Peter Pan

According to Birkin, the death was "a catastrophe beyond belief, and one from which she never fully recovered. If Margaret Ogilvy [Barrie's mother as the heroine of his 1896 novel of that title] drew a measure of comfort from the notion that David, in dying a boy, would remain a boy for ever, Barrie drew inspiration."

The Peter Pan character first appeared in print in the 1902 novel The Little White Bird, written for adults.

Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, often known simply as Peter Pan, is a work by J. M. Barrie, in the form of a 1904 play and a 1911 novel titled Peter and Wendy, often extended in Peter Pan and Wendy.

Both versions tell the story of Peter Pan, a mischievous little boy who can fly, and has many adventures on the island of Neverland that is inhabited by mermaids, fairies, Native Americans, and pirates.

The Peter Pan stories also involve the characters Wendy Darling and her two brothers John and Michael, Peter's fairy Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, and the pirate Captain Hook.

The play and novel were inspired by Barrie's friendship with the Llewelyn Davies family.

The play debuted at the Duke of York's Theatre in London on 27 December 1904 with Nina Boucicault, daughter of the playwright Dion Boucicault, in the title role.

The character was next used in the stage play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, which premiered in London on 27 December 1904 and became an instant success.

A Broadway production was mounted in 1905 starring Maude Adams.

It was later revived with such actresses as Marilyn Miller and Eva Le Gallienne.

In 1906, the chapters of The Little White Bird that featured the character of Peter Pan were published as the book Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, with illustrations by Arthur Rackham.

Prior to the publication of Barrie's novel, the play was first adapted into the 1907 novelisation The Peter Pan Picture Book, written by Daniel O'Connor and illustrated by Alice B. Woodward.

This was also the first illustrated version of the story.

The novel was first published in 1911 by Hodder & Stoughton in the UK, and Charles Scribner's Sons in the US.

The original book contains a frontispiece and 11 half-tone plates by the artist F. D. Bedford (whose illustrations are still under copyright in the EU).

Barrie then adapted the play into the 1911 novel Peter and Wendy, often now published simply as Peter Pan.

The original draft of the play was entitled simply Anon: A Play.

Barrie's working titles for it included The Great White Father and Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Hated Mothers.

Producer Charles Frohman disliked the title on the manuscript, in answer to which Barrie reportedly suggested The Boy Who Couldn't Grow Up; Frohman suggested changing it to Wouldn't and dropping The Great White Father as a title.

Although the character appeared previously in Barrie's book The Little White Bird, the play and its novelisation contain the story of Peter Pan mythos that is best known.

The two versions differ in some details of the story, but have much in common.

In both versions Peter makes night-time calls on the Darlings' house in Bloomsbury, listening in on Mrs. Mary Darling's bedtime stories by the open window.

One night Peter is spotted and, while trying to escape, he loses his shadow.

On returning to claim it, Peter accidentally wakes Mary's daughter, Wendy Darling.

Wendy succeeds in re-attaching his shadow to him using thread and needle, and Peter learns that she knows many bedtime stories.

He invites her to Neverland to be a mother to his gang, the Lost Boys, children who were lost when they fell out of their prams.

Wendy agrees, and her younger brothers John and Michael go along.

Their magical flight to Neverland is followed by many adventures.

The children are blown out of the air by a pirate cannon and Wendy is nearly shot and killed by the Lost Boy Tootles because Peter's fairy companion, Tinker Bell, is jealous of Wendy and tricks him into thinking she is a bird.

The novel was first abridged by May Byron in 1915, with Barrie's permission, and published under the title Peter Pan and Wendy, the first time this form was used.

This version was later illustrated by Mabel Lucie Attwell in 1921.

Barrie continued to revise the play for years after its debut until publication of the play script in 1928, under the name Peter Pan; or, The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up.

In 1929, Barrie gave the copyright of the Peter Pan works to Great Ormond Street Hospital, a children's hospital in London.

Barrie created Peter Pan in stories he told to the sons of his friend Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, with whom he had forged a special relationship.

Mrs. Llewelyn Davies's death from cancer came within a few years after the death of her husband; Barrie was a 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.

Andrew Birkin has suggested that the inspiration for the character was Barrie's elder brother David, whose death in a skating accident at the age of fourteen deeply affected their mother.

In the U.S., the original version has also been supplanted in popularity by the 1954 musical version, which became popular on television.

Since its original production, the story has been adapted as a pantomime, a stage musical, a television special, a live themed ice-skating show in the mid-1970s, and several films, including a 1924 silent film, a 1953 Disney animated film, and a 2003 live action film.

The play is now rarely performed in its original form on stage in the UK, whereas pantomime adaptations are frequently staged around Christmas.