Editing J. M. Barrie (section)

== Social connections ==
[[File:Sir James M. Barrie.jpg|thumb|upright|Barrie, c. 1895]]

Barrie moved in literary circles and had many famous friends in addition to his professional collaborators. Novelist [[George Meredith]] was an early social [[Patronage|patron]]. He had a long correspondence with fellow Scot [[Robert Louis Stevenson]], who lived in [[Samoa]] at the time. Stevenson invited Barrie to visit him, but the two never met.<ref>Shaw, Michael (ed.) (2020), ''A Friendship in Letters: Robert Louis Stevenson & J.M. Barrie'', Sandstone Press, Inverness {{ISBN|978-1-913207-02-1}}</ref><ref name="NY Times"/> He was also friends with fellow Scots writer [[S. R. Crockett]]. [[George Bernard Shaw]] was his neighbour in London for several years, and once participated in a Western that Barrie scripted and filmed. [[H. G. Wells]] was a friend of many years, and tried to intervene when Barrie's marriage fell apart. Barrie met [[Thomas Hardy]] through [[Hugh Clifford (colonial administrator)|Hugh Clifford]] while he was staying in London.<ref name="NY Times"/> He was friends with [[Nobel Prize in Literature|Nobel prize winner]] [[John Galsworthy]].<ref>{{cite book |date=1963 |last=Barker |first=Dudley |title=A Man of Principle |publisher=House and Maxwell |location=London |page=179 |isbn=1379084962}}</ref>

Barrie remained tied to his Scottish roots and visited his hometown of [[Kirriemuir]] regularly with his wards. When choosing his first personal secretary, Barrie chose [[E. V. Lucas]]'s wife, Elizabeth Lucas, who had Scottish roots through her American parentage.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sass |first=Sara |title=There Are Some Secrets |publisher=Atmosphere Press |year=2021 |isbn=9781639880102}}</ref> After Elizabeth Lucas moved to Paris, France, Barrie chose [[Cynthia Asquith]] as his personal secretary. 

[[File:Authors vs. Artists 1903 Cricket Game.jpg|thumb|upright=1.1|left|Authors v Artists cricket match in London, May 1903. Barrie is seated in the front row, 3rd from right.]]
After the [[First World War]], Barrie sometimes stayed at [[Stanway House]] near the village of [[Stanway, Gloucestershire|Stanway]] in [[Gloucestershire]]. He paid for the pavilion at Stanway [[cricket]] ground.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Page |first1=William |title=The Victoria History of the County of Gloucester, Volume 6 |date=1965 |publisher=A. Constable, limited |page=226}}</ref> In 1887, he founded an amateur cricket team for friends of similarly limited playing ability, and named it the [[Allahakbarries]] under the mistaken belief that "Allah akbar" meant "Heaven help us" in Arabic (rather than "God is great").<ref>{{cite web|author1=Tim Masters|title=How Peter Pan's author invented celebrity cricket|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8662375.stm|website=BBC News|access-date=2 August 2019|date=7 May 2010}}</ref> Some of the best-known British authors from the era played on the team at various times, including [[H. G. Wells]], [[Rudyard Kipling]], [[Arthur Conan Doyle]], [[P. G. Wodehouse]], [[Jerome K. Jerome]], [[G. K. Chesterton]], [[A. A. Milne]], [[E. W. Hornung]], [[A. E. W. Mason]], [[Walter Raleigh (professor)|Walter Raleigh]], [[E. V. Lucas]], [[Maurice Hewlett]], [[Owen Seaman]] (editor of ''[[Punch magazine|Punch]]''), [[Bernard Partridge]], [[George Cecil Ives]], [[George Llewelyn Davies]] (see below) and the son of [[Alfred Tennyson]]. In 1891, Barrie joined the newly formed [[Authors Cricket Club]] and also played for its cricket team, the Authors XI, alongside Doyle, Wodehouse and Milne. The Allahakbarries and the Authors XI continued to exist side by side until 1912.<ref name="Chaney" /><ref>{{cite news |last=Parkinson |first=Justin |date=26 July 2014 |title=Authors and actors revive cricket rivalry |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27903864 |work= BBC News Magazine|access-date=10 April 2019}}</ref>

Barrie befriended Africa explorer [[Joseph Thomson (explorer)|Joseph Thomson]] and Antarctica explorer [[Robert Falcon Scott]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.scotsman.com/news/jm-barrie-and-captain-scott-two-friends-who-took-the-world-by-storm-1-808141|title=Two friends who took the world by storm|last=Smith|first=Mark|date=2 September 2010|work=The Scotsman|access-date=2 September 2010}}</ref> He was [[godparent|godfather]] to Scott's son [[Peter Scott|Peter]],{{Sfnp|Birkin|2003|p=209}} and was one of the seven people to whom Scott wrote letters in the final hours of his life during his expedition to the [[South Pole]], asking Barrie to take care of his wife [[Kathleen Scott|Kathleen]] and son Peter. Barrie was so proud of the letter that he carried it around for the rest of his life.{{Sfnp|White|1994|p=36}}

In 1896, his agent Addison Bright persuaded him to meet with Broadway producer [[Charles Frohman]], who became his financial backer and a close friend, as well.{{Sfnp|Birkin|2003|p=38}} Frohman was responsible for producing the debut of ''Peter Pan'' in both England and the US, as well as other productions of Barrie's plays. He famously declined a lifeboat seat when the [[RMS Lusitania|RMS ''Lusitania'']] was sunk by a German [[U-boat]] in the North Atlantic. Actress [[Rita Jolivet]] stood with Frohman, George Vernon and Captain Alick Scott at the end of Lusitania's sinking, but she survived the sinking and recalled Frohman paraphrasing ''Peter Pan'': 'Why fear death? It is the most beautiful adventure that life gives us.'<ref>Ellis, Frederick D., ''The Tragedy of the Lusitania'' (National Publishing Company, 1915), pp. 38–39; Preston, Diana, ''Lusitania, An Epic Tragedy'' (Walker & Company, 2002), p. 204; ''New York Tribune'', "Frohman Calm; Not Concerned About Death, Welcomed It as Beautiful Adventure, He Told Friends at End", 11 May 1915, p. 3; Marcosson, Isaac Frederick, & Daniel Frohman, ''Charles Frohman: Manager and Man'' (John Lane, The Bodley Head, 1916), p. 387; Frohman, Charles, [http://rmslusitania.info/pages/saloon_class/frohman_charles.html ''The Lusitania Resource'']</ref> Barrie had himself sailed on one of the ''Lusitania'''s final Atlantic crossings in September 1914, during which rumours circulated amongst the passengers that the liner was to be transferred to the British Admiralty for troopship duties on arrival in New York.<ref>Earlier Voyages, [https://www.garemaritime.com/lusitania-part-9-earlier-voyages/ ''Gare Maritime'']</ref>

His secretary from 1917, [[Cynthia Asquith]], was the daughter-in-law of [[H. H. Asquith]], British Prime Minister from 1908 to 1916.<ref name="Telegraph"/> In the 1930s, Barrie met and told stories to the young daughters of the [[George VI of the United Kingdom|Duke of York]], the future [[Elizabeth II|Queen Elizabeth II]] and [[Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon|Princess Margaret]].<ref name="Telegraph">{{cite news|title=Captain Scott and J M Barrie: an unlikely friendship|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/9086554/Captain-Scott-and-J-M-Barrie-an-unlikely-friendship.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/bookreviews/9086554/Captain-Scott-and-J-M-Barrie-an-unlikely-friendship.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=2 April 2015|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph}}{{cbignore}}</ref> After meeting him, the three-year-old Princess Margaret announced, "He is my greatest friend and I am his greatest friend".<ref name="NY Times">{{cite news |title=THE LAST WORD; The Lost Boy |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/14/books/the-last-word-the-lost-boy.html |access-date=2 August 2019 |work=The New York Times|date=14 December 2003 |last1=Miller |first1=Laura }}</ref>