J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) was a Scottish novelist and playwright, the creator of Peter Pan, the boy who would not grow up. A successful author of comedies, he gave the rights to Peter Pan to a London children's hospital, which still benefits from them.
Genres
novels and stories, drama
Kirriemuir
James Matthew Barrie was born on 9 May 1860 in Kirriemuir, in Angus, the ninth of ten children of a handloom weaver. When he was six his elder brother David died in a skating accident, and he tried for years to console his mother by taking his brother's place.
He studied at the University of Edinburgh, worked as a journalist in Nottingham, then settled in London in 1885. His sketches of Scottish village life, Auld Licht Idylls and A Window in Thrums, and the novel The Little Minister made him well known.
The theatre
Barrie became one of the most successful playwrights of his day, with Quality Street and The Admirable Crichton (1902), the story of a butler who becomes the leader of his masters when they are shipwrecked on an island.
In Kensington Gardens he befriended the sons of Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, playing at pirates and fairies with them. The stories he told them grew into Peter Pan.
Peter Pan
The play Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up opened in London on 27 December 1904 and was revived almost every Christmas afterwards. Barrie turned it into a novel, Peter and Wendy, in 1911. After the deaths of both parents, he became guardian of the five Llewelyn Davies boys.
He was made a baronet in 1913 and received the Order of Merit. In 1929 he gave the rights to Peter Pan to Great Ormond Street Hospital for children. He died in London on 19 June 1937.
Anecdotes
A gift to a hospital
Barrie's gift of the Peter Pan copyright to Great Ormond Street Hospital in 1929 was kept secret at his request. A special law later allowed the hospital to keep receiving royalties in the United Kingdom even after the copyright expired.
Who named Wendy?
The name Wendy was rare before Peter Pan. Barrie is said to have taken it from a little girl, Margaret Henley, who called him her 'friendy-wendy'; the play made it a popular first name.
Frequently asked questions
Who were the Llewelyn Davies boys?
Five brothers, George, Jack, Peter, Michael and Nico, whom Barrie met in Kensington Gardens. Their games inspired Peter Pan, and he became their guardian after their parents died.
Is Peter Pan a play or a novel?
Both: the play opened in 1904, and Barrie wrote the novel Peter and Wendy in 1911.
Where is the Peter Pan statue?
In Kensington Gardens, London. Barrie had it put up secretly overnight in 1912 so that children would think it had appeared by magic.