Linda Lear

Extraordinary biography about an extraordinary and dearly beloved woman by generations around the world! There are times when I would like to have a 6th star for Extraordinary or Magnificent. This is such a review moment. I researched the length of time it took for Linda Lear to write this phenomenal and prodigious biography and discovered an answer in her own words..."Writing 'A Life in Nature' (the original and my favourite title) was an eight year process from the time I went to the UK show more until the time the book was published by Penguin (UK) and St Martin’s Press in the US."

Background to my reading Beatrix Potter's biography...
I don't specifically remember reading Peter Rabbit as a child but I know I knew the story. As an elementary school librarian I remember ordering the set of Beatrix Potter stories in the late 1980's. The set was beautiful! Each book was the size of a 3" x 5" index card held vertically and each had a lovely white book jacket with the title across the top, an illustration from the story, and then by Beatrix Potter across the bottom. I covered each book in a Mylar (clear plastic) cover. The first Kindergarten class that came to the library after the books were put on the shelves borrowed them all and class after class of children borrowed them in Kindergarten and 1st grade classes until the end of the school year. I had ignored naysayers that saw the books as I was processing them (with the school library stamp, Mylar cover, etc.) that advised the books would be stolen or never returned by the students. They were wrong. The little ones loved the books and of course they fit so perfectly in those little hands. Seeing the joy on their faces has always stayed with me.

I only knew of Beatrix Potter as a beloved author of children's literature. However, in the span of her life Beatrix Potter Heelis made incredible accomplishments in a wide range of fields. To have accomplished so much while simultaneously addressing the needs of elderly parents (particularly her mother who lived for many years beyond her husband), support to her brother's widow, and care for members of her husband's family is not only to Potter’s credit but adds to one's respect and admiration for this amazing woman that did not allow constraints of the times for women to embitter or restrain her curiosities and it definitely did not prevent her outstanding achievements. Linda Lear painstakingly takes the reader on the journey through Beatrix Potter's adventurous life. Lear's writing reflects the details of her research sharing Potter's own words whenever possible. With the depth of research one might perceive that this biography would be like reading a thesis but that simply is not the case. The reader becomes engrossed in the unparalleled life of Beatrix Potter and enraptured by Lear's passion to open the reader’s knowledge and curiosity to learn about an extraordinary life - an extraordinary person - an extraordinary woman not only in the times she lived but for all time.

I am deeply thankful to Linda Lear for her passion and dedication in taking the unique journey of research and travels, and using her own writing talent to write this comprehensive biography. I am also appreciative to all in publishing who helped make this book available. show less

Despite that Goodreads insisted on giving this a 2-star rating, on my behalf, even before I finished reading it, I enjoyed this book very much. While it was read at quite a gallop because ILL was calling it back, it nonetheless made an impression on me which I will go back and revisit when I have more time.

Linda Lear is the perfect biographer, providing the reader with just the right balance of good story-telling and solid research. I appreciated that she didn't fall into the realm of show more conjecture, as many biographers do, thus colouring the reader's perception in favour of the biographer's inclinations; and I doubly appreciated the thick pages of notes that followed, at the back of the book. (I'm an inveterate note reader, and chaser.)

I was always fascinated with Beatrix Potter, all the more so because she wasn't part of my cultural background: I didn't come to her until I started reading these to my own daughter, many years ago. I don't know, in the end, who delighted in them more, for we were both enthralled, spending many, many hours rereading them when she was just a wee little thing. (I confess to reading them on my own later and delighting in them all over again.)

But, what I knew about Beatrix Potter, the woman, could have been placed into the tailor of Gloucester's thimble, and so I was thrilled to find the gifted natural scientist behind the paintings. She was doubly blessed to have the talent to observe and record the natural world, both as a scientist and an artist. I was as fascinated with her life as I was with her children's books. She was a strong, independent spirit who took life on her own terms, without sacrificing herself to the Victorian moralities, and the too-often penance of selling oneself to the highest (male) bidder.

Linda Lear includes a a respectable number of photographs from different phases of BP's life, as well as a small collection of the artist's paintings.

I will have to buy this book -- and return to it at leisure. show less

My sweetheart and I were talking about the Lake District and I mentioned William Wordsworth as a key figure in giving the place an identity. In response, she handed me her copy of this biography of Beatrix Potter. I had no idea about any connection, or really much of an idea about Potter herself, beyond Peter Rabbit.

What a tremendous surprise! Potter belongs alongside perhaps Wendell Berry or Aldo Leopold. I remember reading in Wendell Berry about an endangered species of bird, whose show more survival it turned out depended on the preservation of the farms in its habitat. The whole idea of human culture as a part of the ecology of a region - Beatrix Potter was something of a pioneer in this vision.

Before that Potter was quite a naturalist, a student especially of fungi and lichen. Lear shows how Potter exemplified a kind of amateur expertise that fell out of favor just as Potter;s studies were yielding their best fruit. Of course, as a woman Potter would have had great difficulties in finding an audience for her theories even if amateur expertise had still be in favor. Still, the second strike was no help.

I remember a character in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, a gentleman who falls in love with farming and the lives of the farming villagers. This seems a bit like Potter. She was quite well-to-do, but dressed simply and got her hands dirty with work in the gardens, fields, and pastures.

Lear shows us a Beatrix Potter than I think is a model for how to live, especially in the coming centuries. With tightening constraints on global resources, we will be forced to live more locally, closer to the land and food production. But living close to the land can be done with grace, style, and depth. It can be richly rewarding. Lear does a wonderful job in painting for us such a splendid and inspiring portrait. show less

One of the most fascinating biographies I have ever read is Beatrix Potter: a Life in Nature, written by environmental historian Linda Lear.
The biography is so well written and thoroughly, painstakingly researched. I felt like I had actually met Beatrix Potter and conversed with her. Every facet of her life is detailed. Ms. Lear’s work was so personal and natural that I literally broke down at the end of the book - December 22, 1943 - when Ms. Potter passed away.
There was a forward to the show more 2016 Trade Paperback edition written by shepherd, hill farmer and agriculturalist, James Rebanks. His forward is a ‘love letter’ to not only Beatrix Potter but
to the entire Lake District in which he resides. Mr. Rebanks is an author in his own right and his books are lyrical poems about his way of life.
He writes “ But my love of Beatrix Potter is not because of Peter Rabbit or her other literary creations. No, I love her most of all because of all the writers associated with this most literary of English landscapes, she understood and took part in the native working landscape more than any of them.”
“ I have always felt that Beatrix Potter understood that there were 2 Lake Districts - the one of the tourist and the reader, the place of scenic beauty and escape, and the other the working landscape that shaped and sustained it.”

The book (besides the Forward) also contains a Prologue, an Epilogue, a List of illustrations and Maps, Acknowledgements, Notes, a Bibliography and an Index.

There were so many aspects of Ms. Potter’s life - artist, author, naturalist, scientist, preservationist, shepherd, herdsman, farm manager, businesswoman, environmentalist, leader, mentor, friend.

The book is a biography. A book of art - of artists, of techniques. A natural history. A science
book. A cultural history of England. A book of Botany, of Geology, of Mycology. A book of Animal Husbandry.
It is a book where beautiful, timeless landscapes come to life.
It is a book about writing, about authors, about poetry, about publishing.

I would recommend this biography. It is quite stunning. ***** show less