Sir James M. Barrie

"When the first baby laughed for the first
time, the laugh broke
into a thousand pieces
and they went skipping about and that was the beginning of faeries."
J.M. Barrie

Click Tinkerbell to
Email David Skipper
with your questions.

American actress
Maud Adams first
played Peter on Broadway in 1905.

The Writer Who Never Wanted To Grow Up!

David Skipper as
Sir James M. Barrie mimicking the
infamous Captain
James Hook in his
one-man show
"The Lost Boy."

Skipper at the
Peter Pan statue
in Kensington
Gardens, London.

Sir James Matthew Barrie (1860-1937), was a Scottish novelist and playwright, the son
of a weaver. As a graduate of Edinburgh University he became a newspaper journalist
on the Nottingham Journal and then in
London. He first caught public attention with a selection of Scottish sketches, Auld Licht
Idylls and A Window On Thrums, based on his home in Kirriemuir, County Angus. His
first novel, The Little Minister was met with
acclaim both in Great Britain and the United
States and was followed by the success of Sentimental Tommy and Tommy and Grizel.

Beginning in 1901 he
wrote almost entirely for
the stage and became one of the most individual and beloved British dramatists of his time.

His plays, from comedy to romance, include:
Quality Street, The Admirable Chricton, What Every Woman Knows, Dear Brutus, Rosalind, Mary Rose
and Pantaloon.

Statue detail.

"Peter Pan"

But it is his eternally youthful play "Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up"
that we remember Barrie with the greatest literary
fondness. Peter Pan
was an overnight
sensation when it premiered in 1904 and has been continuously in production throughout
the world ever since.

NEVERLAND

The play is a wish
fulfillment story about the triumph of youth
over age. It’s warmth
and spirit captivated
the mood of the new, young century and still captivates us today. The hope that there is a "Never Land" full of boys, pirates, Indians, mermaids, and faeries -- near that magical morning star --
is a theme that still tugs at our lost youth.

In 1929, Barrie gave
The Great Ormond
Street Hospital for Children, in London, all the rights and royalties to Peter Pan in both the play and his books. The hospital today still enjoys the benefits of this generous endowment.

James Matthew Barrie was a part of every
character he created.
He was truly the writer
who never wanted to
grow up.

Barrie and "Peter
Pan" muse Michael Llewelyn Davies.

"Peter Pan" has
been translated to
film only four times.
Paramount Pictures
produced the first
motion picture in
1924 and Disney re- leased the animated
classic in 1953, with a weak sequel "Return to Neverland" in 2002.
Steven Spielberg's
Hook broke Barrie's
cardinal rule... Peter
never grows up!

The first SOUND live-action motion picture of "Peter Pan" was released in December, 2003 starring Jason Issacs as Captain James Hook.
Johnny Depp stars in the Miramax fantasy "Finding Neverland" scheduled to be released in Fall, 2004. The film loosely tells the story of how Barrie came to write "Peter Pan."

Andrew Birkin's 1976 BBC trilogy starring Sir Ian Holm as Barrie will at long last be released on DVD in the Fall of 2004.

The Mary Martin
television special
and more recent
Cathy Rigby
production of
"Peter Pan" are
available both on
VHS and DVD.

"Come Fly Away
To Neverland..."

Mary Martin as
Peter Pan.

Peter Pan in
Kensington Gardens
by Arthur Rackham

"The Lost Boy"
A One-Man Show by David Skipper
As Sir James M. Barrie

"The Lost Boy" features Skipper as Sir James Matthew
Barrie, Scottish author and playwright of the classic
children’s book "Peter Pan" and other popular works
such as "The Little Minister" and "Sentimental Tommy."

Join Barrie as he takes you on a journey through old
Scotland, of his adventures as a young boy, his
exploits as a newspaperman in London, and the
staging and success of his now classic play "Peter
Pan" which has enchanted and warmed the hearts of
millions. Meet the Lost Boys, the Darling family, Tiger
Lily and her Indian braves, and one of the most evil
villains ever to sail into children's literature, Captain
Hook. This program is entertaining for both children
and adults.

The program premiered March 4th at the 2001 Rocky
Mountain Book Festival in Denver, CO.

SUGGESTED READING

The Plays of J.M. Barrie In One Volume.
Charles Scribner's Sons, 1956.

Inventing Wonderland
by Jackie Wullschlager. The Free Press, 1995.

J.M. Barrie and The Lost Boys: The Love Story That
Gave Birth To Peter Pan
by Andrew Birkin. Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1979.
(Sadly, this book is out of print, but you can find copies
on Ebay quite often... it is where I obtained my copy.)

Peter Pan Chronicles: The Nearly 100 Year History Of
The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up
by Bruce K. Hanson. Carol Publishing Group, 1993.

Selected Works of J.M. Barrie:

	Auld Licht Idylls (1888), novel
	When a Man's Single (1888), literary autobiography
	Better Dead (1888), novel
	An Edinburgh Eleven: Pen Portraits of College Life (1889)
	A Window in Thrums (1889)
	My Lady Nicotine (1890), a pro-smoking piece
	The Little Minister (1891), novel
	Richard Savage (1891), play, produced with C. Marriot
	A Holiday in Bed (1892)
	Allahakbarries (1893)
	An Auld Licht Manse (1893)
	Jane Annie (1893), play, co-written with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
	A Lady's Shoe (1893)
	A Tillyloss Scandal (1893)
	Two of Them (1893)
	The Sabbath Day (1895)
	Scotland's Lament (1895)
	Margaret Ogilvy (1896), novel, based on his mother
	Sentimental Tommy (1896), novel
	Life in a Country Manse (1899)
	Tommy and Grizel (1900), sequel to Sentimental Tommy
	The Wedding Guest (1900), play
	Quality Street (1901), play
	The Little White Bird (1902), children’s book
	The Admirable Crichton (1902), play
	Peter Pan (1904), play
	Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906), children’s book
	What Every Woman Knows (1908), play
	Peter and Wendy (1911), children’s book
	Quality Street (1913), play
	The Twelve-Pound Look (1914), play
	The Will (1914), play
	A Kiss for Cinderella (1916), play
	Dear Brutus (1917), play
	The Old Lady Shows Her Medals (1918), play
	Mary Rose (1924), play
	Shall We Join the Ladies? (1927), play
	Farewell Miss Julie Logan (1932), novel