Five Things I Learned While Researching Peter Pan

It Came From Neverland continues the story of Wendy Darling from J.M. Barrie’s tale Peter and Wendy. It is set in 1914 London at the start of WWI. While researching the source material, I spent a lot of time with J.M. Barrie’s original texts, the play, documentaries about Barrie himself, and of course film and other novel adaptations.

Here are five things I discovered while researching It Came From Neverland which is available June 9^th from Crooked Lane Books.

Peter Pan did not first appear in Peter and Wendy

Peter Pan first appeared in The Little White Bird, which is an adult novel Barrie published in 1902. The book is strange and tonally uneven, ranging from comedy to fantasy, and there are stranger dark aspects to it. Peter appears in one story, as a kind of book-within-a-book, occupying chapters thirteen through eighteen. Those chapters were later extracted and published separately in 1906 as Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. But originally, Peter was not written for children at all. He was written for adults, inside a novel about longing and loss and the distance between who we are and who we wish we could be.

The play came before the novel

Peter Pan; or, The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up premiered at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London on December 27, 1904. It was a huge success and it certainly had its moment culturally. The novel, Peter and Wendy, that many of us are familiar with was not published until 1911, seven years after the play. Most people assume the book came first, and many people are probably just discovering now that it was even a play at all.

Peter Pan, The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up announcement. Image source Wikipedia

Peter Pan has traditionally been played by a woman on stage

Actress Nina Boucicault was the first person to perform as Peter Pan on stage in London in 1904. Maude Adams originated it on Broadway in 1905. English law at the time prohibited children under fourteen from performing on stage after nine in the evening. And, there was another complication – a grown man would not seem boyish enough to play Peter. So, women were cast. Adams played Peter more than fifteen hundred times and designed her own costume, inventing what is now known as the Peter Pan collar. The tradition continued through Mary Martin, Sandy Duncan, and Cathy Rigby.

Nina Boucicault. Image source Wikipedia

Peter Pan royalties went to a children’s hospital

In 1929, Barrie gave the copyright of Peter Pan to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. He asked that the hospital never reveal how much money was generated from the gift, and they have honored that request. In 1988, the UK government granted the hospital Peter Pan royalties in perpetuity.

J.M. Barrie. Image source Wikipedia

Peter Pan statue installed in secret

On the morning of May 1, 1912, children arriving at Kensington Gardens found a bronze statue of Peter Pan standing in a leafy glade that had not been there the day before. Barrie hired workmen to erect the sculpture overnight. The Times that morning announced that there would be a surprise for children who arrived to the park to feed the ducks. Children were delighted. Members of Parliament were furious. Barrie’s defense was simple, he just wanted to do something special that would give nannies and their young charges joy on their morning walks. Also, Barrie presented that he had secured the backing for the statue from King Edward VII before the king’s death two years earlier.

The statue is still there.

Peter Pan statue. Source, Wikipedia.

I’ll be back next week with more interesting things about Peter Pan and Neverland.

You can preorder my upcoming novel here IT CAME FROM NEVERLAND.

Cynthia

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