Peter Pan

Barrie created Peter Pan in stories he told to the sons of his friend Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, with whom he had a special relationship. Mrs Llewelyn Davies' death from cancer came within a few years after her husband's death. Barrie was named as co-guardian of the boys and unofficially adopted them. The character's name comes from two sources: Peter Llewelyn Davies, one of the boys, and Pan, the mischievous Greek god of the woodlands. It has also been suggested that the inspiration for the character was Barrie's elder brother David, whose death in a skating accident at 13 deeply affected their mother. According to Andrew Birkin, author of J.M. Barrie & the Lost Boys, the death was 'a catastrophe beyond belief,' and one from which she never fully recovered. Margaret Ogilvy found some comfort in the idea that David, in dying a boy, would remain a boy forever; Barrie drew inspiration from this. The Peter Pan character first appeared in print in the 1902 novel The Little White Bird, written for adults, which was a fictionalized version of Barrie's relationship with the Llewelyn Davies children. The character was then used in the successful stage play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, which premiered in London on December 27, 1904. In 1906, the portion of The Little White Bird featuring Peter was published as Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, with illustrations by Arthur Rackham. Barrie later adapted the play into the 1911 novel Peter & Wendy, often now published simply as Peter Pan. The original draft of the play was entitled simply Anon: A Play, and Barrie’s working titles included The Great White Father and Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Hated Mothers.