J. M. Barrie

From New World Encyclopedia
Previous (J. J. Thomson)
Next (J. M. W. Turner)

File:J.m.barrie.200x284.jpeg
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 dramatist. He is best remembered for creating Peter Pan, the boy who refused to grow up, whom he based on his friends, the Llewelyn Davies boys.

Childhood

Born in Kirriemuir, Angus, 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; he was the ninth child of ten. When he was six, his brother David, his mother's favourite, died in a skating accident on the eve of his 14th birthday. His mother never recovered from the loss, and ignored J.M. His father would not interact at all with the children. When young J.M. would enter a room and see his mother, she would always say "David, is that you? Could it be you?" and when she realised who it was, would say "Oh, it's only you." Barrie's mother found comfort in the fact that her dead son would remain a boy forever, never to grow up and leave her. This had a profound impact on J.M. Not only was he mentally scarred with the notion that growing up was wrong, J.M. himself stopped growing at five feet. [citation needed] It is thought he suffered from psychogenic dwarfism, and some critics have speculated that Peter Pan is based on J.M.'s childhood. [citation needed]

Literary career

Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens, London

Barrie set his first novels in his birthplace of Kirriemuir, which he referred to as "Thrums." 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), dealt with themes much more explicitly related to what would become Peter Pan. The first appearance of Pan came in The Little White Bird (1901).

Barrie also wrote a number of works for the theatre, beginning with Ibsen's Ghost (1891), a parody of Henrik Ibsen's drama Ghosts, which had just been performed for the first time in England under the Independent Theatre Society, led by J. T. Grein. Barrie's play was first performed on May 31 at Toole's Theatre in London. Barrie seemed to appreciate Ibsen's merits; even William Archer, the translator of Ibsen's works into English, enjoyed the humour of the play and recommended it to others. Barrie also authored the flop, Jane Annie (1893), which he begged his friend Arthur Conan Doyle to revise and finish, when he suffered the first of his many nervous breakdowns. Notable successes included Quality Street (1901) and The Admirable Crichton (1902).

Barrie's most famous and enduring work, Peter Pan, had its first stage performance on December 27 1904. 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. 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 travelled in high literary circles, and had many famous friends. With Arthur Conan Doyle he wrote a failed musical. With Robert Louis Stevenson he conducted a long correspondence, but the two never met in person. George Bernard Shaw was for several years his neighbor, and 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 one of the seven recipients of letters that Scott wrote in the final hours of his life. [1] Another close friend of Barrie's, theater producer Charles Frohman, died famously, declining a lifeboat seat when the RMS Lusitania was sunk by a German U-boat in the North Atlantic, reportedly paraphrasing Peter Pan's final line from the stage play, "To die will be an awfully big adventure."

On several occasions he met and told stories to the little girl who would become Queen Elizabeth and her younger sister Princess Margaret.

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 in 1897 or 1898 after meeting George and Jack with their nurse (i.e nanny) Mary Hodgson in London's Kensington Gardens. He lived nearby and often walked his dog Porthos in the park. He met Sylvia, the mother, througha chance encounter at a dinner party.

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)

Barrie was married to the actress Mary Ansell but it has been speculated that their marriage was platonic; it produced no children. The marriage ended in divorce which was highly stimagized in those times.

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

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.

Both films receive comment in the New Yorker article cited below.


Made a baronet in 1913, Barrie lies buried at Kirriemuir next to his parents and one sister and brother.

Among those who have played Peter have been Mary Martin, Jean Arthur, Margaret Lockwood, Glynis Johns, Mia Farrow and Dorothy Tutin; Capt. Hook has been played by Charles Laughton, Boris Karloff, Alistair Sim, Cyril Ritchard and Dustin Hoffman.

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

Wikiquote-logo-en.png
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Wikisource
Wikisource has original works written by or about:

Template:Early20CBritChildrensLiterature

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.

  1. ↑ Chaney, Lisa. Hide-and-Seek with Angels - A Life of J.M.Barrie, London: Arrow Books, 2005
Retrieved from https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/p/index.php?title=J._M._Barrie&oldid=314565

Content is available under Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License; additional terms may apply. See Terms of Use for details.
Copyright Logo
Powered by MediaWiki