Beatrix Potter

In 1905, the young painter went against her parents' wishes and got engaged to Norman Warne, who edited and published her first classic, 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit'. This relationship however never culminated into marriage since Warned succumbed to leukaemia the following month.

When she was forty-seven, Beatrix married an attorney named William Heelis. It was Heelis who managed her estates in a small village called Hawkshead. The couple were happily married, despite not having children of their own.

On December 22, 1943, the accomplished writer died due to a cardiovascular disease and pneumonia. She was interred at the 'Carleton Crematorium'.

On July 28, 1866, Beatrix Helen Potter was born in Kensington, London, to Rupert William and his wife Helen Leech. Her father was an influential lawyer and also a novice photographer.

The young girl had a brother, Walter Bertram, who was six years younger. Both children were tutored at home by three different teachers; amongst them, Beatrix was fond of Annie Moore, her German teacher, who was not much older than the students.

Both the siblings were extremely fond of animals, with rabbits, porcupines and mice being some of their favourite pets. They always accompanied each other on their holiday trips to the Dalguise settlement in Scotland, and later the Lake District, close to Windermere.

It was during these vacations that Beatrix developed a passion for painting, often illustrating whatever she saw in her surroundings. She also began keeping a journal by the time she turned fourteen, in 1881.

All her thoughts were penned down in this diary in a language that only she knew. However, no personal information was discovered by Leslie Linder, who deciphered the notebook almost a century later.

By 1890, Beatrix began designing her own greeting cards for the holiday season. Her illustrations of Benjamin Bunny, one of her pet rabbits, became particularly popularly and were soon purchased by a company named 'Hildesheimer and Faulkner'.

In 1892, Potter got acquainted with respected botanist Charles McIntosh, which resulted in her developing a stronger interest in the lives of fungi. In this respect, the aspiring mycologist even produced several sketches of their reproductive processes.

Within the next two years, 'Hildesheimer and Faulkner' had once again bought her paintings to include them in famous children's books like 'Our Dear Relations' and 'Changing Pictures'.

In 1895, the remarkable mycologist developed her own theory of germination, which she believed was the way fungi reproduced.

Despite her efforts to take help from naturalists like George Massee, her theory was declined by William Thiselton-Dyer, the Director of 'Kew Gardens', a public organization that conducted botanical research.

The most famous literary work produced by Potter was her first published book, 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit'. The story, which was written for her close friend's five-year old son, Noel, follows the adventures of a naughty little rabbit. The book, which is still considered timeless, became so popular that it was translated into thirty-six other languages.