J. M. Barrie

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J.M. Barrie

Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, OM (9 May 1860 – 19 June 1937), more commonly known as J. M. Barrie, was a Scottish novelist and playwright. He is best remembered for his play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up about Peter, Wendy and the Lost Boys of Never Never Land. It has been surmised that the story found its origins in an unconvential relationship that Barrie had with the Llewylyn Davies boys, whom he met in London's Kensington Park and regaled with stories of pirates and their misadventures. Critics have speculated that Peter Pan is autobiographical and reflects Barries' own troubled childhood. Regardless, the story has captivated millions whether in play or movie form and has provided a platform for the emergence of some of the greatest actors of the 20th century including: Mary Martin, Jean Arthur, Margaret Lockwood, Glynis Johns, Mia Farrow and gymnast, Cathy Rigby as Peter Pan. The nefarious pirate Captain Hook has been played by Charles Laughton, Boris Karloff, Alistair Sim, Cyril Ritchard and Dustin Hoffman. Barrie was a prolific writer in his lifetime - many of his works are lesser known - yet the timeless classic, Peter Pan continues to delight both children and adults with its theme of never leaving the innocent realm of childhood.

Biography

Born in Kirriemuir, Scotland, the second youngest of ten children, Barrie was educated at Dumfries Academy, and the University of Edinburgh. He became a journalist in Nottingham, then London, and turned to writing novels and subsequently plays. J.M. Barrie's family were Scottish weavers, and he was the ninth of ten children. When he was six, his brother David, his mother's favorite, died in a skating accident on the eve of his 14th birthday. His mother, Margaret Ogilvy never recovered from the loss and subsequently J.M. tried to fill the void in her life through a devoted, if not overly enmeshed relationship with her. [1] Additionally, his close relationship to his mother is said to be the basis for more than one character in his writings, including that of "Wendy" in Peter Pan.

Barrie was married to the actress Mary Ansell but it has been speculated that their marriage was platonic; it produced no children. It was during the difficult time of his divorce that he met Sylvia Llewellyn Davies and her sons in Kensington Park London and developed a close bond with them. It is through his storytelling relationship with the boys in this family (fictionalized in the movie Finding Neverland) that the idea for a play featuring Peter Pan was born. Barrie, already an established writer, created his masterpiece from this character whose first appearance was in his novel, The Little White Bird. (put year of book) Made a baronet in 1913, Barrie lies buried at Kirriemuir next to his parents and one sister and a brother.

Literary career

Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens, London

Barrie's early novels take place in the fictional town of "Thrums", based on his birthplace of Kirriemuir. Barrie often wrote dialogue in Scots. His Thrums novels were hugely successful: Auld Licht Idylls (1888), A Window in Thrums (1889), and The Little Minister (1891). His two "Tommy" novels, Sentimental Tommy (1896) and Tommy and Grizel (1902) complete the ouevre.

Barrie also wrote a number of works for the theatre, beginning with Ibsen's Ghost (1891), a parody of Henrik Ibsen's drama Ghosts. Ibsens's plays were known for being morose and Barrie poked fun at their ....

Barrie also authored the flop, Jane Annie (1893), which he collaborated on with Arthur Conan Doyle. Other dramatic successes included Quality Street (1901) and The Admirable Crichton (1902).

Barrie's most famous and enduring work, Peter Pan, was first staged in London on December 27 1904.

Later plays included What Every Woman Knows (1908). His final play was The Boy David (1936), which dramatized 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.

Barrie, along with a number of other playwrights, was involved in the 1909 and 1911 attempts to challenge the censorship of the theatre by the Lord Chamberlain.

Influences

Barrie was part of a literary circle that included many notable writers of the day including Robert Louis Stevenson,George Bernard Shaw who once participated in a Western that Barrie scripted and filmed. Jerome K. Jerome introduced Barrie to his wife; H.G. Wells was a friend of many years. J.M. Barrie met Thomas Hardy through Hugh Clifford while he was staying in London. Conan Doyle, Jerome, Wells and other luminaries such as G. K. Chesterton and A.A. Milne also occasionally played cricket with a team founded by Barrie.

Barrie also befriended Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott and was a recipient of one of the letters that Scott wrote in the final hours of his life. Another close friend of Barrie's, was theater producer Charles Frohman, who died after declining a lifeboat seat on the RMS Lusitania when it was sunk by a German U-boat in the North Atlantic. Frohman was reported by survivors to have quoted from the last line of the play Peter Pan, "Why fear death? To die will be an awfully big adventure."

D-there is no reference for that U-Boat quote. You can take out if you want.E

Peter Pan

The Llewelyn Davies family consisted of parents Arthur (1863–1907) and Sylvia, née du Maurier (1866–1910) (daughter of George du Maurier), and their five sons George (1893–1915), John (1894-1959), Peter (1897–1960), Michael (1900–1921), and Nicholas (1903–1980).

Barrie became acquainted with the family around 1898 after meeting George and Jack with their nanny Mary Hodgson in London's Kensington Gardens. Barrie lived nearby

He became a surrogate father to the boys, and when they were orphaned, he became their guardian. Sylvia Llewelyn Davies' specified in her will that Barrie be trustee and guardian to the boys, alongside her mother, her brother Guy Du-Maurier and Arthur Llewelyn Davies' brother Compton. Mary Hodgson, the boys' nurse continued caring for the boys until they were all in school and Jack was married. (Chaney, p. 285)

statue of Peter Pan.? Barrie is credited with popularizing the name "Wendy."

In 1924 he specified that the copyright of the play should go to the nation's leading children's hospital, Great Ormond Street Hospital in London. The current status of the copyright is complex.

Criticism

Soon after its publication Peter Pan was "recommended for the imaginative, the eternally youthful and the pure in heart."

However, some time later speculation about Barrie's sexuality caused later critics of the Victorian era to dismiss Peter Pan "one of the most fragmented and troubled works in the history of children literature."

It's

Filmology

The BBC made an award-winning miniseries by Andrew Birkin, The Lost Boys at the Internet Movie Database (also titled J.M. Barrie and the Lost Boys), in 1978, starring Ian Holm as Barrie and Ann Bell as Sylvia. It is considered factual, includes Arthur Llewelyn Davies (Tim Piggot-Smith), and confronts the issue of Barrie's affection for the Davies boys. The DVD is available in both the UK and USA.

A semi-fictional movie about his relationship with the family, Finding Neverland, was released in November 2004, starring Johnny Depp as Barrie and Kate Winslet as Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. It omits Arthur and Nico

Other Works

Academic offices
Preceded by: Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig	Rector of the University of St Andrews 1919 - 1922	Succeeded by: Rudyard Kipling

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Chaney, Lisa. Hide-and-Seek with Angels - A Life of J.M.Barrie (2005). London: Arrow Books ISBN 0312357796
• Silvey, Anita, ed. Children's Books and Their Creators. (1995) Houghton Mifflin Co.: New York ISBN 978-0-927663-37-3
• "James Matthew Barrie, (Sir)." St. James Guide to Fantasy Writers. St. James Press 1996. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007.
• "James Matthew Barrie, Sir." Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed. 17 Vols. Gale Research, 1998. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007.
• The Story of J.M.B. by Sewell Stokes, Theatre Arts, Vol.XXV No.11, New York: Theatre Arts Inc, Nov 1941, pp 845-848.

External links

• Works by J. M. Barrie. Project Gutenberg, Retrieved May 26, 2007.
• "Works by J. M. Barrie", eLook.org, Retrieved May 26, 2007.
• "Barrie's official website", J.M. Barrie.co.uk, Retrieved May 26, 2007.
• "French website", sirjmbarrie.com, Retrieved May 26, 2007.
• "Info on It Might Have Been Raining", Fiery Chariot, Retrieved May 26, 2007.
• "A biography", Books and Writers, Retrieved May 26, 2007.
• Cecil Adams, Chicago Reader, 2004:"Was the author of Peter Pan a pedophile?", The Straight Dope, Retrieved May 26, 2007.
• Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 2004:"Why J.M. Barrie Created Peter Pan", The New Yorker, Retrieved May 26, 2007.
• "J. M. Barrie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle", The Chronicles of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Retrieved May 26, 2007.
• "Further information about the Copyright for Peter Pan and Great Ormond Street Hospital", Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, Retrieved May 26, 2007.
• "J.M. Barrie", IMDb, Retrieved May 26, 2007.

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