The Tale of Beatrix Potter

A Biography

by Margaret Lane

Frederick Warne & Co., 1968 [Revised Edition], black and white photographic frontispiece, colour and black and white photographic and reproduction plates, illustrations, green colour dipped top fore-edge, hardcover, dust-jacket

Very Good Condition, a little edge and shelf wear, a little rubbing to edges and corners, minor discolouration to top fore-edge, previous owners inscription on front end-paper; dust-jacket shows some edge and shelf wear with some rubbing, bumping, chips and small tears to edges and corners, a little foxing/age discolouration, closed tear at top front, (see photographs)

"Few lives have been more jealously hidden from the public eye than Beatrix Potter's.  Even in old age, when she had long been famous, and the children of two generations had been brought up on Peter Rabbit and her other nursery masterpieces, she preferred to remain unknown, and behind her everyday character of a lakeland farmer-crusty, humorous, locally formidable-to conceal the artist.
When she died in December 1943 non one, not even her husband, knew the whole story of her life.  Her lonely Victorian childhood, her struggles for independence, her unhappy love-affair and happy marriage, the accidental influences that developed her genius, are here told in detail by Margaret Lane, with the addition of much new material that has come  to light since the biography was first written.  The accidental discovery of Beatrix Potter's secret code journal in 1952, its long study and eventual decoding by Leslie Linder (The Journal of Beatrix Potter, published in 1966, the year of her centenary) have added valuable new material to what is now a full and definitive biography."