LETTER: Autograph letter signed "Beatrix Heelis" to "Mrs. Mahoney Miller."
ON WORLD WAR II
(Potter, Beatrix.) Autograph letter signed, “Beatrix Heelis,” to Mrs. Mahony Miller,
December 28, 1941; one leaf, two pages.
Potter here writes to her of her work, of the war, and of President Roosevelt’s “Day that will live
in infamy” speech following the attack on Pearl Harbor, to Miller, the founder of the Horn Book
Magazine, and one of Potter’s frequent correspondents. In part:
It seems an age since ‘Dec 7th’—We could hear your president’s every word distinctly.
His speech was fine; direct and forcible in its simple statement. Only, all the time I
listened I kept thinking—how many ‘Dec 7th’s’ there have been in Europe?…There are
beginning to be local reports of sailors—saved and lost…There is just one thing to be
said in favour of the Japs—they did not machine gun the rescues which the Nazis would
have done! They, the Nazis, certainly choose to waste bullets in wanton cruelty…I posted
you a transcript of 2 old unfinished tales belonging to the Caravan series, on Nov.
26th…More & more men are being called up. We have cause to be thankful to the
Russians who have a large population to draw upon…There is plenty to eat and much to
be thankful for—not least a relief that U. S. A. has at last realized and woke up before too
late. I hope you are both well—as we are here—and may we all see the dawn of peace in
1942.” Central vertical and horizontal folds with a slight edge separation at the top, and
toned mounting remnants to the upper corners, otherwise fine condition.
For most of her adult life, Potter lived in the countryside at Hill Top Farm in Near Sawrey, where
she felt relatively safe given the remote area. During wartime, however, with planes constantly
flying overhead, she believed that her estate was on a bombing route. There had been a brief scare
earlier in 1941, when an entire print run of The Tale of Peter Rabbit was destroyed during a
bombing raid on London. Potter’s original watercolor illustrations for the books were returned to
her at Hill Top Farm for safekeeping, given the diminished threat in that location. One of the “old
unfinished tales” she mentions sending was likely ‘Wag-by-Wall,’ a story she began in 1909 and
intended for inclusion in The Fairy Caravan, but was never actually published. Near the end of
her life, she granted Miller permission to publish it in a Christmas edition of The Horn Book.
(#4657560)
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