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JM Barrie was a Scottish author, playwright and novelist best known for his book Peter Pan, inspired by the Llewelyn-Davies boys. Barrie’s childhood was difficult due to his distant father and depressed mother. He became a successful writer and married actress Mary Ansell, but their marriage ended in divorce. Barrie’s relationship with the Llewelyn-Davies boys inspired Peter Pan, which made him a beloved celebrity. Barrie suffered the deaths of two of the boys but remained close to the others. His tragic childhood may have influenced his writing.
JM Barrie was an author, novelist and children’s playwright best remembered for his book Peter Pan (1911). The title character, with whom Barrie experimented in other works before writing his novel, was inspired by the Llewelyn-Davies boys, five brothers of the author’s acquaintance who became the author’s wards after the death of the author. father.
Barrie was born on May 9, 1860 in Kirriemuir, Angus, Scotland, the son of a weaver. He was the ninth of ten children. His childhood was difficult, as his father David was distant to the point of abandonment, and his mother Margaret, though loving, became severely depressed after her son David’s death in 1867. Barrie craved his mother’s attention, but had difficulty get over her pain. He wrote Margaret’s brilliant biography of her after her death in 1896, and her relationship with her would remain a lifelong influence. In contrast, the author rarely mentioned his father in his writings.
At age 13, Barrie left home to attend school. He took an early interest in drama and literature and was a diligent student, receiving his master’s degree from Dumfries Academy of the University of Edinburgh in 1882. He worked briefly as a journalist before moving to London, where he wrote freelance, in 1885. Three years later, he published his first novel, a humorous work entitled Better Dead. Many novels and plays followed, some of which used Barrie’s Scottish background as inspiration. His first play, The Little Minister, began as a book in 1891 and was dramatized to great acclaim in 1897.
Barrie’s friends and acquaintances read like a Who’s Who of Victorian literature, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, HG Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Robert Lewis Stevenson, Jerome K. Jerome, PG Wodehouse and AA Milne. The author married the actress Mary Ansell in 1894, but their marriage was childless and presumably unconsummated and ended in divorce in 1909 following Mary’s infidelity. He first met the Llewelyn-Davies, who were to become his surrogate family, in Kensington Gardens in 1897.
His relationship with the Llewelyn-Davies and the stories he invented for boys inspired the first literary incarnation of Peter Pan, in the 1901 adult novel The Little White Bird. The character is named after Peter Llewelyn-Davies and the Greek god Pan. Later, the story evolved into a stage play that premiered in December 1904 and eventually emerged as the 1911 novel. The book’s heroine, Wendy, takes her name from a nickname for Barrie, and the novel is was responsible for popularizing the name for girls, as it was quite a rare name before. JM Barrie became guardian and trustee of the Llewelyn-Davies boys after their father’s death in 1907 and unofficially adopted them when their mother died in 1910.
Peter Pan made the author a beloved celebrity in England and beyond. He became a baronet in 1913 and received the Order of Merit in 1922. He later became Lord Chancellor of St. Andrew’s University and Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh. He died on June 3, 1937.
Though his children’s books brought joy to many, Barrie was in many ways a troubled figure whose tragic childhood never left him. Some biographers have speculated that Peter Pan, the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow, was a veiled expression of Barrie’s situation, as he never grew beyond 5 feet (1.5 meters). Others believe that Peter Pan may refer to his brother David, who died as a child. JM Barrie also suffered the deaths of two of the Llewelyn-Davies boys, George aged 22 on the front in World War I, and Michael in a swimming accident and possible suicide just a month before his 21st birthday . However, he remained close to the other Llewelyn-Davies and continued to be successful as a playwright and author.
JM Barrie’s life was the subject of a 1978 BBC mini-series starring Ian Holm, called Lost Boys. The 2004 film Neverland, starring Johnny Depp, offered a fictionalized account of his life.
