NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE: The Story of Beatrice Potter

by Dorothy Aldis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 9, 1969

. . . but much of it is unfounded, Fleshing out the very scanty information on Beatrix Potter's daily doings as a child, Mrs. Aldis supplies her first pet mouse, Hunca-Munca, at age six, then adds Appley Dappley as a mate, places Tom Kitten next door, etc., etc.--concretely surrounding her with her subjects from the start, Which is closer to artistic than to literal truth. So is much of the content and with charming results; but more than concretizing or distilling or the acknowledged invention of conversations is involved in the putative encounter with Norman Warne at a dance--he sympathizing with her shyness, she too terrified to respond and rushing off. Later, when his family firm undertook to publish her books and they did indeed meet (ultimately to become engaged), both are depicted as remembering the first meeting. Subsequent to Margaret Lane's 1946 biography the coded journals were found and deciphered, which gives Mrs. Aldis additional material on the supposedly blank, static period between Beatrix Potter's late teens and her mid-thirties, but they contain no authority for the foregoing or for some of the other departures from Margaret Lane's account (including such simplifications as the substitution of mushrooms for fungi as her special study). All of which is unfortunate because the book has a delightful, quite vivid domesticity and a respectful sympathy for the subject.

Pub Date: Sept. 9, 1969

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Atheneum

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1969

Categories: NONFICTION