SS+Group+2+-+Background+on+J.M.+Barrie

=**Background on Sir James Matthew Barrie**=



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 Barrie was born in Kirriemuir, Angus. His family were weavers and he was the ninth child of ten. At the age of 8 he was sent to the Glasgow Academy but once he was 10, he returned home and attended the Forfar Academy. After turning 13 he then left again to attend the Dumfries Academy and began reading a lot. Later he attended the University of Edinbrugh where he wrote reviews of dramas for a local newspaper. He then married Mary Ansell however they did not have any children. Although there is no proof there has been speculation that Barrie was asexual, a pedophile and an excessive stalker. ======

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When he was a boy one of his older brothers, who was his mother's favorite, died. Barrie tried to fill this void in his mother's life by wearing his brother's clothes and acting like him however this did not help. The only comfort that his mother felt was that her dead son would remain a boy forever and never have to grow up. The idea for the lost boys came when he met the "Llewelyn Davies boy" who were a group of brothers who Barrie became good friends with. When the boys' parents died several years later, Barrie even went so far as to adopt them. He told them one story in particular that stayed with all of them, the story of Peter Pan. Barrie told the boys that before babies were birds before they grew up, therefore explaining the bars on nursery windows. The story of Peter Pan came from the one time when a baby who could fly was able to slip through the bars and escaped. This explains the story of a boy who can fly, never grows up and the lost boys. ======

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Peter Pan was first a screen play written by Barrie before it became a popular book. However, it was not always popular. When it was first released as a play it was widely criticized until it was revived by actresses Marilyn Miller and Eva La Gallenne. 6 years after the play was released the Peter Pan book was written and the rest was history. It became a very popular book with all age groups and went on to become a stage musical, a television show, and several movies. ======



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 J.M. Barrie's literary works consisted of //Auld Licht Idylls// (1888), //A Window in Thrums// (1890), and //The Little Minister// (1891)After the success of the "Auld Lichts", he printed //Better Dead// (1888), two 'Tommy' novels, //Sentimental Tommy// (1896) and //Tommy and Grizel// (1900). All of which failed to sell. Then Barrie wrote the Little White Bird which is where Peter Pan first appeared in 1901. Three years later Barrie wrote his most famous book, Peter Pan or The Boy Who Couldn't Grow Up, but as a play. In 1911 the play was developed into a novel titled Peter and Wendy. ======

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Barrie was a Scottish author and dramatist who is best remembered today as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and raised by a family of weavers in Scotland but he later moved to London, where he developed a career as a novelist and playwright. There he met the Llewelyn Davies boys (Barrie became the legal guardian of the boys after both their parents passed away) who inspired him in writing Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, a "fairy play" about this ageless boy and an ordinary girl named Wendy who have adventures in the fantasy setting of Neverland. ======

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This play quickly overshadowed his previous work and although he continued to write successfully, it became his best-known work, credited with popularizing the name Wendy, which was very uncommon previously. Before his death, he gave the rights to the Peter Pan works to Great Ormond Street Hospital, which continues to benefit from them.Barrie was the ninth child of ten (two of whom died before he was born), all of whom were schooled in at least the three Rs , in preparation for possible professional careers.The three Rs (as in the letter R) are the foundations of a basic skills -orientated education program within schools: Reading, Writing and Arithmetic. ======

When he was 6 years old, Barrie's next-older brother David (his mother's favortite) died two days before his 14th birthday in an ice-skating accident. This left his mother devastated, and Barrie tried to fill David's place in his mother's attentions, even wearing David's clothes and whistling in the manner that he did. One time Barrie entered her room, and heard her say 'Is that you?' 'I thought it was the dead boy she was speaking to,' wrote Barrie in his biographical account of his mother, Margaret Ogilvy (1896), 'and I said in a little lonely voice, "No, it's no' him, it's just me."' Barrie's mother found comfort in the fact that her dead son would remain a boy forever, never to grow up and leave her.



Time line
 The classic tale of Peter Pan wasfirst debuted on 27 December 1904, in the stage play "Peter Pan, or TheBoy Who Wouldn't Grow Up”. Theplay was soon made into a novel in 1911 as Peter and Wendy, later turned intoPeter Pan and Wendy. Chapters13–18 of "The Little White Bird" were extracted and republished thechapters in 1906 under the title "Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens"with outside illustrations. In1953 Peter Pan skyrocketed with the making of Peter Pan the Disney film. Another version of Peter Pan was madetitled “Hook” in 1991. Films andmovies are still continuing to be made about the heroic Peter Pan. Aviation was starting to “lift off” in1911.

Climate
 The time period was the Victorian Era. In the United Kingdom Queen Victoriaruled from 1837 to 1901. It was a tremendouslyexciting period when many artistic styles, literary schools, as well as,social, political and religious movements flourished. It was a time ofprosperity, broad imperial expansion, and great political reform. The social classes of England were newly reforming.

