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Beatrix Potter studied mushrooms and created botanical drawings before publishing The Tale of Peter Rabbit. She had a love for small animals, including pet rabbits, and self-published the book before it became a best-seller.
Before Beatrix Potter’s classic book The Tale of Peter Rabbit was published in 1902, the British writer and illustrator studied mushrooms at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, publishing hundreds of botanical drawings depicting their cultivation and growth cycles. Her parents had always encouraged artistic expression, and from an early age, Beatrix Potter and her brother delighted in making sketches of small animals in the countryside, as well as their pet rabbits.
From rabbits to mushrooms, and back again:
Potter’s first pet rabbit was Benjamin Bouncer, who loved buttered toast and was his constant companion. Bunny No. 2 was Peter Piper, who could perform a variety of tricks.
At the age of 30, Beatrix Potter developed a new theory of mushroom spore reproduction and wrote a significant paper entitled “On the germination of Agaricineae spores”.
After The Tale of Peter Rabbit was rejected by publishers, Potter printed the book herself and gave 250 copies to friends and family. Frederick Warne & Co eventually accepted the book for publication, and it soon became a best-seller and children’s classic.
