Today
is the 78th anniversary of the death of J. M. Barrie.
Do
you know who J. M. Barrie is? Even if you don’t know the name there are few
people in the Western world who cannot name at least one of his works thanks to
the power of Walt Disney.
Here’s
some hints:
The
film adaptation was released in 1953.
It
featured a boy.
And
a girl.
And
several more boys.
And
a fairy.
And
a pirate.
Yep
it’s Peter Pan the boy who never grew
up!
First
released as a play in 1904, Peter Pan
was written by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie who died on July 19, 1937. Although most people know the Disney version of the story, did you
know that Peter was initially intended to be the true villain of the story? Or
that Captain Hook was only supposed to be a fill-in character to use up time so
the set could be changed?
Or that the character of Peter Pan originally appeared in a short story in a book called The Little White Bird? Or that the character of Peter is traditionally played by a girl?
Intrigued yet?
You can find out a lot of information about Barrie from the various encyclopaedias and reference works we subscribe to. Why not have a stroll through the entries in Credo?
Why
not read the book (or the play, or the story), available both in print and eBook, and read for yourself the
original stories of the boy who never grew up.
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