J. M. Barrie
Encyclopedia
Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM (9 May 1860 – 19 June 1937) was a Scottish
author
and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan
. The child of a family of small-town weavers, he was educated in Scotland. He moved to London, where he developed a career as a novelist and playwright. There he met the Llewelyn Davies boys
who inspired him in writing about a baby boy who has magical adventures in Kensington Gardens (included in The Little White Bird
), then to write Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, a "fairy play" about this ageless boy and an ordinary girl named Wendy who have adventures in the fantasy setting of Neverland
. This play quickly overshadowed his previous work and although he continued to write successfully, it became his best-known work, credited with popularising the name Wendy
, which was very uncommon previously. Barrie unofficially adopted the Davies boys following the deaths of their parents. Before his death, he gave the rights to the Peter Pan works to Great Ormond Street Hospital
, which continues to benefit from them.
, Angus
, to a conservative Calvinist
family. His father David Barrie was a modestly successful weaver. His mother, Margaret Ogilvy, had assumed her deceased mother's household responsibilities at the age of eight. Barrie was the ninth child of ten (two of whom died before he was born), all of whom were schooled in at least the three Rs
, in preparation for possible professional careers. He was a small child (he only grew to 5 ft 3½ in. according to his 1934 passport), and drew attention to himself with storytelling.
When he was 6 years old, Barrie's next-older brother David (his mother's favourite) died two days before his 14th birthday in an ice-skating accident. This left his mother devastated, and Barrie tried to fill David's place in his mother's attentions, even wearing David's clothes and whistling in the manner that he did. One time Barrie entered her room, and heard her say 'Is that you?' 'I thought it was the dead boy she was speaking to,' wrote Barrie in his biographical account of his mother, Margaret Ogilvy (1896), 'and I said in a little lonely voice, "No, it's no' him, it's just me."' Barrie's mother found comfort in the fact that her dead son would remain a boy forever, never to grow up and leave her. Despite evidence to the contrary, it has been speculated that this trauma induced psychogenic dwarfism
, and was responsible for his short stature and apparently asexual adulthood. Eventually Barrie and his mother entertained each other with stories of her brief childhood and books such as Robinson Crusoe
, works by fellow Scotsman Walter Scott
, and The Pilgrim's Progress
.
At the age of 8, Barrie was sent to The Glasgow Academy
, in the care of his eldest siblings Alexander and Mary Ann, who taught at the school. When he was 10 he returned home and continued his education at the Forfar
Academy. At 13, he left home for Dumfries Academy
, again under the watch of Alexander and Mary Ann. He became a voracious reader, and was fond of penny dreadfuls
, and the works of Robert Michael Ballantyne
and James Fenimore Cooper
. At Dumfries he and his friends spent time in the garden of Moat Brae house, playing pirates 'in a sort of Odyssey that was long afterwards to become the play of Peter Pan. They formed a drama club, producing his first play Bandelero the Bandit, which provoked a minor controversy following a scathing moral denunciation from a clergyman on the school's governing board.
Barrie wished to pursue a career as an author, but was dissuaded by his family — who wished him to have a profession such as the ministry, telling him it's what David would have done, had he been alive. With wise advice from Alec, he was able to work out a compromise. He was to attend a university, but would study literature. He enrolled at the University of Edinburgh
, where he wrote drama reviews for Edinburgh Evening Courant
. He was extremely introverted, and was shy about the fact he was in college and only approximately five feet. He would go on to graduate with his M.A. on April 21, 1882.
He worked for a year and a half as a staff journalist in Nottingham
following a job advertisement found by his sister in The Scotsman
, then returned to Kirriemuir, using his mother's stories about the town (which he called 'Thrums') for a piece submitted to the newspaper St. James's Gazette in London. The editor 'liked that Scotch thing', so Barrie wrote a series of them, which served as the basis for his first novels: Auld Licht Idylls (1888), A Window in Thrums (1890), and The Little Minister (1891). The stories depicted the "Auld Lichts", a strict religious sect that his grandfather had once belonged to. Literary criticism of these early works has been unfavourable, tending to disparage them as sentimental and nostalgic depictions of a parochial Scotland far from the realities of the industrialised nineteenth century, but they were popular enough to establish Barrie as a very successful writer. After the success of the "Auld Lichts", he printed Better Dead (1888) privately and at his own expense, and it failed to sell. His two 'Tommy' novels, Sentimental Tommy (1896) and Tommy and Grizel (1900), were about a boy and young man who clings to childish fantasy, with an unhappy ending.
Meanwhile, Barrie's attention turned increasingly to works for the theatre
, beginning with a biography of Richard Savage
and written by both Barrie and H.B. Marriott Watson
(performed only once, and critically panned). He immediately followed this with Ibsen's Ghost (or Toole Up-to-Date) (1891), a parody
of Henrik Ibsen
's dramas Hedda Gabler
and Ghosts
(unlicensed in the UK until 1914, it had created a sensation at the time from a single 'club' performance). The production of Barrie's play at Toole's Theatre in London was seen by William Archer
, the translator of Ibsen's works into English, who enjoyed the humour of the play and recommended it to others. His third play, Walker, London (1892), helped him be introduced to a young actress named Mary Ansell. Although he was unsure about his own suitability for marriage, he proposed to her and they were married on July 9, 1894. He got Ansell a Saint Bernard puppy, who would play a part in the novel The Little White Bird (or Adventures in Kensington Gardens). He also gave Ansell's Christian name to many characters in novels.
Barrie also authored Jane Annie
, a failed comic opera
for Richard D'Oyly Carte
(1893), which he begged his friend Arthur Conan Doyle
to revise and finish for him. In 1901 and 1902 he had back-to-back successes: Quality Street
, about a responsible 'old maid
' who poses as her own flirtatious niece to win the attention of a former suitor returned from the war; and The Admirable Crichton
, a critically acclaimed social commentary with elaborate staging, about an aristocratic household shipwrecked on a desert island, in which the butler naturally rises to leadership over his lord and ladies for the duration of their time away from civilization.
The first appearance of Peter Pan came in The Little White Bird
, which was serialised in the United States, then published in a single volume in the UK in 1901. Barrie's most famous and enduring work, Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, had its first stage performance on 27 December 1904. This play introduced audiences to the name Wendy, which was inspired by a young girl, Margaret Henley
, who called Barrie 'Friendy', but could not pronounce her Rs very well and so it came out as 'Fwendy'. It has been performed innumerable times since then, was developed by Barrie into the 1911 novel Peter and Wendy
, and has been adapted by others into feature films, musicals, and more. The Bloomsbury
scenes show the societal constraints of late Victorian middle-class domestic reality, contrasted with Neverland
, a world where morality is ambivalent. George Bernard Shaw
's description of the play as 'ostensibly a holiday entertainment for children but really a play for grown-up people', suggests deeper social allegories at work in Peter Pan.
In April 1929 Barrie specified that the copyright
of the Peter Pan works should go to the nation's leading children's hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital
in London. The current status of the copyright is somewhat complex.
Barrie had a long string of successes on the stage after Peter Pan, many of which discuss social concerns. The Twelve Pound Look shows a wife divorcing a peer and gaining an independent income. Other plays, such as Mary Rose and a subplot in Dear Brutus revisit the image of the ageless child. Later plays included What Every Woman Knows (1908). His final play was The Boy David (1936), which dramatised the Biblical story of King Saul
and the young David
. Like the role of Peter Pan, that of David was played by a woman, Elisabeth Bergner
, for whom Barrie wrote the play.
Barrie used his considerable income to help finance the production of commercially unsuccessful stage productions. Along with a number of other playwrights, he was involved in the 1909 and 1911 attempts to challenge the censorship of the theatre by the Lord Chamberlain
.
was an early social patron. He had a long correspondence with fellow Scot Robert Louis Stevenson
, who lived in Samoa
at the time, but the two never met in person. George Bernard Shaw
was for several years his neighbour, and once participated in a Western that Barrie scripted and filmed. H. G. Wells
was a friend of many years, and tried to intervene when Barrie's marriage fell apart. Barrie met Thomas Hardy
through Hugh Clifford
while he was staying in London.
After the First World War Barrie sometimes stayed at Stanway House
. He paid for the pavilion at Stanway
cricket
ground. Barrie founded an amateur cricket team for his friends. Arthur Conan Doyle
, Wells, and other luminaries such as Jerome K. Jerome
, G. K. Chesterton
, A. A. Milne
, Walter Raleigh
, A. E. W. Mason, E. V. Lucas
, Maurice Hewlett
, E. W. Hornung, P. G. Wodehouse
, Owen Seaman
, Bernard Partridge, Augustine Birrell
, Paul du Chaillu
, and the son of Alfred Tennyson played in the team at various times. The team was called the Allahakbarries
, under the mistaken belief that 'Allah akbar' meant 'Heaven help us' in Arabic (rather than 'God is great').
Barrie befriended Africa explorer Joseph Thomson
and Antarctica explorer Robert Falcon Scott
. He was godfather
to Scott's son Peter
, and was one of the seven people to whom Scott wrote letters in the final hours of his life following his successful – but doomed – expedition to the South Pole
, asking Barrie to take care of his wife Kathleen
and son Peter. Barrie was so proud of the letter that he carried it around for the rest of his life.
In 1896, his agent, Addison Bright persuaded him to meet with Broadway producer Charles Frohman
. Frohman would become not only his financial backer, but a close friend as well. Frohman, who was responsible for producing the debut of Peter Pan in both England and the U.S., as well as other productions of Barrie's plays, famously declined a lifeboat seat when the RMS Lusitania
was sunk by a German U-boat
in the North Atlantic. Actress Rita Jolivet
, who stood with Frohman, George Vernon
, and Captain Alick Scott at the end, survived the sinking and recalled Frohman paraphrasing Peter Pan: 'Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure that life gives us.'
Barrie met and told stories to the young daughters of the Duke of York
, the future Queen Elizabeth II
and Princess Margaret.
for a pretty actress to play a role in his play Walker, London. The two became friends, and she joined his family in caring for him when he fell very ill in 1893 and 1894. They married in Kirriemuir on 9 July 1894, shortly after Barrie recovered, and Mary retired from the stage; but the relationship was reportedly unconsummated and the couple had no children. The marriage was a small ceremony in his parents' home, in the Scottish tradition. In 1900 Mary found Black Lake Cottage, at Farnham, Surrey
, which became the couple's 'bolt hole' where Barrie could entertain his cricketing friends and the Llewelyn Davieses. Beginning in mid 1908, Mary had an affair with Gilbert Cannan
(an associate of Barrie's in his anti-censorship activities), including a visit together to Black Lake Cottage, known only to the house staff. When Barrie learned of the affair in July 1909, he demanded that she end it, but she refused. To avoid the scandal of divorce, he offered a legal separation if she would agree not to see Cannan any more, but she still refused. Barrie sued for divorce on the grounds of infidelity, which was granted in October 1909. A few of Barrie's friends, knowing how painful the divorce was for him, wanted to avoid bad press. They wrote to newspaper editors asking them not to publish the story (only three papers did).
(1863–1907) and Sylvia (1866–1910) (daughter of George du Maurier
), and their five sons
: George (1893–1915), John (Jack) (1894–1959), Peter (1897–1960), Michael (1900–1921), and Nicholas (Nico) (1903–1980).
Barrie became acquainted with the family in 1897, meeting George and Jack (and baby Peter) with their nurse (nanny
) Mary Hodgson in London's Kensington Gardens
. He lived nearby and often walked his Saint Bernard dog Porthos in the park. He entertained the boys regularly with his ability to wiggle his ears and eyebrows, and with his stories. He did not meet Sylvia until a chance encounter at a dinner party in December. She told Barrie that Peter had been named after the title character in her father's play, Peter Ibbetson. He became a regular visitor at the Davies household and a common companion to the woman and her boys, despite the fact that he and she were each married. In 1901, he invited the Davies family to Black Lake Cottage, where he produced an album of captioned photographs of the boys acting out a pirate adventure, entitled The Boy Castaways of Black Lake Island. Barrie had two copies made, one of which he gave to Arthur, who misplaced it on a train. The only surviving copy is held at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.
The character of Peter Pan was invented to entertain George and Jack. Barrie would say, to amuse them, that their little brother Peter could fly. He claimed that babies were birds before they were born; parents put bars on nursery windows to keep the little ones from flying away. This grew into a tale of a baby boy who did fly away.
Arthur Llewelyn Davies died in 1907, and 'Uncle Jim' became even more involved with the Davies family, providing financial support to them. (His income from Peter Pan and other works was easily adequate to provide for their living expenses and education.) Following Sylvia's death in 1910, Barrie claimed that they had recently been engaged to be married. Her will indicated nothing to that effect, but specified her wish for 'J. M. B.' to be trustee and guardian to the boys, along with her mother Emma, her brother Guy du Maurier
, and Arthur's brother Compton. It expressed her confidence in Barrie as the boys' caretaker and her wish for 'the boys to treat him (& their uncles) with absolute confidence & straightforwardness & to talk to him about everything.' When copying the will informally for Sylvia's family a few months later, Barrie inserted himself elsewhere: Sylvia had written that she would like Mary Hodgson, the boys' nurse, to continue taking care of them, and for 'Jenny' (referring to Hodgson's sister) to come and help her; Barrie instead wrote 'Jimmy' (Sylvia's nickname for him). Barrie and Hodgson did not get along well, but served together as surrogate parents until the boys were grown.
Barrie also had friendships with other children, both before he met the Davies boys and after they had grown up, and there has since been speculation that Barrie was a paedophile
. One source for the speculation is a scene in the novel The Little White Bird
, in which in the protagonist (who resembles Barrie) helps a small boy undress for bed, and at the boy's request they sleep in the same bed. However, there is no evidence that Barrie had sexual contact with children, nor that he was suspected of it at the time. Nico, the youngest of the brothers, flatly denied as an adult that Barrie ever behaved inappropriately. 'I don't believe that Uncle Jim ever experienced what one might call "a stirring in the undergrowth" for anyone — man, woman, or child,' he stated. 'He was an innocent — which is why he could write Peter Pan.' His relationships with the surviving Davies boys continued well beyond their childhood and adolescence.
The statue of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, erected in secret overnight for May Morning
in 1912, was supposed to be modelled upon old photographs of Michael dressed as the character. However, the sculptor Sir George Frampton used a different child as a model, leaving Barrie disappointed with the result. 'It doesn't show the devil in Peter,' he said.
Barrie suffered bereavements with the boys, losing the two to whom he was closest in their early twenties. George was killed in action (1915) in World War I
. Michael, with whom Barrie corresponded daily while at boarding school and university, drowned (1921) with his friend and possible lover, Rupert Buxton, at a known danger spot at Sandford Lock
near Oxford
, one month short of his 21st birthday. Some years after Barrie's death, Peter compiled his Morgue from family letters and papers, interpolated with his own informed comments on his family and their relationship with Barrie.
) to his secretary Cynthia Asquith
. His birthplace at 4 Brechin Road is maintained as a museum by the National Trust for Scotland
.
in 1913; his baronetcy was not inherited. He was made a member of the Order of Merit in 1922. In 1919 he was elected Rector of the University of St Andrews
for the next three years, and served as Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh
from 1930 to 1937.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and dramatist, best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...
. The child of a family of small-town weavers, he was educated in Scotland. He moved to London, where he developed a career as a novelist and playwright. There he met the Llewelyn Davies boys
Llewelyn Davies boys
The Davies boys were the sons of Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies . They served as the inspiration for the characters of Peter Pan and the other boys of J. M...
who inspired him in writing about a baby boy who has magical adventures in Kensington Gardens (included in The Little White Bird
The Little White Bird
The Little White Bird is a novel by J. M. Barrie, published in 1902, ranging in tone from fantasy and whimsy to social comedy with dark aggressive undertones. The book attained prominence and longevity due to several chapters written in a softer tone than the rest of the book, in which it...
), then to write Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, a "fairy play" about this ageless boy and an ordinary girl named Wendy who have adventures in the fantasy setting of Neverland
Neverland
Neverland is a fictional world featured in the works of J. M. Barrie and those based on them. It is the dwelling place of Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, and others...
. This play quickly overshadowed his previous work and although he continued to write successfully, it became his best-known work, credited with popularising the name Wendy
Wendy
Wendy is a given name generally given to females in English-speaking countries.The name is found in United States records from the 19th century; Wendy Gram, a female resident of Ohio, was born in 1828, and the name Wendy appeared over twenty times in the U.S. Census of 1880...
, which was very uncommon previously. Barrie unofficially adopted the Davies boys following the deaths of their parents. Before his death, he gave the rights to the Peter Pan works to Great Ormond Street Hospital
Great Ormond Street Hospital
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children is a children's hospital located in London, United Kingdom...
, which continues to benefit from them.
Childhood and adolescence
Barrie was born in KirriemuirKirriemuir
Kirriemuir, sometimes called Kirrie, is a burgh in Angus, Scotland.-History:The history of Kirriemuir extends to the early historical period and it appears to have been a centre of some ecclesiastical importance...
, Angus
Angus
Angus is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland, a registration county and a lieutenancy area. The council area borders Aberdeenshire, Perth and Kinross and Dundee City...
, to a conservative Calvinist
Calvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
family. His father David Barrie was a modestly successful weaver. His mother, Margaret Ogilvy, had assumed her deceased mother's household responsibilities at the age of eight. Barrie was the ninth child of ten (two of whom died before he was born), all of whom were schooled in at least the three Rs
The three Rs
The three Rs are the foundations of a basic skills-orientated education program within schools: Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic.The phrase is attributed to a toast given by Sir William Curtis around 1825...
, in preparation for possible professional careers. He was a small child (he only grew to 5 ft 3½ in. according to his 1934 passport), and drew attention to himself with storytelling.
When he was 6 years old, Barrie's next-older brother David (his mother's favourite) died two days before his 14th birthday in an ice-skating accident. This left his mother devastated, and Barrie tried to fill David's place in his mother's attentions, even wearing David's clothes and whistling in the manner that he did. One time Barrie entered her room, and heard her say 'Is that you?' 'I thought it was the dead boy she was speaking to,' wrote Barrie in his biographical account of his mother, Margaret Ogilvy (1896), 'and I said in a little lonely voice, "No, it's no' him, it's just me."' Barrie's mother found comfort in the fact that her dead son would remain a boy forever, never to grow up and leave her. Despite evidence to the contrary, it has been speculated that this trauma induced psychogenic dwarfism
Psychogenic dwarfism
Psychosocial short stature or psychosocial dwarfism, sometimes called psychogenic or stress dwarfism or the eponymous Kaspar Hauser syndrome, is a growth disorder that is observed between the ages of 2 and 15, caused by extreme emotional deprivation or stress.The symptoms include decreased growth...
, and was responsible for his short stature and apparently asexual adulthood. Eventually Barrie and his mother entertained each other with stories of her brief childhood and books such as Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe is a novel by Daniel Defoe that was first published in 1719. Epistolary, confessional, and didactic in form, the book is a fictional autobiography of the title character—a castaway who spends 28 years on a remote tropical island near Trinidad, encountering cannibals, captives, and...
, works by fellow Scotsman Walter Scott
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
, and The Pilgrim's Progress
The Pilgrim's Progress
The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come is a Christian allegory written by John Bunyan and published in February, 1678. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of religious English literature, has been translated into more than 200 languages, and has never been...
.
At the age of 8, Barrie was sent to The Glasgow Academy
The Glasgow Academy
Founded in 1845, the Glasgow Academy is the oldest fully independent school in Glasgow, Scotland. It is located in the Kelvinbridge area and has approximately 1300 pupils, split between three preparatory school sites and a senior school....
, in the care of his eldest siblings Alexander and Mary Ann, who taught at the school. When he was 10 he returned home and continued his education at the Forfar
Forfar
Forfar is a parish, town and former royal burgh of approximately 13,500 people in Angus, located in the East Central Lowlands of Scotland. Forfar is the county town of Angus, which was officially known as Forfarshire from the 18th century until 1929, when the ancient name was reinstated, and...
Academy. At 13, he left home for Dumfries Academy
Dumfries Academy
Dumfries Academy is one of four secondary schools in the town of Dumfries in South West Scotland.-History:Dumfries Academy has existed in its present form, though not in the buildings it currently occupies, since 1804...
, again under the watch of Alexander and Mary Ann. He became a voracious reader, and was fond of penny dreadfuls
Penny Dreadful
A penny dreadful was a type of British fiction publication in the 19th century that usually featured lurid serial stories appearing in parts over a number of weeks, each part costing an penny...
, and the works of Robert Michael Ballantyne
Robert Michael Ballantyne
R. M. Ballantyne was a Scottish juvenile fiction writer.Born Robert Michael Ballantyne in Edinburgh, he was part of a famous family of printers and publishers. At the age of 16 he went to Canada and was six years in the service of the Hudson's Bay Company...
and James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper
James Fenimore Cooper was a prolific and popular American writer of the early 19th century. He is best remembered as a novelist who wrote numerous sea-stories and the historical novels known as the Leatherstocking Tales, featuring frontiersman Natty Bumppo...
. At Dumfries he and his friends spent time in the garden of Moat Brae house, playing pirates 'in a sort of Odyssey that was long afterwards to become the play of Peter Pan. They formed a drama club, producing his first play Bandelero the Bandit, which provoked a minor controversy following a scathing moral denunciation from a clergyman on the school's governing board.
Literary career
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
, where he wrote drama reviews for Edinburgh Evening Courant
Edinburgh Courant
The Edinburgh Courant was a broadsheet newspaper from the 18th Century. It was published out of Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland. Its first issue was dated Feb 14-19, 1705 and was sold for a penny. It was one of the country's first regional papers, second only to the Norwich Post...
. He was extremely introverted, and was shy about the fact he was in college and only approximately five feet. He would go on to graduate with his M.A. on April 21, 1882.
He worked for a year and a half as a staff journalist in Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...
following a job advertisement found by his sister in The Scotsman
The Scotsman
The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
, then returned to Kirriemuir, using his mother's stories about the town (which he called 'Thrums') for a piece submitted to the newspaper St. James's Gazette in London. The editor 'liked that Scotch thing', so Barrie wrote a series of them, which served as the basis for his first novels: Auld Licht Idylls (1888), A Window in Thrums (1890), and The Little Minister (1891). The stories depicted the "Auld Lichts", a strict religious sect that his grandfather had once belonged to. Literary criticism of these early works has been unfavourable, tending to disparage them as sentimental and nostalgic depictions of a parochial Scotland far from the realities of the industrialised nineteenth century, but they were popular enough to establish Barrie as a very successful writer. After the success of the "Auld Lichts", he printed Better Dead (1888) privately and at his own expense, and it failed to sell. His two 'Tommy' novels, Sentimental Tommy (1896) and Tommy and Grizel (1900), were about a boy and young man who clings to childish fantasy, with an unhappy ending.
Meanwhile, Barrie's attention turned increasingly to works for the theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
, beginning with a biography of Richard Savage
Richard Savage
Richard Savage was an English poet. He is best known as the subject of Samuel Johnson's Life of Savage , on which is based one of the most elaborate of Johnson's Lives of the English Poets....
and written by both Barrie and H.B. Marriott Watson
Henry Brereton Marriott Watson
Henry Brereton Marriott Watson , known by his pen name H.B. Marriott Watson, was an Australian-born British novelist, journalist, playwright, and short-story writer. He worked for the St. James Gazette, was assistant editor of the Black and White and Pall Mall Gazette, and staff member on W.E...
(performed only once, and critically panned). He immediately followed this with Ibsen's Ghost (or Toole Up-to-Date) (1891), a parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
's dramas Hedda Gabler
Hedda Gabler
Hedda Gabler is a play first published in 1890 by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. The play premiered in 1891 in Germany to negative reviews, but has subsequently gained recognition as a classic of realism, nineteenth century theatre, and world drama...
and Ghosts
Ghosts (play)
Ghosts is a play by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. It was written in 1881 and first staged in 1882.Like many of Ibsen's better-known plays, Ghosts is a scathing commentary on 19th century morality....
(unlicensed in the UK until 1914, it had created a sensation at the time from a single 'club' performance). The production of Barrie's play at Toole's Theatre in London was seen by William Archer
William Archer (critic)
William Archer , Scottish critic, was born in Perth, and was educated at the University of Edinburgh, where he received the degree of M.A. in 1876. He was the son of Thomas Archer....
, the translator of Ibsen's works into English, who enjoyed the humour of the play and recommended it to others. His third play, Walker, London (1892), helped him be introduced to a young actress named Mary Ansell. Although he was unsure about his own suitability for marriage, he proposed to her and they were married on July 9, 1894. He got Ansell a Saint Bernard puppy, who would play a part in the novel The Little White Bird (or Adventures in Kensington Gardens). He also gave Ansell's Christian name to many characters in novels.
Barrie also authored Jane Annie
Jane Annie
Jane Annie, or The Good Conduct Prize is an opera written in 1893 by J. M. Barrie and Arthur Conan Doyle, with music by Ernest Ford, a conductor and occasional composer....
, a failed comic opera
Comic opera
Comic opera denotes a sung dramatic work of a light or comic nature, usually with a happy ending.Forms of comic opera first developed in late 17th-century Italy. By the 1730s, a new operatic genre, opera buffa, emerged as an alternative to opera seria...
for Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte
Richard D'Oyly Carte was an English talent agent, theatrical impresario, composer and hotelier during the latter half of the Victorian era...
(1893), which he begged his friend Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
to revise and finish for him. In 1901 and 1902 he had back-to-back successes: Quality Street
Quality Street (play)
Quality Street is a comedy in four acts by J. M. Barrie, written before his more famous work Peter Pan. The story is about two sisters who start a school "for genteel children"....
, about a responsible 'old maid
Old Maid
Old maid is a Victorian card game for two to eight players probably deriving from an ancient gambling game in which the loser pays for the drinks. It is known in Germany as Schwarzer Peter, in Sweden as Svarte Petter and in Finland as Musta Pekka and in France as le pouilleux or vieux garçon...
' who poses as her own flirtatious niece to win the attention of a former suitor returned from the war; and The Admirable Crichton
The Admirable Crichton
The Admirable Crichton is a comic stage play written in 1902 by J. M. Barrie. It was produced by Charles Frohman and opened at the Duke of York's Theatre in London on 4 November 1902, running for an extremely successful 828 performances. It starred H. B. Irving and Irene Vanbrugh...
, a critically acclaimed social commentary with elaborate staging, about an aristocratic household shipwrecked on a desert island, in which the butler naturally rises to leadership over his lord and ladies for the duration of their time away from civilization.
The first appearance of Peter Pan came in The Little White Bird
The Little White Bird
The Little White Bird is a novel by J. M. Barrie, published in 1902, ranging in tone from fantasy and whimsy to social comedy with dark aggressive undertones. The book attained prominence and longevity due to several chapters written in a softer tone than the rest of the book, in which it...
, which was serialised in the United States, then published in a single volume in the UK in 1901. Barrie's most famous and enduring work, Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, had its first stage performance on 27 December 1904. This play introduced audiences to the name Wendy, which was inspired by a young girl, Margaret Henley
Margaret Henley
Margaret Emma Henley was the daughter of William Ernest Henley and his wife Anna Henley . Margaret's friendship with J. M...
, who called Barrie 'Friendy', but could not pronounce her Rs very well and so it came out as 'Fwendy'. It has been performed innumerable times since then, was developed by Barrie into the 1911 novel Peter and Wendy
Peter and Wendy
Peter and Wendy, published in 1911, is the novelisation by J. M. Barrie of his most famous play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up...
, and has been adapted by others into feature films, musicals, and more. The Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury
-Places:* Bloomsbury is an area in central London.* Bloomsbury , related local government unit* Bloomsbury, New Jersey, New Jersey, USA* Bloomsbury , listed on the NRHP in Maryland...
scenes show the societal constraints of late Victorian middle-class domestic reality, contrasted with Neverland
Neverland
Neverland is a fictional world featured in the works of J. M. Barrie and those based on them. It is the dwelling place of Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, and others...
, a world where morality is ambivalent. George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
's description of the play as 'ostensibly a holiday entertainment for children but really a play for grown-up people', suggests deeper social allegories at work in Peter Pan.
In April 1929 Barrie specified that the copyright
Copyright
Copyright is a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time...
of the Peter Pan works should go to the nation's leading children's hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital
Great Ormond Street Hospital
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children is a children's hospital located in London, United Kingdom...
in London. The current status of the copyright is somewhat complex.
Barrie had a long string of successes on the stage after Peter Pan, many of which discuss social concerns. The Twelve Pound Look shows a wife divorcing a peer and gaining an independent income. Other plays, such as Mary Rose and a subplot in Dear Brutus revisit the image of the ageless child. Later plays included What Every Woman Knows (1908). His final play was The Boy David (1936), which dramatised the Biblical story of King Saul
Saul
-People:Saul is a given/first name in English, the Anglicized form of the Hebrew name Shaul from the Hebrew Bible:* Saul , including people with this given namein the Bible:* Saul , a king of Edom...
and the young David
David
David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...
. Like the role of Peter Pan, that of David was played by a woman, Elisabeth Bergner
Elisabeth Bergner
Elisabeth Bergner was an actress.She was born Elisabeth Ettel in Drohobycz, Austro-Hungarian Empire ....
, for whom Barrie wrote the play.
Barrie used his considerable income to help finance the production of commercially unsuccessful stage productions. Along with a number of other playwrights, he was involved in the 1909 and 1911 attempts to challenge the censorship of the theatre by the Lord Chamberlain
Lord Chamberlain
The Lord Chamberlain or Lord Chamberlain of the Household is one of the chief officers of the Royal Household in the United Kingdom and is to be distinguished from the Lord Great Chamberlain, one of the Great Officers of State....
.
Social connections
Barrie travelled in high literary circles, and in addition to his professional collaborators, he had many famous friends. Novelist George MeredithGeorge Meredith
George Meredith, OM was an English novelist and poet of the Victorian era.- Life :Meredith was born in Portsmouth, England, a son and grandson of naval outfitters. His mother died when he was five. At the age of 14 he was sent to a Moravian School in Neuwied, Germany, where he remained for two...
was an early social patron. He had a long correspondence with fellow Scot Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde....
, who lived in Samoa
Samoa
Samoa , officially the Independent State of Samoa, formerly known as Western Samoa is a country encompassing the western part of the Samoan Islands in the South Pacific Ocean. It became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The two main islands of Samoa are Upolu and one of the biggest islands in...
at the time, but the two never met in person. George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
was for several years his neighbour, and once participated in a Western that Barrie scripted and filmed. H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
was a friend of many years, and tried to intervene when Barrie's marriage fell apart. Barrie met Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
through Hugh Clifford
Hugh Clifford
Sir Hugh Charles Clifford, GCMG, GBE was a British colonial administrator.-Early life:Clifford was born in Roehampton, London, the sixth of the eight children of Major-General Sir Henry Hugh Clifford and his wife Josephine Elizabeth, née Anstice; his grandfather was Hugh Clifford, 7th Baron...
while he was staying in London.
After the First World War Barrie sometimes stayed at Stanway House
Stanway House
Stanway House is an example of a Jacobean manor house, located near Stanway, Gloucestershire. The manor was owned by Tewkesbury Abbey for 800 years then for 500 years by the Tracy family and their descendants, the Earls of Wemyss...
. He paid for the pavilion at Stanway
Stanway, Gloucestershire
Stanway is a small crossroads village in the English county of Gloucestershire, about 1 mile south of Stanton: both villages are on the Cotswold Way...
cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
ground. Barrie founded an amateur cricket team for his friends. Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
, Wells, and other luminaries such as Jerome K. Jerome
Jerome K. Jerome
Jerome Klapka Jerome was an English writer and humorist, best known for the humorous travelogue Three Men in a Boat.Jerome was born in Caldmore, Walsall, England, and was brought up in poverty in London...
, G. K. Chesterton
G. K. Chesterton
Gilbert Keith Chesterton, KC*SG was an English writer. His prolific and diverse output included philosophy, ontology, poetry, plays, journalism, public lectures and debates, literary and art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics, and fiction, including fantasy and detective fiction....
, A. A. Milne
A. A. Milne
Alan Alexander Milne was an English author, best known for his books about the teddy bear Winnie-the-Pooh and for various children's poems. Milne was a noted writer, primarily as a playwright, before the huge success of Pooh overshadowed all his previous work.-Biography:A. A...
, Walter Raleigh
Walter Raleigh (professor)
Professor Sir Walter Alexander Raleigh was an English scholar, poet and author.He was born in London, the fifth child and only son of a local Congregationalist minister...
, A. E. W. Mason, E. V. Lucas
E. V. Lucas
Edward Verrall Lucas was a versatile and popular English writer. His nearly 100 books demonstrate great facility with style, and are generally acknowledged as humorous by contemporary readers and critics. Some of his essays about the sport cricket are still considered among the best instructional...
, Maurice Hewlett
Maurice Hewlett
Maurice Henry Hewlett , was an English historical novelist, poet and essayist. He was born at Weybridge, the eldest son of Henry Gay Hewlett, of Shaw Hall, Addington, Kent. He was educated at the London International College, Spring Grove, Isleworth, and was called to the bar in 1891. He gave up...
, E. W. Hornung, P. G. Wodehouse
P. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
, Owen Seaman
Owen Seaman
Sir Owen Seaman, 1st Baronet was a British writer, journalist and poet. He is best known as editor of Punch, from 1906 to 1932.-Biography:...
, Bernard Partridge, Augustine Birrell
Augustine Birrell
Augustine Birrell PC, KC was an English politician, barrister, academic and author. He was Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1907 to 1916, resigning in the immediate aftermath of the Easter Rising.-Early life:...
, Paul du Chaillu
Paul du Chaillu
Paul Belloni du Chaillu was a French-American traveler and anthropologist. He became famous in the 1860s as the first modern outsider to confirm the existence of gorillas and the Pygmy people of central Africa. He later researched the prehistory of Scandinavia.-Early life:His date and place of...
, and the son of Alfred Tennyson played in the team at various times. The team was called the Allahakbarries
Allahakbarries
Allahakbarries was an amateur cricket team founded by author J. M. Barrie, and was active from 1890 to 1913. The team was named in the mistaken belief that Allah akbar meant Heaven help us in Arabic . Notable figures to have featured for the side included Arthur Conan Doyle, Jerome K. Jerome, A. A....
, under the mistaken belief that 'Allah akbar' meant 'Heaven help us' in Arabic (rather than 'God is great').
Barrie befriended Africa explorer Joseph Thomson
Joseph Thomson (explorer)
Joseph Thomson was a Scottish geologist and explorer who played an important part in the Scramble for Africa. Thomson's Gazelle is named for him. Excelling as an explorer rather than an exact scientist, he avoided confrontations among his porters or with indigenous peoples, neither killing any...
and Antarctica explorer Robert Falcon Scott
Robert Falcon Scott
Captain Robert Falcon Scott, CVO was a Royal Navy officer and explorer who led two expeditions to the Antarctic regions: the Discovery Expedition, 1901–04, and the ill-fated Terra Nova Expedition, 1910–13...
. He was godfather
Godparent
A godparent, in many denominations of Christianity, is someone who sponsors a child's baptism. A male godparent is a godfather, and a female godparent is a godmother...
to Scott's son Peter
Peter Scott
Sir Peter Markham Scott, CH, CBE, DSC and Bar, MID, FRS, FZS, was a British ornithologist, conservationist, painter, naval officer and sportsman....
, and was one of the seven people to whom Scott wrote letters in the final hours of his life following his successful – but doomed – expedition to the South Pole
South Pole
The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is one of the two points where the Earth's axis of rotation intersects its surface. It is the southernmost point on the surface of the Earth and lies on the opposite side of the Earth from the North Pole...
, asking Barrie to take care of his wife Kathleen
Kathleen Scott
Kathleen Scott, Baroness Kennet, FRSBS was a British sculptor.-Early life:Born Edith Agnes Kathleen Bruce at Carlton in Lindrick, Bassetlaw, Nottinghamshire, she was the youngest of eleven children of Canon Lloyd Stuart Bruce and Jane Skene Kathleen Scott, Baroness Kennet, FRSBS (27 March...
and son Peter. Barrie was so proud of the letter that he carried it around for the rest of his life.
In 1896, his agent, Addison Bright persuaded him to meet with Broadway producer Charles Frohman
Charles Frohman
Charles Frohman was an American theatrical producer. Frohman was producing plays by 1889 and acquired his first Broadway theatre by 1892. He discovered and promoted many stars of the American theatre....
. Frohman would become not only his financial backer, but a close friend as well. Frohman, who was responsible for producing the debut of Peter Pan in both England and the U.S., as well as other productions of Barrie's plays, famously declined a lifeboat seat when the RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland. The ship entered passenger service with the Cunard Line on 26 August 1907 and continued on the line's heavily-traveled passenger service between Liverpool, England and New...
was sunk by a German U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
in the North Atlantic. Actress Rita Jolivet
Rita Jolivet
Rita Jolivet was an English actress of French descent in theater and silent movies in the early twentieth century...
, who stood with Frohman, George Vernon
George Vernon
George Frederick Vernon was a cricketer who played first-class cricket for Middlesex County Cricket Club. He also played one Test match for England during the first-ever Ashes tour in 1882-83.Vernon was the son of George Vernon of 32 Montague Square...
, and Captain Alick Scott at the end, survived the sinking and recalled Frohman paraphrasing Peter Pan: 'Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure that life gives us.'
Barrie met and told stories to the young daughters of the Duke of York
George VI of the United Kingdom
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death...
, the future Queen Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states known as the Commonwealth realms: the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Barbados, the Bahamas, Grenada, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize,...
and Princess Margaret.
Marriage
Barrie became acquainted with actress Mary Ansell in 1891 when he asked his friend Jerome K. JeromeJerome K. Jerome
Jerome Klapka Jerome was an English writer and humorist, best known for the humorous travelogue Three Men in a Boat.Jerome was born in Caldmore, Walsall, England, and was brought up in poverty in London...
for a pretty actress to play a role in his play Walker, London. The two became friends, and she joined his family in caring for him when he fell very ill in 1893 and 1894. They married in Kirriemuir on 9 July 1894, shortly after Barrie recovered, and Mary retired from the stage; but the relationship was reportedly unconsummated and the couple had no children. The marriage was a small ceremony in his parents' home, in the Scottish tradition. In 1900 Mary found Black Lake Cottage, at Farnham, Surrey
Farnham
Farnham is a town in Surrey, England, within the Borough of Waverley. The town is situated some 42 miles southwest of London in the extreme west of Surrey, adjacent to the border with Hampshire...
, which became the couple's 'bolt hole' where Barrie could entertain his cricketing friends and the Llewelyn Davieses. Beginning in mid 1908, Mary had an affair with Gilbert Cannan
Gilbert Cannan
Gilbert Cannan was a British novelist and dramatist.-Early life:Born in Manchester of Scottish descent, he got on badly with his family, and in 1897 he was sent to live in Oxford with the economist Edwin Cannan...
(an associate of Barrie's in his anti-censorship activities), including a visit together to Black Lake Cottage, known only to the house staff. When Barrie learned of the affair in July 1909, he demanded that she end it, but she refused. To avoid the scandal of divorce, he offered a legal separation if she would agree not to see Cannan any more, but she still refused. Barrie sued for divorce on the grounds of infidelity, which was granted in October 1909. A few of Barrie's friends, knowing how painful the divorce was for him, wanted to avoid bad press. They wrote to newspaper editors asking them not to publish the story (only three papers did).
Llewelyn Davies family
The Arthur Llewelyn Davies family played an important part in Barrie's literary and personal life. It consisted of the parents ArthurArthur Llewelyn Davies
Arthur Llewelyn Davies was a respected barrister, but is best known as the father of the boys who served as the inspiration for Peter Pan and the other children of J. M. Barrie's stories of Neverland...
(1863–1907) and Sylvia (1866–1910) (daughter of George du Maurier
George du Maurier
George Louis Palmella Busson du Maurier was a French-born British cartoonist and author, known for his cartoons in Punch and also for his novel Trilby. He was the father of actor Gerald du Maurier and grandfather of the writers Angela du Maurier and Dame Daphne du Maurier...
), and their five sons
Llewelyn Davies boys
The Davies boys were the sons of Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies . They served as the inspiration for the characters of Peter Pan and the other boys of J. M...
: George (1893–1915), John (Jack) (1894–1959), Peter (1897–1960), Michael (1900–1921), and Nicholas (Nico) (1903–1980).
Barrie became acquainted with the family in 1897, meeting George and Jack (and baby Peter) with their nurse (nanny
Nanny
A nanny, childminder or child care provider, is an individual who provides care for one or more children in a family as a service...
) Mary Hodgson in London's Kensington Gardens
Kensington Gardens
Kensington Gardens, once the private gardens of Kensington Palace, is one of the Royal Parks of London, lying immediately to the west of Hyde Park. It is shared between the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. The park covers an area of 111 hectares .The open spaces...
. He lived nearby and often walked his Saint Bernard dog Porthos in the park. He entertained the boys regularly with his ability to wiggle his ears and eyebrows, and with his stories. He did not meet Sylvia until a chance encounter at a dinner party in December. She told Barrie that Peter had been named after the title character in her father's play, Peter Ibbetson. He became a regular visitor at the Davies household and a common companion to the woman and her boys, despite the fact that he and she were each married. In 1901, he invited the Davies family to Black Lake Cottage, where he produced an album of captioned photographs of the boys acting out a pirate adventure, entitled The Boy Castaways of Black Lake Island. Barrie had two copies made, one of which he gave to Arthur, who misplaced it on a train. The only surviving copy is held at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.
The character of Peter Pan was invented to entertain George and Jack. Barrie would say, to amuse them, that their little brother Peter could fly. He claimed that babies were birds before they were born; parents put bars on nursery windows to keep the little ones from flying away. This grew into a tale of a baby boy who did fly away.
Arthur Llewelyn Davies died in 1907, and 'Uncle Jim' became even more involved with the Davies family, providing financial support to them. (His income from Peter Pan and other works was easily adequate to provide for their living expenses and education.) Following Sylvia's death in 1910, Barrie claimed that they had recently been engaged to be married. Her will indicated nothing to that effect, but specified her wish for 'J. M. B.' to be trustee and guardian to the boys, along with her mother Emma, her brother Guy du Maurier
Guy du Maurier
Guy Louis Busson du Maurier, D.S.O. was an English army officer and playwright. He was the son of the writer George du Maurier and brother of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and the actor Gerald du Maurier. He was educated at Marlborough and Sandhurst, and became an officer in the Royal Fusiliers in 1885...
, and Arthur's brother Compton. It expressed her confidence in Barrie as the boys' caretaker and her wish for 'the boys to treat him (& their uncles) with absolute confidence & straightforwardness & to talk to him about everything.' When copying the will informally for Sylvia's family a few months later, Barrie inserted himself elsewhere: Sylvia had written that she would like Mary Hodgson, the boys' nurse, to continue taking care of them, and for 'Jenny' (referring to Hodgson's sister) to come and help her; Barrie instead wrote 'Jimmy' (Sylvia's nickname for him). Barrie and Hodgson did not get along well, but served together as surrogate parents until the boys were grown.
Barrie also had friendships with other children, both before he met the Davies boys and after they had grown up, and there has since been speculation that Barrie was a paedophile
Pedophilia
As a medical diagnosis, pedophilia is defined as a psychiatric disorder in adults or late adolescents typically characterized by a primary or exclusive sexual interest in prepubescent children...
. One source for the speculation is a scene in the novel The Little White Bird
The Little White Bird
The Little White Bird is a novel by J. M. Barrie, published in 1902, ranging in tone from fantasy and whimsy to social comedy with dark aggressive undertones. The book attained prominence and longevity due to several chapters written in a softer tone than the rest of the book, in which it...
, in which in the protagonist (who resembles Barrie) helps a small boy undress for bed, and at the boy's request they sleep in the same bed. However, there is no evidence that Barrie had sexual contact with children, nor that he was suspected of it at the time. Nico, the youngest of the brothers, flatly denied as an adult that Barrie ever behaved inappropriately. 'I don't believe that Uncle Jim ever experienced what one might call "a stirring in the undergrowth" for anyone — man, woman, or child,' he stated. 'He was an innocent — which is why he could write Peter Pan.' His relationships with the surviving Davies boys continued well beyond their childhood and adolescence.
The statue of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, erected in secret overnight for May Morning
May Morning
May Morning is an annual event in Oxford, England, on May Day . It starts early at 6am with the Magdalen College Choir singing a hymn, the Hymnus Eucharisticus, from the top of Magdalen Tower, a tradition of over 500 years. Large crowds normally gather under the tower along the High Street and on...
in 1912, was supposed to be modelled upon old photographs of Michael dressed as the character. However, the sculptor Sir George Frampton used a different child as a model, leaving Barrie disappointed with the result. 'It doesn't show the devil in Peter,' he said.
Barrie suffered bereavements with the boys, losing the two to whom he was closest in their early twenties. George was killed in action (1915) in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. Michael, with whom Barrie corresponded daily while at boarding school and university, drowned (1921) with his friend and possible lover, Rupert Buxton, at a known danger spot at Sandford Lock
Sandford Lock
Sandford Lock is a lock on the River Thames in England, situated at Sandford-on-Thames which is just South of Oxford. The first pound lock was built in 1631 by the Oxford-Burcot Commission although this has since been rebuilt...
near Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, one month short of his 21st birthday. Some years after Barrie's death, Peter compiled his Morgue from family letters and papers, interpolated with his own informed comments on his family and their relationship with Barrie.
Death
Barrie died of pneumonia on 19 June 1937 and is buried at Kirriemuir next to his parents and two of his siblings. He left the bulk of his estate (excluding the Peter Pan works, which he had previously given to Great Ormond Street HospitalGreat Ormond Street Hospital
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children is a children's hospital located in London, United Kingdom...
) to his secretary Cynthia Asquith
Cynthia Asquith
Lady Cynthia Mary Evelyn Asquith was an English writer, now known for her ghost stories and diaries. She also wrote novels and edited a number of anthologies, as well as writing for children and on the British Royal family....
. His birthplace at 4 Brechin Road is maintained as a museum by the National Trust for Scotland
National Trust for Scotland
The National Trust for Scotland for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, commonly known as the National Trust for Scotland describes itself as the conservation charity that protects and promotes Scotland's natural and cultural heritage for present and future generations to...
.
Honours
Barrie was made a baronetBaronet
A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...
in 1913; his baronetcy was not inherited. He was made a member of the Order of Merit in 1922. In 1919 he was elected Rector of the University of St Andrews
Rector of the University of St Andrews
The Lord Rector of the University of St Andrews is a university official chosen every three years by the students of the University of St Andrews...
for the next three years, and served as Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh
Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh
The Chancellor is the titular head of the University of Edinburgh. Their duties include conferring degrees, promoting the University's image throughout the world, and furthering its interests, both within Scotland and beyond....
from 1930 to 1937.
Other
- The Sir James Barrie Primary SchoolSir James Barrie Primary SchoolSir James Barrie Primary School is a primary school for boys & girls in Wandsworth, South West London. There are approximately 425 pupils at the school. The was originally made up of separate infant and junior schools, which subsequently merged.- History :...
in WandsworthWandsworthWandsworth is a district of south London, England, in the London Borough of Wandsworth. It is situated southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-Toponymy:...
, South West LondonSouth West (London sub region)The South West is a sub-region of the London Plan corresponding to the London Boroughs of London Borough of , Kingston upon Thames, Lambeth, Merton, Richmond upon Thames, Sutton and Wandsworth. The sub region was established in 2008. The south west has a population of 1,600,000 and is the location...
is named after him. - The Barrie SchoolThe Barrie SchoolBarrie School, formerly the Peter Pan School, is an independent school for all grades of pre-collegiate education located in Silver Spring, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC....
in Silver Spring, MarylandSilver Spring, MarylandSilver Spring is an unincorporated area and census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It had a population of 71,452 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth most populous place in Maryland, after Baltimore, Columbia, and Germantown.The urbanized, oldest, and...
, is also named in his honour.
Works (by year)
- Auld Licht Idylls (1888)
- Better Dead (1888)
- When a Man's Single (1888)
- A Window in Thrums (1889)
- My Lady Nicotine (1890), republished in 1926 with subtitle A Study in Smoke
- The Little Minister (1891)
- Richard Savage (1891)
- Jane AnnieJane AnnieJane Annie, or The Good Conduct Prize is an opera written in 1893 by J. M. Barrie and Arthur Conan Doyle, with music by Ernest Ford, a conductor and occasional composer....
Opera, music by Ernest FordErnest FordErnest A. Claire Ford was an English composer of operas and ballet music and a conductor.-Life and career:Ford was born in Warminster, Wiltshire, England, the son of the vestry clerk and organist there. From 1868-73, he sang in the chorus at Salisbury Cathedral...
, libretto by Barrie and Arthur Conan DoyleArthur Conan DoyleSir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
(1893) - A Powerful Drug and Other Stories (1893)
- A Tillyloss Scandal (1893)
- Two of Them (1893)
- A Lady's Shoe (1894)
- Life in a Country Manse (1894)
- Scotland's Lament: A Poem on the Death of Robert Louis Stevenson (1895)
- Sentimental Tommy, The Story of His Boyhood (1896)
- Margaret Ogilvy (1896)
- Tommy and Grizel (1900)
- The Wedding Guest (1900)
- The Boy Castaways of Black Lake Island (1901)
- Quality StreetQuality Street (play)Quality Street is a comedy in four acts by J. M. Barrie, written before his more famous work Peter Pan. The story is about two sisters who start a school "for genteel children"....
(1901) - The Admirable CrichtonThe Admirable CrichtonThe Admirable Crichton is a comic stage play written in 1902 by J. M. Barrie. It was produced by Charles Frohman and opened at the Duke of York's Theatre in London on 4 November 1902, running for an extremely successful 828 performances. It starred H. B. Irving and Irene Vanbrugh...
(1902) - The Little White BirdThe Little White BirdThe Little White Bird is a novel by J. M. Barrie, published in 1902, ranging in tone from fantasy and whimsy to social comedy with dark aggressive undertones. The book attained prominence and longevity due to several chapters written in a softer tone than the rest of the book, in which it...
; or, Adventures in Kensington Gardens (1902) - Little Mary (1903)
- Peter Pan (staged 1904)
- Alice Sit-By-The-Fire (1905)
- Pantaloon (1905)
- Peter Pan in Kensington GardensPeter Pan in Kensington GardensPeter Pan in Kensington Gardens is a novel by J. M. Barrie, published in 1906; it is one of four major literary works by Barrie featuring the widely known literary character he originated, Peter Pan.-Plot summary:...
(1906) - What Every Woman KnowsWhat Every Woman KnowsWhat Every Woman Knows is a four-act play written by J. M. Barrie. It was first presented by the impresario Charles Frohman at the Duke of York's Theatre in London on 3 September 1908...
(1906) - Walker, London (1907)
- When Wendy Grew Up - An Afterthought (1908)
- Peter and WendyPeter and WendyPeter and Wendy, published in 1911, is the novelisation by J. M. Barrie of his most famous play Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up...
(novel) (1911) - A Kiss for CinderellaA Kiss for CinderellaA Kiss for Cinderella is a play by J. M. Barrie. It was featured on Broadway in 1916 and starred Maude Adams. The play opened at the Empire Theater on December 25, 1916 and ran for 152 performances...
(1912) - Half Hours (1914) includes:
- Pantaloon
- The Twelve-Pound Look
- Rosalind
- The Will
- Der Tag (The Tragic Man) (1914)
- Charles Frohman: A Tribute (1915)
- Shakespeare's Legacy (1916)
- Dear Brutus (1917)
- Echoes of the War (1918) includes:
- The New Word
- The Old Lady Shows Her MedalsThe Old Lady Shows Her MedalsThe Old Lady Shows Her Medals is a play by J. M. Barrie. It was first published in his collection Echoes of the War in 1918, which also included the stories The New Word, Barbara's Wedding and A Well-Remembered Voice...
(basis for the movie Seven Days Leave (1930), starring Gary CooperGary CooperFrank James Cooper, known professionally as Gary Cooper, was an American film actor. He was renowned for his quiet, understated acting style and his stoic, but at times intense screen persona, which was particularly well suited to the many Westerns he made...
) - A Well-Remembered Voice
- Barbara's Wedding
- Mary RoseMary Rose (play)Mary Rose is a play by J.M. Barrie, who is best known for Peter Pan. It first played in London in May 1920.It tells the fictional story of a girl who vanishes twice. As a child, Mary Rose's father takes her to a remote Scottish island. While she is briefly out of her father's sight, Mary Rose...
(1920) - The Twelve-Pound Look (1921)
- The Author (1925)
- Cricket (1926)
- Shall We Join the Ladies? (1928) includes:
- Shall We Join the Ladies?
- Half an Hour
- Seven Women
- Old Friends
- Peter Pan (stageplay published) (1928)
- The Greenwood Hat (1930)
- Farewell Miss Julie Logan (1932)
- The Boy David (1936)
- M'Connachie and J. M. B. (1938)
- When Wendy Grew Up: An Afterthought (1957)
- Ibsen's Ghost(Toole Up-to-Date) (1975)
- story treatment for film As You Like ItAs You Like It (1936 film)As You Like It is a 1936 film, directed by Paul Czinner and starring Laurence Olivier as Orlando and Elisabeth Bergner as Rosalind. It is based on William Shakespeare's play of the same name...
(1936) - Stories by English Authors: London (selected by Scribners, as contributor)
- Stories by English Authors: Scotland (selected by Scribners, as contributor)
- preface to The Young Visiters or, Mr. Salteena's Plan by Daisy AshfordDaisy AshfordDaisy Ashford, full name Margaret Mary Julia Ashford was an English writer who is most famous for writing The Young Visiters, a novella concerning the upper class society of late 19th century England, when she was just nine years old. The novella was published in 1919, preserving her juvenile...
External links
(plain text and HTML)- http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=mediatype%3A(texts)%20-contributor%3Agutenberg%20AND%20(subject%3A%22Barrie%2C%20James%20Matthew%2C%201860-1937%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Barrie%2C%20J%2E%20M%2E%20%28James%20Matthew%29%2C%201860-1937%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Barrie%2C%20James%20M%2E%20%28James%20Matthew%29%2C%201860-1937%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Barrie%2C%20James%20Matthew%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Barrie%2C%20J%2E%20M%2E%20%28James%20Matthew%29%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22Barrie%2C%20James%20M%2E%20%28James%20Matthew%29%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22James%20Matthew%20Barrie%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22James%20M%2E%20Barrie%22%20OR%20subject%3A%22J%2E%20M%2E%20Barrie%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Barrie%2C%20James%20Matthew%2C%201860-1937%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Barrie%2C%20James%20Matthew%2C%20Sir%2C%201860-1937%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Barrie%2C%20J%2E%20M%2E%20%28James%20Matthew%29%2C%201860-1937%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Barrie%2C%20James%20M%2E%20%28James%20Matthew%29%2C%201860-1937%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Barrie%2C%20James%20Matthew%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Barrie%2C%20J%2E%20M%2E%20%28James%20Matthew%29%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22Barrie%2C%20James%20M%2E%20%28James%20Matthew%29%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22James%20Matthew%20Barrie%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22James%20M%2E%20Barrie%22%20OR%20creator%3A%22J%2E%20M%2E%20Barrie%22%20OR%20title%3A%22James%20Matthew%20Barrie%22%20OR%20title%3A%22James%20M%2E%20Barrie%22%20OR%20title%3A%22J%2E%20M%2E%20Barrie%22%20OR%20description%3A%22James%20Matthew%20Barrie%22%20OR%20description%3A%22James%20M%2E%20Barrie%22%20OR%20description%3A%22J%2E%20M%2E%20Barrie%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Barrie%2C%20James%20Matthew%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Barrie%2C%20J%2E%20M%2E%20%28James%20Matthew%29%22%20OR%20description%3A%22Barrie%2C%20James%20M%2E%20%28James%20Matthew%29%22)Works by or about J. M. Barrie] at Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
(scanned books original editions color illustrated) - JMbarrie.co.uk site authorized by Great Ormond Street HospitalGreat Ormond Street HospitalGreat Ormond Street Hospital for Children is a children's hospital located in London, United Kingdom...
, edited by Andrew Birkin, includes database of original photographs, letters, documents and audio interviews conducted by Birkin in 1975-76 - Kirjasto.sci.fi, Biography
- Was the author of Peter Pan a pedophile? (from The Straight Dope)
- "Why J. M. Barrie Created Peter Pan" New Yorker 22 November 2004 issue; Anthony Lane, author.
- J. M. Barrie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Great Ormond Street Hospital's copyright claim
- Audio recording of Barrie's short play The Will Recording by professional actors at LostPlays.com
- Film of Barrie from 1922 as Rector of St Andrews with Ellen Terry