Finding Neverland

Statue of Peter Pan, in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park (London). Photo by Petr Broz.  Image online, courtesy Wikimedia Commons.  License:  CC BY-SA 3.0.

 I suppose I always knew that I made Peter
by rubbing the five of you violently together,
as savages with two sticks produce a flame.
I am sometimes asked who and what Peter is,
but that is all he is, the spark I got from you.

Sir James Matthew Barrie
about
George, Jack, Peter, Michael and Nico Davies
in the
1928 Peter Pan Dedication

J.M. Barrie was only six years old, in 1867, when his brother David, nearly fourteen, died in a skating accident. Most beloved of all her ten children, David was the one whom Margaret Ogilvy believed would succeed. (Barrie’s mother, following an old Scots custom, had kept her maiden name.)

In a way, Margaret’s belief about David proved correct. Although her second son, suddenly dead, would be forever frozen in time, her third son, whom the family called Jamie, would eventually write a story so popular that 100 years later children still love the tale about a boy who never grew up.

Who was J.M. Barrie? Where did he live? How did he spend his life? And who, exactly, inspired him to create Peter Pan? To find the answers, let’s follow the trail of Barrie’s life and work.

Author: Carole D. Bos, J.D.

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Original Release Date:  November, 2004
Updated Quarterly, or as Needed