Beatrix Potter

Charles G.Y. King / Public domain
1913 photograph

Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) is easily the greatest children's author/illustrator/mycologist of all time. Her early and lifelong interest in natural science combined well with her love of fairy tales and fantasy stories, producing dozens of lushly-illustrated short stories about adorable animals and the beauty of nature, with some slapstick and morality thrown in for good measure. Her first self-published 1901 story "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" was an immediate success, and she parlayed it and subsequent stories into a merchandizing empire that helped cement her characters as some of the most recognizable in young children's literature.


"The Tales of Peter Rabbit, Squirrel Nutkin, and Benjamin Bunny"
In which a trio of adorable animals are threatened with grisly deaths in order to teach important moral lessons, with vegetables.

"The Tales of Jemima Puddle-Duck, Two Bad Mice, and Mr Jeremy Fisher"
In which another trio of adorable animals are, foolish, destructive, and bad at fishing, respectively.