Essay: Beatrix Potter- The author who invented character merchandising

I was browsing through the many charity shops in Epsom when I chanced upon a three-piece Peter Rabbit dinnerware set ideal for nursery-age children. Peter Rabbit took me back way into the past, to a time when I was a child and was gifted an illustrated version of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, Potter’s most beloved story. determines his identity by breaking boundaries, which appear in the form of his mother’s rules, and also literally in the shape of the many physical barriers that are presented in both tales: the gate, the net, the sieve, the door, and, most obviously, walls.” A stamp printed by Japan shows The Tale of Peter Rabbit, circa 2012. “What an appalling quantity of Peter.” On why the book met with such adoration, she wrote in 1905: “It is much more satisfactory to address a real live child; I often think that that was the secret of the success of Peter Rabbit, it was written to a child — not made to order.” The Tale of Peter Rabbit went on to sell more than 45 million copies worldwide in 35 languages. Potter is credited with inventing character merchandising, building a retail empire out of her “bunny book” that is worth more than $500 million today, and has helped numerous licensed characters, including Mickey Mouse, Superman, Captain America, and Harry Potter, that followed in Peter Rabbit’s small footsteps.