THE JOURNAL OF BEATRIX POTTER From 1881 to 1897. Transcribed from her Code Writing by Leslie Linder. With an Appreciation by H.L. Cox.
London: Frederick Warne & Co., Ltd., [1966]. First Edition (& 1st printing). Large, thick octavo, original green boards titled in gold. 448 pp., Illustrated with 28 colour plates, 32 monochrome plates and 8 facsimiles of code-writing, Index. A very clean copy, very good or better, in a nice attractive dust wrapper. The wrapper is slightly tanned on the spine panel, is clipped on both the top and bottom portions of the front flap; there is slight wear at the edges (principally head & heel of spine panel) and a 1.5 inch closed tear to the top edge of the front panel, with an old tape repair on the verso. Overall, an attractive copy. Item #313184
¶ Beginning at age 14, Beatrix Potter kept a coded journal. It would not be decoded until Leslie Linder, a fan of the author, cracked the code. What appeared is a remarkable document, written for her own eyes, giving a first-hand account of Victorian life in the late 19th Century. It shows how her writing matured as she passed from girlhood to woman-hood, and brings out her powers of observation, her shrewd judgement of human character, her keen sense of humour and her appreciate of nature and art. The volume is illustrated with facsimile pages from the Journal, examples of her drawings and water colours, and photographs of the Potter family and some of the places mentioned in the Journal. Scholarly knowledge about Beatrix Potter has at its core the work of Leslie Linder, an engineer who was a collector of Potter drawings. Linder's major collection of Beatrix Potter material was bequeathed to the Victoria & Albert Museum after his death in 1973.
Price: $60.00