The Tale of Peter Rabbit.
Beatrix Potter, 1901

Privately Printed First Edition—First Issue

The exceedingly rare privately printed first edition of The Tale of Peter Rabbit—Beatrix Potter’s debut book, self-published in 1901 after multiple rejections from traditional publishers. Only 250 copies were issued in this first printing, produced at Potter’s own expense and distributed just before Christmas that year to family, friends, and a handful of paying readers.

This edition marked the quiet beginning of what would become one of the most beloved and enduring works in children’s literature. The present copy is from the first issue, distinguished by its flat spine, preceding the slightly later second issue with a rounded back and darker boards. Before Frederick Warne agreed to issue the book in trade format in 1902, Potter had already sparked a following—both for her art and her entrepreneurial resolve.

“Beatrix Potter was far ahead of her time – as a woman in Victorian and Edwardian days, it was not customary to do research at Kew Gardens as a scientist, nor to publish your own books, nor to earn money by selling greetings cards, nor to become a businesswoman buying land in the Lake District. But she achieved all these things.”

–The Beatrix Potter Society

Illustrated throughout by Potter herself, including the color frontispiece, this is not just a cornerstone of children's literature but a consequential moment in the history of self-publishing.