SIR JAMES BARRIE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23222, 21 June 1937, Page 9

SIR JAMES BARRIE

DEATH OF LITERARY FIGURE LONG AND SUCCESSFUL CAREER CREATION OF "PETER PAN" RECALLED fUnited Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright)

LONDON, June 19,

(Received June 20, at 6.30 p.m.)

The death is announced of Sir James Barrie.

The original of Sir James's famous character, "Peter Pan," was at his bedside when Sir James died peacefully after several hours of unconsciousness.

It is recalled that Sir James 35 years ago was walking in Kensington Gardens when he saw Peter Davies playing with his three brothers. They became his friends, and inspired him to create the boy who would not grow up. Sir James later adopted the three brothers, of whom only Peter and Nicholas are alive. SIR JAMES, BARRIE On May 9, 1860, in the little Scottish village of Kirriemuir, in Forfarshire, there was born "a queer, solemn-looking baby, with enormous eyes and an apparent sense of grievance." It was James Matthew Barrie, who was later to immortalise the tiny centre of Kirriemuir under the name of Thrums and make for him' self a position in the literary world of his time that was as prominent as it was unique. He was as Scotch as Burns, although in a different way, and throughout a long and successful career he not only retainer] but improved upon the purely Scottish inheritance that was his. His early years spent in Kirriemuir and Dumfries not only intensified his Scotch characteristics but provided, him with an accumulation of rich material which he was later to use to excellent advantage in his stories and plays. He was educated primarily at Dumfries, but was apparently an indifferent pupil who seldom opened his books except to draw pictures or cartoons in them. His literary career may be said to have started there when he amused himself by writing reports of cricket matches for the Dumfries newspapers or penning letters to the editor under the pen name of "Paterfamilias." .His first play, 'Bandolero the Bandit," was written for the Dumfries Academy DramaticSociety and his only appearance on the stage as an actor was when ha was cast in his own play. At this time also he wrote a novel, "A Child of Nature," which he destroyed, in his own words. " just because it might fall into the wrong hands, you know." From Dumfries Academy he went to the Edinburgh University where he graduated M.A. and also took honours in English literature. This same university conferred the distinction of Doctor of Letters on him in 1922.

After leaving the uriiversity he turned his attention to journalism, writing leaders for a Nottingham paper and devoting his spare time to stories which he tried unsuccessfully to sell to London papers and periodicals. He had not yet recognised in his native town and its quaintness a possible source of material for his novels and plays. In 1885 he stormed London, " a very little man with a ragged black moustache, a notably bulging brow, a large, reflective, luminous eye, shy, sensitive, chaste, and making his first tentative experiments with a pipe." Under the nom de plume of Gavia Ogilvy he began writing for the British Weekly, and in 1887 he saw his first book, a satirical shocker entitled " Better Dead" live up to its title and die almost as it camt from the press. In the following year, however, there appeared "Auld Licht Idylls," which was well received. Its clever character sketches against an unfamiliar background delighted many readers, and when 12 months later he followed it up with a sequel, "A Window in Thrums," he found himself the possessor of a literary reputation. " The Little Minister" (1891), however, did even more for him, and he awoke one fine morning to discover himself hailed as a novelist of the first rank. But his metier did not appear to be the novel. After " Margaret Ogilvy" (1396), a touching tribute to his mother, " Sentimental Tommy" (1096), its " Tommy and Grizel" (1900) and "The 'Little White Bird" (1902) he wrote little that was of any account. From 1902 on. Sir James Barrie wrote practically nothing but play;?, and he achieved such an outstanding success in this sphere that by most people he was known pre-eminently as a playwright. Among his most important piays were "The Admirable Crichton " (1902), " Peter Pan " (1904), a dramatisation of "The Little White Bird," "Alice-Sit-By-The-Fire" (1905), "What Everv Woman Knows" (1908), "A Kiss ( ov Cinderella" (1916), "Dear Brutus" (1917), "Mary Rose" (1920) and " Shall We Join the Ladies? " (1922).

Sir James Barrie's marriage to Miss Mary Ansell ended quietly in the divorce court after 14 years, and for the last 15 years of liis life lie was content to live modestly in his Adelphi Terrace flat in London, entertaining his friends and continuing the associations with university life which were among his delights. After the appearance of " Shall We Join the Ladies? " in 1922, he wrote practically nothing, devoting himself almost entirely to a graciously serene leisure. He w?s knighted in 1913, and was honoured by several universities. Among his distinctions were D.Litt. (Oxford and Cambridge) and LL.D. (Edinburgh and St. Andrews). He was president of the Society of Authors from 1928 until the time of his death, and chancellor of the Edinburgh University, as well as rector of the University of St. Andrews from 1919 to 1922. He was slso a freeman of Dumfries, Jedburgh, St. Andrews, Kirriemuir and Edinburgh.