Authors

J.M. Barrie

Scottish 1860 - 1937

James Matthew Barrie, playwright and novelist, was one of the most successful and prominent literary figures in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Britain.

Born in Kirriemuir, Angus on 09 May 1860, he was the ninth child and youngest son of David Barrie, a weaver, and his wife Margaret Ogilvy, the daughter of a stone mason. In his early youth, the large family occupied the two upper rooms of a small house in Brechin Road while the rooms below housed David Barrie's hand loom and materials.

A highly imaginative and sensitive boy, Barrie was deeply attached to his mother. The great tragedy of his boyhood occurred at the age of six when his thirteen-year-old brother David, his mother's favourite child, was killed in a skating accident. Margaret Barrie withdrew into herself and would never fully recover from the shock of David's sudden death. Years later, Barrie's poignant tribute to his mother Margaret Ogilvy (1896) would recall this terrible time and his youthful efforts to console his grieving mother by desperately trying to take his dead brother's place in her heart, imitating his whistle and dressing in his clothes. This would be the first role that Barrie was conscious of playing. Storytelling and literature were bonds between mother and son: Margaret loved to tell stories of her childhood in old Kirriemuir and they would read the works of Walter Scott together.

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The circumstances surrounding his brother's death had a profound effect on young James and, already sensitive, he became acutely conscious of the fragility of life and uncertainty of happiness. David's death would haunt Barrie for the rest of his life and with the passing years, he would come to believe that those who die young preserve something that those who survive will inevitably lose. This theme would come to dominate much of his mature work.

Although the Barrie family was poor, David and Margaret were ambitious for their sons. Education was the route out of poverty and the way was paved by Alick, the eldest of the family, eighteen years James's senior, who had won a place at the University of Aberdeen and graduated with honours in classics. The ascent out of poverty and obscurity had begun; Alick secured a teaching post at the prestigious Glasgow Academy, taking his sister Mary Ann as house keeper. In 1868, James went to live with them, attending the school until 1871, then following his siblings to Forfar Academy and eventually Dumfries Academy when Alick was made one of the first inspectors for schools. In The Greenwood Hat (1930), Barrie would write that his years in Dumfries were the happiest of his life. He was not outstanding at his studies but his greatest pleasure was the drama society for which he wrote his first play, a melodrama entitled Bandalero the Bandit.

On leaving school, James Barrie went to the University of Edinburgh without a scholarship. In An Edinburgh Eleven, he would acknowledge the broad disciplinary base that Edinburgh gave him, but, overall, his studies neither excited nor stimulated him. The exceptions were the classes of David Masson, Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature, and Professor Campbell Fraser, with whom he studied one of the first psychology courses offered in Scotland. Fraser's research on perception and the fragility of personal identity had a lasting influence on Barrie, a young man already aware of the multiple roles that life would require him to play.

Much of Barrie's time in Edinburgh was spent at the theatre and to make money he wrote reviews and articles for The Edinburgh Courant. When Barrie graduated with an ordinary MA in 1882, it was to journalism that he looked to make his living. He began with two years as leader-writer for the Nottingham Journal where he mastered the craft of writing and note-taking that would remain with him for life. He covered serious subjects such as The Irish Question as well as topical debates, but he also wrote reviews and fiction for the paper while finding time to contribute to the London Magazine. Back in Kirriemuir after the folding of the Nottingham Journal, Barrie set his sights on London and began sending off articles to leading publications. Although the response was slow, he soon met with welcome encouragement from Frederick Greenwood, editor of the St James's Gazette.

Barrie arrived in London in March 1885. a bold move that would set him on his path to literary stardom. After relative isolation in Nottingham, London offered many contacts and entertainments; he soon made friends but still spent most of his time working. As well as writing hundreds of articles and stories for fifteen major journals, Barrie found the energy to write more ambitious book length stories. For these early works of fiction, Barrie's imagination took him back to the Kirriemuir of his mother's reminiscences and they owe much to the power of her storytelling. Her highly gifted son would add his own charm and wit and Kirriemuir would come to life as the fictional Thrums in the series of books that would make Barrie's name. Principle among these are Auld Licht Idylls (1888), A Window in Thrums, and The Little Minister (1891). This quaint rural world would appear again in Sentimental Tommy (1896) and its sequel Tommy and Grizel (1900). Significantly, the latter two explore a boy's world of fantasy and make believe that he is unwilling or unable to leave behind as he grows into manhood, preventing him from forming successful relationships and taking on the responsibilities of adulthood. Tommy finds fame as a writer.

Barrie had a remarkably light and often comic touch to his writing that could belie the more serious nature of some of his subject matter including poverty, illegitimacy, rejection, loss and madness. Unfairly, some critics would find nothing but artificiality and sentimentality: the Thrums books would come to be known as Kailyard, meaning cabbage patch fiction, and would find disfavour with those Scottish writers who placed the highest value on social realism. George Douglas Brown's The House with the Green Shutters (1901) would be seen as a direct attack on the Kailyard School. Admired by such writers as Lewis Grassic Gibbon and Hugh MacDiarmid, it would anticipate the future direction that Scottish literature generally would take, and would have a negative affect on Barrie's literary legacy in Scotland. However the entertaining books were immensely popular in their time and would lay the foundation for his hugely successful career.

Now established as a leading novelist, Barrie sought new challenges. Early plays including Ibsen's Ghost (1891) and Walker, London (1892), had secured his presence as a playwright but it would be his adaption of the hugely popular The Little Minister, full of mystery and surprise, that would bring him to pre-eminence in the London theatre and greatly increase both his fame and wealth. Possessing remarkable aptitude as a playwright and coming increasingly under the spell of theatreland, it would now become Barrie's main focus and he would go on to have many successes, usually comedies of manners including Quality Street (1901) and The Admirable Crichton (1902). Part of its allure was the glamour of the actresses for whom he could create leading roles. At just over five foot tall, Barrie felt overlooked by women and the seeming confidence and independence of many of the actresses attracted and intrigued him. In 1891 he was introduced to Mary Ansell who was to take a part in Walker, London. They became good friends before marrying in Kirriemuir in 1894.

By all accounts it was a disastrous union on both sides. Despite his initial infatuation, married life seemed to lack meaningful connection for Barrie. Perhaps like his fictional Tommy Sandys's in his marriage to Grizel, he was playing a role that he couldn't sustain. Barrie's immersion in his work would have made it hard for him to meet his wife's emotional and physical needs. The marriage ended when Mary left Barrie for an acquaintance of his named Gilbert Cannan. The divorce hearing was particularly painful and humiliating for Barrie who was now a public figure; it received full coverage and exposed details of his shortcomings; the marriage was not consummated. Despite the pain that this caused him, Barrie remained loyal to Mary and supported her financially after her second husband descended into madness. After the divorce, he settled back into bachelor life and moved to Adelphi Terrace overlooking the Thames; this address would remain home for the rest of his life.

Before his marriage ended, Barrie formed a close association with the Llewelyn Davies family. Initially drawn to Sylvia, the daughter of George Du Maurier, he soon befriended her sons George, John, Peter, Michael and Nicholas. Childless himself, he spent an increasing amount of time in their company and enjoyed inventing stories and games for them. When their father Arthur Llewelyn Davies died of cancer in1907, Barrie became something of a surrogate father, supporting them and paying their school fees at Eton. Tragically, Sylvia too would die in 1910 leaving Barrie as legal guardian of the orphaned boys. In his book J.M. Barrie and the Lost Boys (1979), Andrew Birkin documents the relationship between the writer and his charges, and the genesis of Peter Pan, the character whose fame would eclipse that of his creator, becoming one of the most iconic figures in popular culture of the twentieth century and beyond.

Peter Pan of Kensington Gardens was first introduced in the novel that Barrie wrote for the Llewelyn Davies boys, The Little White Bird (1902). In this story of a friendship between a middle aged bachelor and a young boy named David, the narrative is interwoven with fantastical stories created by the man for the child; Peter is a boy who flew away from his parents at a week old and now lives with the fairies of Kensington Gardens who appear after 'lock-out-time'. His name echoing the nature god, Peter Pan is a boy forever: he will never have the responsibilities of adulthood.

In The Little White Bird, this magical world of make believe sits beside everyday reality; when Barrie decided to write a play around his fantastical creation, reality and fantasy would merge: Peter enters the lives of the Darling family and draws them into his 'Neverland'. He is an ambiguous figure, part alluring hero rejecting the commonplace and part outcast, looking in through the window at family life but forever excluded. The unresolved problem of freedom versus responsibility and the poignancy of the lost world of childhood are key to the play's tremendously enduring appeal, making it popular with adults and children alike. Peter Pan or The Boy who Wouldn't Grow Up was first staged at The Duke of York's Theatre on 27 December 1904. Its magical nature and special effects made it a challenging play to produce, but it was an enormous hit from it's opening night onwards. Peter and Wendy (1911) is the play in novel form and Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906) is the Peter Pan passages from The Little White Bird published with illustrations by Arthur Rackham. In 1929, Barrie would bequeath all rights for Peter Pan to Great Ormond Street hospital.

"It looks to me as if you are a man of genius"

- Robert Louis Stevenson on J.M. Barrie

Despite past relationship difficulties, Barrie remained fascinated by women and still enjoyed writing prominent roles for them. He would draw in the most famous actresses of the day including Ellen Terry who starred in Alice-Sit-by-the-Fire (1905). What Every Woman Knows (1908), focuses on women's influence over men and, like a number of his plays including Peter Pan, was produced by the great impresario Charles Frohman at the West End and then on Broadway. From 1917 the most important woman in Barrie's life was Cynthia Asquith. Born into the aristocratic Charteris family and the daughter in law of Herbert Henry Asquith, Cynthia became Barrie's secretary working closely with him at Adelphi Terrace. She too brought Barrie a surrogate family and such was the closeness of their relationship that she would become the main beneficiary of his will.

Barrie's brilliance and wit opened the doors to high society and he would forge many strong friendships in the literary world including H.G. Wells, John Galsworthy and Robert Louis Stevenson, with whom he maintained a correspondence although would never meet. One of Barrie's main loves was cricket and he created his own amateur team named the Allahakbarries, drawing together some of the most famous writers of the day including Wells, Kipling, Conan Doyle, Chesterton and Wodehouse. His status was recognised by many public and private honours: he was made a baronet in 1913, received the Order of Merit in 1922, was elected Rector of the University of St Andrews in 1919 and served as Chancellor of the University of Edinburgh from 1930 to 1937. In June 1930 he received the Freedom of Kirriemuir.

For all this worldly recognition and fame, Barrie was prey to the increasing depressive moods which would pervade his life and later work. Further tragedies struck the Llewelyn Davies family: In 1915, George was killed in the First World War and, in 1921, Michael, to whom Barrie was especially close, accidentally drowned at just twenty years old; this caused Barrie great shock and despair. There would be a melancholic wistfulness to the later plays Dear Brutus (1917) and Mary Rose (1920); although both contain a transformative magical element there is a sense of the inescapability of fate. A late triumph in Barrie's career would be the ghost story Farewell Miss Julie Logan, originally published as a free supplement to The Times at Christmas 1931. Returning to a rural Scottish setting, it tells of the historic events of the Jacobite rising coming back to haunt the snowbound present and the result is an enchanting exploration of isolation and repression.

Sadly, Barrie's last play was less successful and would leave him with a deep sense of failure and gloom. Called The Boy David (1936), it took a biblical theme, but its title evoked the brother whose death profoundly affected his life and shaped his identity as a writer. James Matthew Barrie died of pneumonia in London on 19 June 1937. He is buried with his parents and two of his siblings in Kirriemuir Cemetery.