Frederick Warne & Co. published the first trade, full-colour edition of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, launching Potter's career.
On 1 October 1902, Frederick Warne & Co. published the first commercial trade edition of The Tale of Peter Rabbit, fully illustrated in colour, after the private 1901 edition had proven the story's appeal. The initial print run sold out quickly, and the book went through multiple reprintings within its first year.
This publication marked the true launch of Beatrix Potter's career as a professional author-illustrator. It also began her long, complex working relationship with her editor at Warne, Norman Warne, to whom she later became engaged. The book's small format, designed to fit comfortably in a child's hands, was itself an innovation in children's publishing, prioritizing the physical experience of the young reader.
The Tale of Peter Rabbit went on to sell more than 45 million copies worldwide and has never been out of print, making it one of the best-selling books in history. Its success established the template—modest scale, spare prose, and meticulously naturalistic watercolour illustration—for the more than twenty 'little books' that followed, cementing Potter's reputation as one of the most significant children's authors of the twentieth century.