1860-1937 · Scottish novelist and playwright, creator of Peter Pan
About J. M. Barrie
James Matthew Barrie (1860-1937) was born in Kirriemuir, Scotland, the son of a handloom weaver, and studied at the University of Edinburgh before moving to London as a journalist. He made his name with sketches and novels of Scottish village life and then as a playwright (Quality Street, The Admirable Crichton). Peter Pan first appeared in his novel The Little White Bird (1902) and took the stage in 1904. He was made a baronet in 1913 and received the Order of Merit in 1922, and in 1929 he gave the rights to Peter Pan to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London.
1911 (as Peter and Wendy; play 1904) · Early 20th Century · Novel
Peter and Wendy, the 1911 novel that grew out of J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan, opens in the London nursery of the Darling family: Mr. Darling, a clerk anxious about money and dignity; Mrs. Darling, who tidies her children's minds each night; Wendy, John and Michael; and Nana, a Newfoundland dog who serves as their nurse. Mrs. Darling finds the name Peter in her children's thoughts and later sees a strange boy at the nursery window; Nana snaps the window shut on his shadow.