Peter's Miss Potter

"Now, my dears," said old Mrs. Rabbit one morning, "you may go into the fields or down the lane, but don't go into Mr. McGregor's garden: your Father had an accident there; he was put in a pie by Mrs. McGregor."

When Peter Rabbit squeezed under the forbidden gate into Mr. McGregor's garden he also wriggled forever into the lives of millions. Last week news reached the U.S. that Peter Rabbit's creator was dead. The end had come three days before Christmas to 77-year-old Mrs. William Heelis ("Beatrix Potter"), wife of a British solicitor, mistress of Hill Top Farm, Sawrey, Westmorland, England, artist and author of some of the best-known children's books ever published.

The original Peter Rabbit was pulled out of a hat of kindness. In 1893 Beatrix Potter (her maiden name) concocted him in some letters to a sick child. The invalid was enchanted. In 1901 Peter made his book debut accompanied by his brother and sisters Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail. In one of the simplest, shortest and fastest moving tales ever written (53 more-or-less declarative sentences, 27 colored pictures) the pastel-tinted miscreant Peter spent a lawless day, got into proper trouble, limped home a furry wreck but safe at last. And to sleep with him went every child who ever stole out of bounds to see for himself what was over the horizon.

After the Rabbit. Pale, soft, charming--and accurate-- watercolors graced the pages of this story. Beatrix Potter had long been an accomplished amateur artist when her book appeared. The Tale of Peter Rabbit was followed by 21 other children's books--tales of Squirrel Nutkin, Benjamin Bunny, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Mrs. Tittlemouse, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, Mr. Jeremy Fisher. Potterites of all ages had their favorites, but connoisseurs would probably agree that the masterpiece was The Tailor of Gloucester.

Some of the minor Potter characters--Samuel Whiskers, Mr. McGregor, Old Brown--are as famed among Potterites as her heroes and heroines. And many a Potter phrase has become traditional--e.g., Jemima Puddle-Duck's foolish first thoughts on meeting a dashing stranger (who of course turns out to be a fox): "Jemima thought him mighty civil and handsome." Or the note left by the mice to explain why they had not finished the last buttonhole on the coat they made for the old tailor of Gloucester: "No more twist."

Marrow & Spice. Friends of the author thought she resembled the small, rosy Lucie of The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle. She was English to the marrow, spoke in a spicy North Country accent, was deeply attached to her Lake Country. She often went out haying with the farmers, wearing buckled Lancashire clogs and wide straw hat. She never went out of England. Old English china, silver and furniture were her hobbies.

No one knows how many millions of Beatrix Potter books have reached the world's children. But there are Peter Rabbits in French, German, Welsh, Spanish and Afrikaans. Sales of the small, standard Peter Rabbit book in the U.S. are still high (60,000 in 1943). Last week, as news of Beatrix Potter's death reached the U.S., an exhibition of Rabbitiana was on view in the Children's Room of the New York Public Library.

Provoked during the last part of her life by poking tourists and prying journalists, Beatrix Potter wrote a protective account of herself for release through her agents. It read: "Beatrix Potter is Mrs. William Heelis. She lives in the north of England. Her home is amongst the mountains and lakes that she has drawn in her picture books. Her husband is a lawyer. They have no family.. . . She leads a very busy, contented life in the country . . . managing a large sheep farm on her own land."

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