What Would Beatrix Potter Think of This?

It's a well known fact that Beatrix Potter had little compassion in her heart for her critics or her fans and an intense dislike of advertising either herself or her books. Margaret Lane, who later became Potter's first biographer, wrote in 1939:

"So I wrote to Beatrix Potter, as politely and respectfully as I knew how, telling her of my lifelong pleasure in her work, and my admiration, and asking if I might one day call on her and submit for her approval the essay on her work which I was preparing. Back came, in a few days, the rudest note I have ever received in my life. No, she said, she certainly would not see me. "My books have always sold without advertisement, and I do not propose to go in for that sort of thing now."

And in 1943, Janet Adam Smith wrote a very nice article on Potter for The Listern. When she sent a copy on to Potter she didn't receive quite the response she had hoped for. Potter said she had read the piece "with mingled gratitude and stupefaction - the writer seems to know a deal more about the inception of the Peter Rabbit books than I do!" When Smith answered, trying to make ammends for the misunderstanding, Potter's second reply ended with, "And for goodness sake don't write any more rubbish about me."

Knowing full well how Potter hated being in the limelight, fans at Beatrix Potter Society gatherings are often heard to ask - "What would Beatrix think of all of this?" The mind shudders to imagine! But was Beatrix Potter really an early role model for Oscar the Grouch? Her isolated upbringing and the fact that she wasn't happily married until well into her 40s would suggest someone of a spinster-ish type attitude, especially since she had not experienced being around young people - or any people for that matter. But I don't know that I'd go as far as comparing her to Oscar the Grouch.

After all, Potter did do extensive work in the area of conservation by buying up over 4,000 acres of land that was threatened to fall under the developers boom if someone didn't step in. And at her death she left all 4,000 acres, consisting of 15 different farms, which she eventually willed to her beloved Lakes District.

And how could someone with the heart of a fuzzy monster create such beautifully delightful characters as Peter the Rabbit and Jemima Puddleduck? You don't create characters as charming as that if you're a grump on the inside. I choose to believe the Ms. Potter was just uncomfortable with all the attention and chose to puff out her chest when she expressed that discomfort as a way of protecting herself from the world full of people whom she had never really gotten the opportunity to know.

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