics, Shakespeare,^[32] and the romances of Sir Walter Scott.^[33] As a young child, before the age of eight, Edward Lear's Book of Nonsense, including the much loved The Owl and the Pussycat, and Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland had made their impression, although she later said of Alice that she was more interested in Tenniel's illustrations than what they were about.^[34] The Brer Rabbit stories of Joel Chandler Harris had been family favourites and she later studied his Uncle Remus stories and illustrated them.^[35] She studied book illustration from a young age and developed her own tastes, but the work of the picture book triumvirate Walter Crane, Kate Greenaway and Randolph Caldecott, the latter an illustrator whose work was later collected by her father, was a great influence.^[36] When she started to illustrate, she chose first the traditional rhymes and stories, “Cinderella”, “Sleeping Beauty", “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”, “Puss-in-boots,” and “Red Riding Hood.”^[37] But most often her illustrations were fantasies featuring her own pets: mice, rabbits, kittens, and guinea pigs.^[38]

In her teenage years Potter was a regular visitor to the art galleries of London, particularly enjoying the Summer and Winter Exhibitions at the Royal Academy in London.^[39] Her Journal reveals her growing sophistication as a critic as well as the influence of her father’s friend the artist Sir John Everett Millais who recognized Beatrix’s talent of observation. Although Potter was aware of art and artistic trends, her drawing and her prose style were uniquely her own.^[40]

As a way to earn a bit of money in the 1890s, Beatrix and her brother began to print Christmas cards of their own design, as well as cards for special occasions. Mice and rabbits were the most frequent subject of her fantasy paintings. In 1890 the firm of Hildesheimer and Faulkner bought several of her drawings of her rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, to illustrate verses by Frederic Weatherly titled A Happy Pair. In 1893 the same printer brought several more drawings for Weatherly’s Our Dear Relations, another book of rhymes, and the following year Potter successfully sold a series of frog illustrations and verses for Changing Pictures, a popular annual offered by the art publisher Ernest Nister. Potter was pleased by this success and determined to publish her own illustrated stories.^[41]

Whenever Potter went on holiday to the Lake District or Scotland, she sent letters to young friends illustrating them with quick sketches. Many of these letters were written to the children of her former governess Annie Carter Moore, particularly to her oldest son Noel who was often ill. In September 1893 Potter was on holiday at Eastwood in Dunkeld, Scotland. She had run out of things to say to Noel and so she told him a story about “four little rabbits whose names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter.” It became one of the most famous children’s letters ever written and the basis of Potter’s future career as a writer-artist-storyteller.^[42]

In 1900, Potter revised her tale about the four little rabbits, and fashioned a dummy book of it - it has been suggested, in imitation of Helen Bannerman's 1899 bestseller The Story of Little Black Sambo.^[43] Unable to find a buyer for the work, she published it for family and friends at her own expense in December 1901. It was drawn in black and white with a coloured frontispiece. Family friend Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley had great faith in Potter's tale, recast it in didactic verse, and made the rounds of the London publishing houses. Frederick Warne & Co. had previously rejected the tale but, eager to compete in the booming small format children's book market, reconsidered and accepted the "bunny book" (as the firm called it) following the recommendation of their prominent children's book artist L. Leslie Brooke.^[44] The firm declined Rawnsley's verse in favour of Potter's original prose, and Potter agreed to colour her pen and ink illustrations, choosing the then-new Hentschel three-colour process for reproducing her watercolours.^[45]

Potter used many real locations for her book illustrations, the Tower Bank Arms, Near Sawrey appears in The tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck.

On 2 October 1902 The Tale of Peter Rabbit was published,^[46] and was an immediate success. It was followed the next year by The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin and The Tailor of Gloucester which had also first been written as picture letters to the Moore children. Working with Norman Warne as her editor, Potter published two or three little books each year for a total of twenty-three books. The last book in this format was Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes in 1922, a collection of favorite rhymes. Although The Tale of Pigling Bland was not published until 1930, it had been written much earlier. Potter continued creating her little books until after World War I when her energies were increasingly directed toward her farming, sheep-breeding, and land conservation.^[47]

The immense popularity of Potter’s books was based on the lively quality of her illustrations, the non-didactic nature of her stories, the depiction of the rural countryside, and the imaginative qualities she lent to her animal characters.

Potter was also a canny businesswoman. As early as 1903 she made and patented a Peter Rabbit doll. It was followed by other “spin-off” merchandise over the years, including painting books, board games, wall-paper, figurines, baby blankets and china tea-sets. All were licensed by Frederick Warne & Co. and earned Potter an independent income as well as immense profits for her publisher.^[48]

In 1905, Potter and Norman Warne became unofficially engaged. Potters’ parents objected to the match because Warne was “in trade” and thus not socially suitable. Sadly the engagement lasted only one month when Warne died of leukemia at age thirty-seven.^[49] That same year Potter used some of her income and a small inheritance from an aunt to buy Hill Top Farm in Near Sawrey in Lancashire (now Cumbria) in the English Lake District. Potter and Warne may have hoped that Hill Top Farm would be their holiday home, but after Warne's death Potter went ahead with its purchase as she had always wanted to own that farm and live in "that charming village".^[50]

Country Life[link]

Hill Top, Near Sawrey – Potter's former home, now owned by the National Trust and preserved as it was when she lived and wrote her stories there.

The tenant farmer John Cannon and his family agreed to stay on to manage the farm for her while she made physical improvements learned the techniques of fell farming and of raising livestock, including pigs, cows and chickens; the following year she added sheep. Realising she needed to protect her boundaries she sought advice from W.H. Heelis & Son, a local firm of solicitors with offices in nearby Hawkshead. With William Heelis acting for her she bought contiguous pasture, and in 1909 the 20 acres (81,000 m²) Castle Farm across the road from Hill Top Farm. Visiting Hill Top every chance she got, Potter’s books written during this period (such as The Tale of Ginger and Pickles, about the local shop in Near Sawrey and The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse, a wood mouse) reflect her increasing participation in village life and her delight in country living.^[51]

Owning and managing these working farms required the routine collaboration with the widely respected William Heelis. By the summer of 1912 Heelis had proposed marriage and Beatrix had accepted, although she did not immediately tell her parents who once again disapproved because Heelis was only a country solicitor. Potter and Heelis were married on 15 October 1913 in London at St. Mary Abbots in Kensington. The couple moved immediately to Near Sawrey, residing at Castle Cottage, the renovated farm house on Castle Farm. Hill Top remained a working farm but was now remodelled to allow for the tenant family and Potter’s private studio and work shop. At last her own woman, Potter settled into the partnerships that shaped the rest of her life: her country solicitor husband and his large family, her farms, the Sawrey community and the predictable rounds of country life. The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck and The Tale of Tom Kitten are representative of Hill Top Farm and of her farming life, and reflect her happiness with her country life.^[52]

After Rupert Potter died in 1914, Potter, now a wealthy woman, found Lindeth Howe, a large house in nearby Windermere where her mother lived until her death in 1931 at the age of 93. Potter continued to write stories for Frederick Warne & Co. and fully participated in country life. She established a Nursing Trust for local villages, and served on various committees and councils responsible for foot-paths and other country life issues.^[53]

Sheep farming[link]

Beatrix Potter Heelis became keenly interested the breeding and raising of Herdwick sheep, the indigenous fell sheep, soon after acquiring Hill Top Farm. In 1923 she bought a former deer park and vast sheep farm in the Troutbeck Valley called Troutbeck Park Farm, restoring its land, its thousands of Herdwick sheep, and establishing her as one of the major Herdwick sheep farmers in the area. She was admired by her shepherds and farm managers for her willingness to experiment with the latest biological remedies for the common diseases of sheep, and for her employment of the best shepherds, sheep breeders, and farm managers.^[54]

By the late 1920s Potter and her Hill Top farm manager Tom Storey had made a name for their prize-winning Herdwick flock. As a Herdwick breeder she won many prizes at the local agricultural shows and was frequently asked to serve as a judge. In 1942 she was named President-elect of The Herdwick Sheepbreeders’ Association, the first time a woman had ever been elected to that office, but died before taking office.^[55]

Lake District conservation[link]

Potter had been a disciple of the land conservation and preservation ideals of her long-time friend and mentor, Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, the first secretary and founding member of the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty. She supported the efforts of the National Trust to preserve not just the places of extraordinary beauty, but those heads of valley and low grazing lands that would be irreparably ruined by development. She was also an authority on the traditional Lakeland crafts, period furniture and stonework. She restored and preserved the farms that she bought or managed, making sure that each farm house had in it a piece of antique Lakeland furniture. Potter was interested in preserving not only the Herdwick sheep, but the way of life of fell farming. In 1930 the Heelises became partners with the National Trust in buying and managing the fell farms included in the large Monk Coniston Estate. The estate was composed of many farms spread over a wide area of western Lancashire, including the famously beautiful Tarn Hows. Potter became the de facto estate manager for the Trust for seven years until the National Trust could afford to buy most of the property back from her. Her stewardship of these farms earned her wide regard, but she was not without her critics. She was notable in observing the problems of afforestation, preserving the intake grazing lands, and husbanding the quarries and timber on these farms. All her farms were stocked with Herdwick sheep and frequently with Galloway cattle.

Later life[link]

Potter continued to write stories and to draw, although mostly for her own pleasure. Her books in the late 1920s included the semi-autobiographical The Fairy Caravan, a fanciful tale set in her beloved Troutbeck fells. It was published only in the US during Potter’s lifetime, and not until 1952 in the UK. Sister Anne, Potter’s version of the story of Bluebeard was written especially for her American readers but illustrated by Katharine Sturges. A final folktale, Wag by Wall, was published posthumously by The Horn Book in 1944. Potter was a generous patron of the Girl Guides whose troops she allowed to make their summer encampments on her lands and whose company she enjoyed as an older woman.^[56]

Potter and William Heelis enjoyed a happy marriage of thirty years, continuing their farming and preservation efforts throughout the hard days of the Second World War. Although they were childless, Potter played an important role in William’s large family, particularly enjoying her relationship with several nieces whom she helped educate and giving comfort and aid to her husband’s brothers and sisters.^[57]

Potter died of complications from pneumonia and heart disease on December 22, 1943 at Castle Cottage. She left nearly all her property to The National Trust, including over 4,000 acres (16 km²) of land, sixteen farms, cottages and herds of cattle andvHerdwick sheep. Hers was the largest gift at that time to the National Trust and it enabled the preservation of the lands now included in the Lake District National Park and the continuation of fell farming. The central office of the National Trust in Swindon was named 'Heelis' in 2005 in her memory. William Heelis continued his stewardship of their properties and of her literary and artistic work for the eighteen months he survived her. When he died in August 1945 he left the remainder to the National Trust.^[58]

Legacies[link]

Potter left almost all the original illustrations for her books to the National Trust. The copyright to her stories and merchandise was given to her publisher Frederick Warne & Co, now a division of the Penguin Group. Hill Top Farm was opened to the public by the National Trust in 1946 her artwork was displayed there until 1985 when it was moved to William Heelis’s former law offices in Hawkshead, also owned by the National Trust as the Beatrix Potter Gallery.^[59]

Potter gave her folios of mycological drawings to The Armitt Library and Museum in Ambleside before her death. The Tale of Peter Rabbit is owned by Frederick Warne and Company, The Tailor of Gloucester by the Tate Gallery, and The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies by the British Museum.

The largest public collection of her letters and drawings is the Leslie Linder Bequest and Leslie Linder Collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In the United States, the largest public collections are those in the Special Collections of the Free Library of Philadelphia, and the Lloyd Cotsen Children’s Library at Princeton University.

Themes[link]

There are many interpretations of Potter’s literary work, the sources of her art, and interpretations of her life and times. Please see bibliography for some of the many critical evaluations of her opus of children’s literature, including Modernist interpretations of Humphrey Carpenter and Katherine Chandler. Judy Taylor, That Naughty Rabbit: Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit, rev. 2002 tells the story of the first publication and many editions. Literary criticism is included in detail in the bibliographies of various biographical works, specialized treatments and exhibit catalogues.^[60]

Potter’s country life and her farming has also been widely discussed in the work of Susan Denyer and by other authors in the publications of The National Trust.

Potter’s work as a scientific illustrator and her work in mycology is highlighted in several chapters in Linda Lear, Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature, 2007; Beatrix Potter: The Extraordinary Life of a Victorian Genius. 2008, UK.

Adaptations and fictionalisations[link]

In 1971 a ballet film was released, The Tales of Beatrix Potter, directed by Reginald Mills. Set to music by John Lanchbery with choreography by Frederick Ashton and performed in character costume by members of the Royal Ballet and the Royal Opera House orchestra. The ballet of the same name has been performed by other dance companies around the world.

In 1982, the BBC produced The Tale of Beatrix Potter. This dramatisation of her life was written by John Hawkesworth and directed by Bill Hayes. It starred Holly Aird and Penelope Wilton as the young and adult Beatrix respectively.^[61]

In 2006 Chris Noonan directed Miss Potter, a biopic of Potter’s life focusing on her early career and romance with her editor Norman Warne. Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor play the title roles.^[62]

Potter is also featured in a series of light mysteries called The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter by Susan Wittig Albert. The eight books in the series starting with the Tale of Hill Top Farm (2004) deal with her life in the Lake District and the village of Near Sawrey between 1905 and 1913.^[63]

Publications[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

Letters, journals and writing collections

• Potter, Beatrix (1982). Jane Crowell Morse. ed. Beatrix Potter's Americans: Selected Letters. The Horn Book, Inc. ISBN 978-0-87675-282-1. 
• Potter, Beatrix (1992). Judy Taylor. ed. Beatrix Potter's Letters. F. Warne & Co. ISBN 978-0-7232-3437-1. 
• Potter, Beatrix (1992). Judy Taylor. ed. Letters to Children from Beatrix Potter. F. Warne & Co. ISBN 978-0-7232-4195-9. 
• Potter, Beatrix (1977). Margaret Crawford Maloney. ed. Dear Ivy, Dear June: Letters from Beatrix Potter. Toronto Public Library. ISBN 978-0-8037-2050-3. 
• Potter, Beatrix. (rev. 1989). The Journal of Beatrix Potter, 1881–1897, transcribed from her code writings by Leslie Linder. F. Warne & Co. ISBN 978-0-7232-3625-2
• Potter, Beatrix (rev. 1987). Leslie Linder. ed. A History of the Writings of Beatrix Potter. F. Warne & Co. ISBN 978-0-7232-3562-0. 

Art studies

• Hobbs, Anne Stevenson (1989). Beatrix Potter's Art. F. Warne & Co. ISBN 0-7232-3598-8. 
• Hobbs, Anne Stevenson (1990). Beatrix Potter's Art. F. Warne & Co. ISBN 978-0-7232-3598-9. 
• Hobbs, Anne Stevenson (2005). Beatrix Potter: Artist and Illustrator. F. Warne & Co. ISBN 978-0-7232-5700-4. 
• Jay, Eileen, Mary Noble & Anne Stevenson Hobbs (1992). A Victorian Naturalist: Beatrix Potter's Drawings from the Armitt Collection. F. Warne & Co. ISBN 978-0-7232-3990-1. 
• Taylor, Judy, Joyce Irene Whalley, Anne Stevenson Hobbs & Elizabeth M. Battrick (1987). Beatrix Potter, 1866–1943: The Artist and Her World. F. Warne & Co. ISBN 978-0-7232-3561-3. 

Biographical studies

• Battrick, Elizabeth (1999). Beatrix Potter: The Unknown Years. Armitt Library and Museum and F.Warne & Co.. ISBN 978-0-7232-4608-4. 
• Denyer, Susan (2000). Beatrix Potter: At Home with Beatrix Potter: The Creator of Peter Rabbit. Harry Abrams. ISBN 978-0-7112-3018-7. 
• Heelis, John (1999). The Tale of Mrs William Heelis – Beatrix Potter. Sutton Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7509-3432-9. 
• Lane, Margaret (1946, rev. ed. 1985). The Tale of Beatrix Potter: A Biography. F. Warne & Co. ISBN 978-0-7232-4676-3. 
• Lane, Margaret (1978). The Magic Years of Beatrix Potter. F. Warne & Co. ISBN 978-0-7232-2108-1. 
• Lear, Linda (2007). Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature. St. Martin's. ISBN 978-0-312-36934-7. 
• Lear, Linda (2008). Beatrix Potter: The Extraordinary Life of a Victorian Genius. Penguin Books. ISBN 978-0-14-100310-8. 
• MacDonald, Ruth K (1986). Beatrix Potter. Twayne Publishers. ISBN 978-0-8057-6917-3. 
• Mitchell, W.R. (2010). Beatrix Potter: Her Lakeland Years. Great Northern Books Ltd. ISBN 978-1-905080-71-7. 
• Taylor, Judy (1996, rev. ed. 2002). Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller and Countrywoman. F. Warne & Co. ISBN 978-0-7232-4175-1. 
• Taylor, Judy (2002). That Naughty Rabbit: Beatrix Potter and Peter Rabbit. F. Warne & Co. ISBN 978-0-7232-4767-8. 
• Taylor, Judy, ed. (1993). `So I Shall Tell You a Story...’: Encounters with Beatrix Potter. F.Warne & Co. ISBN 978-0-7232-4025-9. 
• Taylor, Judy. "Potter, (Helen) Beatrix (1866–1943)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. http://web.archive.org/web/20070930212249/http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35584. Retrieved 14 January 2007. 

External links[link]

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Beatrix Potter

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Beatrix Potter

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Beatrix Potter

• Beatrix Potter’s fossils and her interest in geology - B. G. Gardiner
• Works by Beatrix Potter at Project Gutenberg (plain text and HTML)
• Collection of Potter materials at Victoria and Albert Museum
• Beatrix Potter online feature at the University of Pittsburgh School of Information Sciences
• Beatrix Potter in Cumbria
• Beatrix Potter Society, UK
• Beatrix Potter's World
• Frederick Warne and Company
• Beatrix Potter, A Life in Nature