Or so I thought.

I would not have written this small tribute to a worthy author if a few online references had not bothered me immensely.

Sure, Beatrix Potter's books are now hailed as delightful reads, her drawings and illustrations adored by dedicated fans. And she was so much more than the brains behind the lovable Peter Rabbit; her work in field of science is slowly being acknowledged in the last decade or so.

What Beatrix Potter Did Not Do, or rather, what people ask with regard to her is most distressing. It's one of those instances where you want to drag that child and his/her parent to a library and enroll them both there. Implement a buddy program; if someone falls off the 'bookwagon' of reading literary 'musts', a mean looking bookkeeper shows up and hides your TV.

What am I ranting and raving about you say? Try these for shocking revealation.

This was an online query; "Did Beatrix Potter's books win any awards".

Fair enough, the current world is filled with the importance of intellectual property. Authors today seem to own canoodles of money; they are on the so-and-so best selling list. Royalties pay for their $5000 eyebrowing tweezing beauty treatments. Some of them walk the red carpet with Hollywood stars and you see them on numerous talkshows.
 

This is how life is now. This is not how the literary greats lived. With all due respect to great authors of the present day and late 20th century (most of whom write for the sake of writing and not for fulfilling dreams of ten digits figures in ther bank account), I feel it necessary to point out that once upon a time, there was more to writing than earning mega millions.

Beatrix Potter was not asked for hyped up book signing events; publishers would not touch her work initally because, well she was female, and this was the dark ages of lesser rights for women.   This was also prior to the days of mass publishing, at least on the scale as is the norm today. Beatrix Potter did not write with the aim to earn truck loads of money; she loved nature and all its beings and her sketches, art and stories was her way of expressing her bond with nature. Sure, later on in life, she earned a comfortable earnings from the sales of her books but keep in mind that even then her main love was not related to earthly matters - "[s]he continued the life she loved best - as a conservationist, landowner, solicitor's wife, and farmer."

I'm not saying that she should not have won any awards; on the contray, she deserved many accolades for her work. It's just sad to measure someone's worth by awards, keeping in mind that awards are marks of social approval, decided upon by the status quo of that time period.

Second online quote that upset me - let's just say one too many people mixed up Beatrix Potter with a wand waving wizard. Oh dear!

Harry Potter is excellent in its own way. Good series, great content, strong plotlines, ignoring that one loophole involving the Marauder's Map.

But, when too many young ones mistake Beatrix Potter for Bellatrix Lestrange ... sigh! This is a moment, if I may quote Colon from Discworld, to go spare.

Check out a few online forums; search around in Yahoo Answers. How many people ponder if Beatrix Potter is related to that other famous Potter.

So, for the record; no, Beatrix Potter is not related to Harry Potter. She was not one of the characters in the book. No, she was not a spoof chracter on any number of Youtube parodies about magic wielding Potter.