PETER RABBIT GREW UP TOO

New Zealand Listener, Volume 10, Issue 248, 24 March 1944, Page 20

PETER RABBIT GREW UP TOO

-And Became Worth A Lot of Money . CABLE from England the other day announced the death of Beatrix Potter, the author and illustrator of the Peter Rabbit books. She left £211,636 sterling. That is a lot of money to have made out of children’s stories. How did she do it? But first it is interesting to notice. in the face of those figures, that when she first tried to publish her books; six publishers turned them down. The only way she was able to have them published was by drawing money out of the savingsbank and paying the expenses herself. Even then her friends and relations had to rally round and buy up most of the edition. Happily this state of affairs did not last. For in the next year, 1901, Frederick Warne and Co. Ltd. brought out a new edition, this time with ‘coloured illustrations by the author. The books have grown in popularity ever since, till to-day the demand for them is greater than ever. Even Mickey Mouse, with all his Hollywood paraphernalia of publicity, has not reached the heights of Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, Squirrel Nutkin, Jeremy Fisher, and the rest of them. The Wellington Public Library reports that the books never stay a day on their shelves, and that new copies are always being ordered to replace the old ones as they fall to pieces from _ constant handling. In Many Languages There are, in all, 19 longer stories, and four or five shorter booklets which include Appley Dapply’s Nursery Rhymes, Cecily Parsley’s Nursery Rhymes, The Pie and the Patty-Pan and The Story of Miss Moppet. Dramatic versions have been printed of The Tailor of Gloucester, Ginger and Pickles, and The Roly-Poly Pudding. There is a series of Peter Rabbit music books; there are Peter Rabbit pictures, jig-saw puzzles, bookshelves, tiles for bathrooms and fireplaces, wallpaper friezes for the nursery, cups and saucers, porridge plates, eggcups, and a Peter Rabbit race game. The books have been translated into French, Welsh, Spanish, German, and Afrikaans. For instance, if you are a little South African, you can read Die Vierhaal van Mevrou Piektyn (Mrs. Tittlemouse) or Die Vierhaal van Flop-sie-Familie (the Flopsy Bunnies). Little Germans read Die Geschichte von den zwei bosen Mauschen (Two Bad Mice). At least they did once. We don’t know if there is a new Nazi version. Classics of the Nursery Beatrix Potter, not to be confused with Beatrice Potter, who became Mrs. Sidney Webb, married at the age of 47. Her husband, William Heelis, owned a farm in the South Lake District of England, a district where Beatrix Potter spent almost the whole of her life. Her childhood fell in the days when there were governesses for little girls and only the boys went to school. She stayed at

home and learnt to read from the Waverley novels. In her early days she composed, or tried to compose, such things as hymns and ballads, imitating Isaac Watts. But her verses wouldn’t scan and she decided she was not meant to be a writer. For a long time she gave it up. Then about 1893 she became interested in a little invalid boy. Noel, the son of a friend. He had a long illness and she used to write letters to him. Some of them were about an animal character called Peter Rabbit. Noel grew up and became a_ hard-working clergyman; Peter grew up too and graduated from letters to literature. Beatrix Potter’s little books, with their fascinating mixture of reality and fancy, have a lasting quality and the. flavour of real literature. Her pictures and stories are full of her own Lakeland scenery. Squirrel Nutkin sailed on the Derwentwater; Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle lived in the vale of Newlands, near Keswick: Tom Kitten and Samuel Whiskers lived in a facsimile of the author’s own old farmhouse at Sawney. How They Happened When Beatrix Potter was asked "How did they happen?" she replied, "I am inclined to put it down to three things, One: matter-of-fact ancestry. I am descended from generations of Lancashire yeomen and weavers, obstinate, hardheaded, matter-of-fact folk. As far back as I can go, they were Puritans, Nonjurors, Noncomformists, Dissenters. Instead of sailing in the Mayflower to America, my ancestors stuck it out at home, probably rather enjoying persecution. Two: the accidental circumstances of having spent a good deal of my childhood in the Highlands of Scotland with a Highland nurse girl, which gave me a firm belief in witches, fairies, and the creed of the terrible John Calvin. (The creed rubbed off, but the fairies remained.) Three: a peculiarly precocious and tenacious memory. I have been laughed at for what I say I can remember, but it is admitted that I can remember things quite plainly from one and

two years old; not only facts like learning to walk, but places and sentiments-the way things impressed a very young child." That she faithfully remembered the impressions of her childhood is obvious from the way nearly all children and some adults accept her characters as a real part of their lives. Many parents as well as children can repeat by heart the adventures of Peter Rabbit in Mr. McGregor’s garden and the sad sequel in which Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail were sent to bed after a dose of camomile tea. There is probably a good deal of truth in the story of the little girl who, on hearing a clergyman in church mention the name Peter, turned to her mother and audibly asked: "Peter Rabbit, Mother?" (The illustration at the top of this page will be recognised by many readers as a reproduction of the inside cover Meg» ihe! all the Warne editions of the Peter bit books, showing the main characters in the series).