The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin
Nutkin is a cheeky little red squirrel who, every morning, sails across the lake with his brother Twinkleberry and the other squirrels to gather nuts on Owl Island. The other squirrels work. Nutkin sings riddles at Old Brown the owl. Old Brown's patience is not infinite. By the end, Nutkin no longer has a tail — and won't answer to anyone for the rest of his life.
Beatrix wrote it as a picture letter to small Norah Moore on the 25th of September 1901, from Lingholm, near Keswick. The lake in the book is Derwentwater. Owl Island is St. Herbert's Island. Old Brown's oak is a real oak Beatrix photographed at Lingholm — the back of the print, in her handwriting, reads "Old Brown's Oak, Lingholm, Derwentwater."
The book was Beatrix's second, an immediate success — "I never thought when I was drawing it that it would be such a success," she wrote. The first print run was ten thousand: "it must be a troublesome business to distribute ten thousand."
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Particulars
- Trade edition
- August 1903, Frederick Warne & Co.
- Setting
- Derwentwater, Cumberland (Owl Island = St. Herbert's Island; Old Brown's oak at Lingholm)
- Dedication
- "A story for Norah" (Norah Moore, daughter of Beatrix's former governess)
- Manuscript
- Picture letter of 25 September 1901, expanded into a paper-covered exercise book with twenty-six pencil sketches
- First print run
- Ten thousand copies
Curiosities
- ❦Beatrix told Noel Moore in 1897 that "There is an American story that squirrels go down the rivers on little rafts using their tails for sails, but I think the Keswick Squirrels must swim." She was wrong, and Nutkin proved it.
- ❦To find a model, Beatrix bought two squirrels. They fought so frightfully that she kept only one — "the other squirrel is rather a nice little animal, but half of one ear has been bitten off, which spoils his appearance!"
- ❦Beatrix forgot to add Norah's name to the proofs. She asked Warne to slip in a dedication: "perhaps there may be another edition some day. I would have put, 'The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin — a story for Norah.'" It was not too late.
- ❦The original cover showed Nutkin dancing inside a square. Norman Warne suggested a circle. Beatrix re-drew it: "I have shortened the tail to get it inside the circle."
- ❦One last-minute change: Old Brown's tribute changed from a pie of four-and-twenty blackbirds to "a new-laid egg in a rush basket."
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