Beatrix Potter loved the countryside and spent much of her childhood drawing and studying animals. The Tale of Peter Rabbit, published in 1902, was her first book, expanded from an illustrated letter she had sent to a young friend. Beatrix Potter went on to publish more than twenty tales and collections of rhymes. Potter herself is considered one of the most successful and important figures in children's literature who, according to The New Yorker, "delighted in the detail and humor of the natural world."