LOVING THE ‘LITTLE BOOKS’

The Tale of Peter Rabbit, 1901

Over a century after Beatrix Potter wrote her series of ‘little books’, their popularity remains undimmed. Several publishers rejected her earliest story, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, so the author decided to self-publish, commissioning an edition of 250 copies in December 1901 from the printers Strangeways to give to family, friends and associates. The book had a colour frontispiece and 41 full-page line drawings. Its immediate success – Potter organised another small print run in February 1902 – encouraged Frederick Warne & Co to republish the book in October 1902, but with the author’s colour illustrations throughout. Back in 2013, a copy of the 1901 first edition sold for £24,800 at Dreweatts & Bloomsbury, but three years later another example made a whopping £43,400, sold as part of the John Cawood collection of Beatrix Potter books and memorabilia. Potter mania began a long time before Harry came along…