Beatrix Potter around 1900 outside her home. Though The Times acknowledged the author’s death weeks later, it did not publish an obituary.Popperfoto, via Getty Images
This article is part of Overlooked, a series of obituaries about remarkable people whose deaths, beginning in 1851, went unreported in The Times.
With “The Tale of Peter Rabbit,” Beatrix Potter created what would become one of the world’s best-known children’s book characters.
The book, about a cheeky rabbit who steals vegetables from the garden of one Mr. McGregor and loses his coat and shoes in a narrow escape, became a literary juggernaut that has sold more than 45 million copies. It also spawned a merchandising empire and has left an indelible imprint on children’s book publishing.
The year was 1900, and Potter, then in her mid-30s, had submitted her book, complete with her own intricate illustrations, to at least six publishers, according to her biographer Linda Lear.
As the rejections flowed in, she unloaded her frustrations in a letter to a family friend, including a sketch depicting herself, little book in hand, arguing with a man in a long coat. “I wonder if that book will ever be printed,” she fumed.