The Tale of Peter Rabbit
In 1901, a friend of Potter's family, Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley, changed Potter's story into a poem and tried giving his version, together with her illustrations and some of her corrected writing, to Frederick Warne & Co. The company refused Rawnsley's version, but they wanted to see Potter's complete manuscript. They hoped that The Tale of Peter Rabbit would be as successful as Helen Bannerman's greatly popular Little Black Sambo and other children's books that were being sold at that time. When Warne asked why there were not any colours in the illustrations, though, Potter replied that rabbit-brown and green colors were not interesting. Warne said he would not publish the book, but he said he might publish other books she wrote later.