Welcome to this week's edition of Book Trivia Tuesday!  Last week we had a little fun with Dr. Suess & his pen names.  

This week we welcome the return of Spring!  And, as you may know, March is Women's History Month! Over on social media, I have been sharing information about different woman authors & illustrators who have impacted the literary world.  I chose this question about Beatrix Potter because she not only impacted the literary world with the sweet books we have all grown up reading, but because she was also a natural scientist & conservationist.  Perfect to feature for Women's History Month & to help us Welcome Spring!

This week's question is this:  What is Beatrix Potter's First Name?

Born in England in 1866 she was named Helen Beatrix Potter. She is best known for her beloved Peter Rabbit books which have sold over two hundred and fifty million copies.  Along with her brother, Bertrum, they had a rotating collection of animals they would sneak into their home during childhood including rabbits she named Benjamin & Peter. In 1893, she wrote a letter to Noel Moore (the son of her one-time governess) and since she had nothing to say to him, told him the story of four bunnies:  Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter, with which she included an illustration of Peter looking like he was ready for mischief.  

But did you also know she was also a natural scientist and conservationist?  When she was in her late 40's she left her parent's home in London & bought a cottage in a remote English countryside. There she raised prize-winning sheep and became a farmer.  She bought the 34-acre farm after the sudden death of her fiancé, Norman Warne, who also happened to be her publisher.  "In Potter’s grief, she set about planting a garden. Years later, she wrote of the house, “It is in here I go to be quiet and still with myself. This is me, the deepest me, the part one has to be alone with."  In the eight years after Warne's death, she wrote twelve books. When she died in 1943, she left more than four thousand acres, and many working farms, to the National Trust, which now owns more than twenty per cent of the Lake District. Her bequest remains the Trust’s largest acquisition in the area.

Information was taken from an article by The New Yorker entitled The Secret Life of Beatrix Potter dated March 12, 2022, which can be found here.  

To find a collection of her books click here:  https://www.logcabinvintage.com/collections/beatrix-potter