Talk:Beatrix Potter

message: Beatrix Potter was born in "The Boltons", a street in Kensington. Just round the corner, on Brompton Road is a plaque showing coloured portraits of Peter Rabbit and Jemima Puddleduck. In 2005 it was announced that Rene Zellweger and Ewan McGregor would be playing the parts of Beatrix and Warne in a film version of Beatrix Potter's life. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 193.122.47.146 (talk • contribs) 16:07, 15 October 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Potter local history and film 

message: She also became secretly engaged to the publisher, Norman Warne... He died before the engagement
Could somebody please clarify/correct this? --Calair 23:20, 28 February 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Self-contradiction?

message: It's interesting how this BBC News page has very similiar phrasing to this article... the phrase which grabbed me was "She found consolation in her menagerie of pet animals including frogs, newts and even a bat." (The WP stuff came first - the dateline is 8/Dec). Tompw (talk) 21:04, 10 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  BBC News 

message: Hi--Anybody else interested in cleaning up this article, evaluating it, and bringing it up to GA status?  I'm going to dig into the process a little bit.  Thoughts from other regular editors of this article? --lquilter 17:11, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: We've got a rating of B, which is a good start.  I'm going to list the "B" criteria and specific notes as a list of things to do to improve the article. 
* Reference formatting (from Talk/Beatrix Potter/comment) Rated as B-Class, although it needs better formatting (e.g. the citations - you can use Template:cite news or Template:cite web), better lead per WP:LEAD, and better citing per WP:CITE and WP:FOOTNOTES.--Yannismarou 20:00, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  rating this article / getting it up to GA status 

message: It states that William Heelis was a local to the Lakes District. Does this mean she had known him during her visits as a child, like the movie indicates? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.45.129.203 (talk • contribs) 11:11, 15 February 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The film commentary indicates that this was a fictional device. To their knowledge, Potter did not meet Heelis during her childhood visits. Swango 01:46, 10 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: William Heelis

message: The text says they are part of the 'same family'. Surely not. —Preceding unsigned comment added by The Yeti (talk • contribs) 18:20, 16 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Algae & Fungi 

message: According to the OED, "Peter Rabbit" was first published privately by Potter herself in 1900. This ought perhaps to be recorded in the article. Captainbeefart 15:53, 15 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Publication of Peter Rabbit

message: An editor made a change to long-standing text describing Potter as engaged to her publisher; the editor changed it to say that Potter was engaged to her publisher's son. (diff) I've reverted for now but we should have a source and verify. --lquilter 02:52, 11 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: engaged to ...? 

message: I'm surprised to not see any mention of the Beatrix Potter ceramics, which, in the UK in the 1950's at least, were possibly as popular as her books. Every child was given a set of Beatrix Potter crockery at birth, which was highly prized.--Richardb43 (talk) 11:03, 16 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: If it was this common, perhaps it can sustain its own article. Can you propose a line of text to include about this, and find a reference about it that describes that this pottery was very prevalent? I don't think we want to include all sorts of licensed products like this, but if it was very wide-spread then it seems reasonable to consider it. --Lquilter (talk) 21:08, 3 March 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: "Every child was given a set of Beatrix Potter crockery at birth".  Utter rubbish.  From personal experience, my family members born in the 50s were not given this, and I know of many other people born then who also were not.86.137.139.82 (talk) 11:31, 28 July 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Which might be why it has never been added to the article!  In fact, I suspect the pottery Richard is thinking about is the bunnykins set, which is derivative but is not Beatrix Potter at all.  --Slp1 (talk) 11:39, 28 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Beatri xPotter "heirloom" pottery. 

message: Other sources, like bpotter.com, say the cause was "a virulent form of leukemia." Is there a reference to justify the anemia cause?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.102.188.144 (talk) 18:45, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cause of Norman Warne's Death 

message: For some reason this page gets weird attacks of vandalism.  Does anyone have any clues why?  Is there a way this page can be at least partially locked?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.107.81.16 (talk) 07:18, 28 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Vandalism

message: One of my elementary school teachers said Potter's house (one of them, anyway) is a museum that can be toured. Anyone know anything about this? The article mentioned nothing. --Ragemanchoo (talk) 05:41, 6 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: House(s) as museums?

message: "Much of Potter's stories' vocabulary and artistic practice stemmed from Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus stories."
Where is the evidence for this assertion?  Apart from the fact that both wrote about animal characters including rabbits, and they clearly shared ancestors in Aesop and La Fontaine, there is little in common between the two writers.  Harris delights in reproducing the rhythms of the spoken word, while Potter's style, though apparently simple, is literary and often achieves a classical balance in the sentences. Harris celebrates the folklore of the Southern USA of his time, while Potter portrays an idealised pre-industrial English landscape and presents a mix of traditional stories (eg town mouse/country mouse) and her own invented fables.  
I have not edited this statement as there may be a reference somewhere to demonstrate that Potter was influenced by Harris - though I cannot remember any in the various works by Margaret Lane, the foremost expert on Potter - but the statement should be substantiated.  In any case I do not believe one can fairly state that 'much of her vocabulary and artistic practice stemmed from' Harris's work.  If anything, one could say that like Harris, she recycled material from La Fontaine and hence from Aesop.
It seems very likely that the success of Potter's books in the USA was due to many American readers being familiar with 'animal stories' from reading Uncle Remus, but that is a different matter. Zephirine (talk) 14:17, 2 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Supposed influence of Joel Chandler Harris 

message: Should there be more on Potter the artist?  She was a gifted painter and exceptional among children's writers at the time (as far as I know) in illustrating her own books and doing it so well.  At present we have one sentence "Part of the popularity of her books was due to the quality of her illustrations" - should this be expanded?Zephirine (talk) 00:54, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  More emphasis/new section on Potter as artist? 

message: Since both Beatrix Potter and J. K. Rawling, author of the Harry Potter series, are from England, is it possible that Harry Potter was named in honor of Beatrix?  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.191.242.2 (talk) 19:05, 12 January 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Yeah, and Josaiah Wedgewood the Potter also came from England, and there are 100,000 Potters in the English Phone Book, and......  In short, no.Elen of the Roads (talk) 18:35, 13 June 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Any Connection Between Beatrix Potter and Harry Potter? 

message: I just rented some BBC adaptation of the Peter Rabbit tales from the video shop. It seems that this is missing from the Wikipedia entry. I am not sure of the exact details (and I'm actually confused as to whether the books have been adapted twice as there seems to be a different set of DVD's available on amazon produced in 2008; the one's I rented seems to have been produced in the 1980's) but it would be great if this could be added to the entry. Thank you. PS: the BBC did a great job.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Adeleida (talk • contribs) 05:40, 6 June 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: It sounds like The Tale of Peter Rabbit. As far as I know, this is the only animated adaption of the tales. Likely, they have just been released in several different editions of DVDs. The mention of it in this article was removed back in December. I'm not sure why. Siawase (talk) 09:18, 6 June 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  BBC adaptation(s) of books 

message: An image used in this article, , has been nominated for deletion at Wikimedia Commons for the following reason: Deletion requests June 2011 
;What should I do?
	A discussion will now take place over on Commons about whether to remove the file. If you feel the deletion can be contested then please do so (commons:COM:SPEEDY has further information). Otherwise consider finding a replacement image before deletion occurs.
This notification is provided by a Bot --CommonsNotificationBot (talk) 16:10, 28 June 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: File:Beatrix Potter signature.svg Nominated for Deletion

message: I added the  tag to the article as it needs more citations to reliable sources. The article is rated C class currently, and if it is to be improved to B or GA or FA, it will need more refs (in its current state it, the lack of reference would be a quick fail at both WP:GAN and WP:FAC). 
The lead does not need refs, as it is a summary of the whole article, so the refs should be there (Plot in works of fiction is also assumed to be based on the work itself and does not need refs). My rule of thumb is that in the body of the article at least every paragraph needs a ref. If several sentences are based on one part of a source, then they do not need to each be referenced (they can all be Jones, pp. 24-32 or whatever after the last sentence in the set). However, if there are direct quotations in several sentences in a row, they should each be cited, and if several sentences in a row are each dependent on a different source (or part) then each should be cited. If a ref is followed by one or more uncited sentences, they need ref(s) too.
The Story of Miss Moppet is an article on one of Potter's works which is a FA here. It has 54 footnotes (this has 10 currently) which are cited about 71 times. Except for the lead and plot, every paragraph has a ref, and many have multiple refs as needed. 
Looking at this article and its refs, there are two works by Lear, so the work needs to be indicated (by year). Internet refs need URL, publisher, date accessed, and if known, author, date created or updated, etc. All sources also have to be reliable - IMDb is often not seen a RS, and I am not sure what makes ref 10 (^ "Cottage Tales". Susan Wittig Albert. Retrieved 13 June 2010.) a reliable source. 
Citations help readers find more information, allow claims to be checked, and also mean that copyvios and close paraphrasing can be detected more easily. Please see WP:V, WP:CITE, WP:RS, and WP:WIAGA and WP:WIAFA. Hope this helps anyone interested in improving the article. Ruhrfisch  ><>°° 01:58, 9 August 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for this, Ruhrfisch. I do have [Lear, 2007] and I'll cite it over the next few evenings along the lines you suggest above. 81.178.38.169 (talk) 18:21, 10 August 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  References needed 

message: Hello. I've taken the liberty of transferring some biographical details from the The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan#Background (over-detailed IMHO for that article). I am doing this not just for the benefit of this article, but also because I think that - in theory - Potter's biography should really be covered here and the "Pie and the Patty-Pan" article should focus more or less exclusively on that book and its creation, reception etc. I've already proposed on the talk page there that its "Background" section should therefore be more or less removed. Does anyone here have strong feelings about this? Alfietucker (talk) 00:23, 11 December 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: It's detailed for that page, but a lot of it is plagiarized. Unfortunately many of the Potter pages were plagiarized, so I'd suggest just deleting or trimming from there. Isn't most of that information already covered here? This page has been somewhat, but not completely, scrubbed. Truthkeeper (talk) 00:48, 11 December 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Some biographical details from [[The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan]] 

message: I'm surprised to see there are a number of American English spellings in this article (artifacts, favoring etc.) which is about a quintessentially British author. I believe that according to wp:ENGVAR it should use British English spellings throughout. Does anyone have any objections to me changing them and adding a British English template to this page? Richerman   (talk) 09:50, 6 May 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: No objection at all.VenomousConcept (talk) 10:16, 6 May 2012 (UTC)
replies: text:  Richerman   (talk) 00:28, 7 May 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  British English? 

message: Digital facsimiles of twelve of Beatrix Potter's letters to children mentioned in the article are now online at The Morgan Library & Museum:
http://www.themorgan.org/collections/works/potter/default.asp
Would someone consider adding the above to the external links section? Thanks Morganlibrary (talk) 19:37, 20 November 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Nice, thanks for linking. I've added it to the article. Truthkeeper (talk) 19:42, 20 November 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Letters to children 

message: She was an accomplished botanist and mycologist, and may have been the very first scientist to propose that microbial cooperation gives a basis to extrapolate that life is based almost entirely on co-operation, that completion in life is quite rare, and only on the surface does it appear to be the other way around. (The source for that is somewhere in my 'puter.) Lewis Thomas, though not to my knowledge alluding to Potter's premise,  went on to propose  that germ theory had run its course and needs to be replaced with information theory. —Pawyilee (talk) 14:00, 14 October 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: And this article is actually called Beatrix Potter, Scientist Richerman   (talk) 19:53, 14 October 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Scientist, yes 

message: What is known about this subject? Candleabracadabra (talk) 00:59, 31 October 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: Beatrix Potter Society

message: I can well believe that Beatrix Potter had a passion for botany, but the article says that 'most Victorians' did. Surely that is overstating it?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.34.246.121 (talk) 20:55, 21 April 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: Passion for botany

message: hi. re her first name, is it pronounced w/two syllables, or with one? ("bea-trix", or "bea-uh-trix"?) it would be helpful if the article included this. thanks. 63.142.146.194 (talk) 04:05, 9 July 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  first name pronunciation 

message: I'm not a Potter expert, but I notice that in the  template The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots is listed as "Other books", while in Beatrix_Potter#Publications it's listed as the 24th "Tale". Any views? PamD 22:48, 26 January 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: No strong opinions, no; I guessed that since it was not published in her lifetime and not published with her illustrations, it was probably safer not to call it a "canon" tale. I have absolutely no objection to it being listed with the other books on the template if that is what is preferred. Josh Milburn (talk) 08:23, 27 January 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: What's the source for linking them all together as "the tales"? Not all of them are called "the tale of..." and some of the "other"s are. Is this an established distinction? Btljs (talk) 21:52, 27 January 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Is "Kitty-in-Boots" a "Tale"? 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to  on Beatrix Potter. Please take a moment to review my edit. You may add  after the link to keep me from modifying it, if I keep adding bad data, but formatting bugs should be reported instead. Alternatively, you can add  to keep me off the page altogether, but should be used as a last resort. I made the following changes:
*Attempted to fix sourcing for http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35584
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).
Cheers.—cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 22:20, 28 March 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: The introductory section states that Potter's parents discouraged her intellectual development, but no source is given for this claim, and the section on Potter's early life and education seems if anything to contradict it.  A TV documentary last night (ITV, 2 April 2016) also said explicitly that her parents actively encouraged her education. I'm not a Potter expert, but maybe someone who is could sort out this discrepancy.109.150.75.22 (talk) 10:18, 3 April 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: I've had a look and you indeed have a fair point. I've reworded the lead accordingly. Alfietucker (talk) 14:35, 3 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Parents' discouragement? 

message: Substituted at 09:18, 29 April 2016 (UTC)
thread_title: Assessment comment

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified  on Beatrix Potter. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140728105712/https://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/cumbria-author-beatrix-potter-link-to-prince-george-revealed-1.1149744 to http://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/cumbria-author-beatrix-potter-link-to-prince-george-revealed-1.1149744
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130513210936/https://www.linnean.org/Resources/LinneanSociety/Documents/Publications/The-Linnaen/Lin%20Vol%2016_%20no%201_%20Jan%202000.pdf to http://www.linnean.org/Resources/LinneanSociety/Documents/Publications/The-Linnaen/Lin%20Vol%2016_%20no%201_%20Jan%202000.pdf
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at ).
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 16:48, 11 September 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: I just listened The Scientific Tale of Author Beatrix Potter (17:11 minutes) and it is a very interesting introduction to Beatrix Potters' scientific illustrations. The web page has some samples that I believe are in the public domain. I could not find this kind of illustrations in Commons? If someone is interested...--QuimGil (talk) 18:06, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: I found a nice gallery at http://armitt.com/armitt_website/beatrix-potter/ (but still I am not certain that those images are in the PD).--QuimGil (talk) 18:57, 26 November 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Science Friday episode, contains public domain (?) images 

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just modified 4 external links on Beatrix Potter. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
*Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/35584
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20101126154132/http://linnean.org/fileadmin/images/Beatrix_Potter/BPotter_fossils.pdf to http://www.linnean.org/fileadmin/images/Beatrix_Potter/BPotter_fossils.pdf
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20090505073415/http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/prints_books/features/potter/index.html to http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/prints_books/features/potter/index.html
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20061212025728/http://www.library.pitt.edu/libraries/is/enroom/illustrators/potter.htm to http://www.library.pitt.edu/libraries/is/enroom/illustrators/potter.htm
When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.
Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 18:30, 16 July 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Not necessarily.  Kostaki mou (talk) 15:26, 27 July 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  "North American English /ˈbiː.trɪks/" 

message: Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think that it is appropriate to have references that are youtube videos especially when it adds nothing to the article as in this case. I am referring here to references 75 and 76.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tirab (talk • contribs) 10:17, 13 August 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Youtube videos as references 

message: The factoid about the Duchess of Cambridge being related seems to be over mentioned. One mention would be more than sufficient. Nice for the Duchess. Of no relevance to the subject. Any more than a single mention should be removed in my view. --Matilda talk 10:11, 28 August 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: No Problem as far as I see it. The Duchess is only mentioned twice - her ancestor is well- documented as being  Potter's father's  mentor - and Potter herself had gifted her own drawings (reportedly auctioned  for a great deal of money)  to cousins of Kate's grt grandmother - Olive Middleton.203.132.68.1 (talk) 03:45, 24 November 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Duchess of Cambridge connection - trivial and irrelevant to the subject 

message: :She did not believe in the theory of symbiosis proposed by Simon Schwendener, the German mycologist, as previously thought; rather she proposed a more independent process of reproduction
Symbiosis is not  theory of reproduction - this sentence just makes no sense from a biological theory point of view. There is nothing in the article Simon Schwendener to give more insight.
also, what does "as previously thought" mean here ? 5.198.10.236 (talk) 10:04, 27 July 2018 (UTC)
thread_title: Illogical sentence

message: Why do we shy away from calling her xenophobic by instead writing 'complaining' or 'critique' instead? when can the word 'Xenophobia' actually be used? because by the very nature of the definition, she falls right into it, are we trying to P.G. her article for the sake of keeping her looking presentable? she literally made horrible remarks on the Welsh people by undermining their mother-tongue. Hogyncymru (talk) 02:49, 14 May 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Her Xenophobia 

message: Is the picture of Ms. Zellweger rotated through 90 degrees for everyone or is it just me? And if the former, could someone who knows what they’re doing fix it?  Ta… Mr Larrington (talk) 00:25, 31 May 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Renée Zellweger 

message: The link to Kate Middleton is interesting, but is it worthy of being included in the main page on Beatrix Potter? 88.97.108.45 (talk) 22:07, 30 March 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Link to Kate Middleton