Artist: Peter
Pan
Genre: Theater
Background: The character of Peter Pan was
first mentioned in a 1902 book by Sir James M. Barrie (knighted
in 1913) entitled The Little White Bird. In 1904, Peter became
the lead character in the play, Peter Pan, or the Boy Who
Wouldn't Grow Up. In 1911, Barrie turned his popular play
into a novel called Peter and Wendy.
Like Peter Pan, Barrie was a boy who refused to grow up. He
never had his own children, but spent a great deal of time
playing with the children of his good friends, Sylvia and
Arthur Llewelyn Davies. He loved to create skits for the children's
entertainment. Barrie even acted out the part of the over-the-top
comic villain Captain Hook to the delight of the five Davies
boys.
While writing and acting out skits with the Davies children,
Barrie developed the characters and plot he would use in the
play version of Peter Pan.
Of the five boys, Peter was the one most closely linked with
his fictional namesake, an identification he hated all his
life. Though he was a highly successful publisher, Peter spent
most of his life depressed and committed suicide in 1960.
After Sylvia and Arthur's early deaths, Barrie adopted their
five boys. The lone girl in the family, Wendy, had died at
a very early age.
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