J.M. Barrie.

In 1866, when Barrie was six, his older brother David died in an ice-skating accident. His mother Margaret Ogilvy was devastated, and he tried to fill David’s place by wearing his clothes and whistling like him. Margaret found comfort that her dead son would remain a boy forever, shaping his later creation of Peter Pan.

The ninth of ten children, Barrie entered the world on May 9, 1860 in Kirriemuir, Angus, Scotland. His father David was a weaver. He attended the Glasgow Academy 1868, Forfar Academy 1870, and Dumfries Academy 1874, where he joined a drama club and wrote his first play Bandelero the Bandit. At the University of Edinburgh, he worked as a drama reviewer for the Edinburgh Evening Courant, graduating in 1882.

Barrie’s first major success came with the 1891 parody Ibsen’s Ghost, or Toole Up-to-Date, based on Henrik Ibsen’s plays. He followed with the 1901 play Quality Street, which ran for 459 performances in London. In 1902, he had another hit with The Admirable Crichton, a satire on class relationships that ran 828 performances.

That same year, Barrie introduced Peter Pan in the novel The Little White Bird. The character became the centerpiece of the 1904 stage play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, the 1906 novel Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, and the 1911 novel Peter and Wendy. George Bernard Shaw praised Barrie’s work. Later plays include Dear Brutus 1917, 363 performances and Mary Rose 1920. Barrie also campaigned against strict censorship laws in 1909 and 1911.

Barrie married actress Mary Ansell in 1894, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1909 after Ansell’s affair with novelist Gilbert Cannan. Barrie continued to support her financially until his death.

After the deaths of his close friends Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, Barrie adopted their five sons: Peter, Jack, George, Michael, and Nicholas. He was devastated when George was killed in World War I in 1915 and Michael drowned in 1921. Barrie’s secretary from 1917 to 1937 was Lady Cynthia Asquith. He died of pneumonia on June 19, 1937 in a nursing home in London and was buried in Kirriemuir.

Barrie’s most enduring legacy is Peter Pan, which has been adapted into countless films, plays, and books. In 1929, he gave the copyright to Great Ormond Street Hospital, ensuring ongoing financial support; the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 extended royalties in perpetuity for the hospital. A statue of Peter Pan was erected in Kensington Gardens in 1912, though Barrie disliked it. Tourists still visit Kirriemuir sites associated with him. Barrie is most remembered as the creator of the boy who wouldn’t grow up.