Editing J. M. Barrie (section)

==Llewelyn Davies family==
[[file:JackLlewelynDavies6-BoyCastaways.JPG|thumb|left|[[Jack Llewelyn Davies]] acting in Barrie's pirate adventure, ''The Boy Castaways of Black Lake Island'', 1901]]
The Llewelyn Davies family played an important part in Barrie's literary and personal life, consisting of [[Arthur Llewelyn Davies|Arthur]] (1863–1907), [[Sylvia Llewelyn Davies|Sylvia]] (1866–1910) (daughter of [[George du Maurier]]),<ref>married the 3Q of 1892 in Hampstead, London: GROMI: vol. 1a, p. 1331</ref> and [[Llewelyn Davies boys|their five sons]]: [[George Llewelyn Davies|George]] (1893–1915), [[Jack Llewelyn Davies|John]] (Jack) (1894–1959), [[Peter Llewelyn Davies|Peter]] (1897–1960), [[Michael Llewelyn Davies|Michael]] (1900–1921) and [[Nicholas Llewelyn Davies|Nicholas]] (Nico) (1903–1980).

Barrie became acquainted with the family in 1897, meeting George and Jack (and baby Peter) with their nurse ([[nanny]]) Mary Hodgson in London's [[Kensington Gardens]]. He lived nearby and often walked his Saint Bernard dog Porthos in the park. He entertained the boys regularly with his ability to wiggle his ears and eyebrows, and with his stories.{{Sfnp|Birkin|2003|p=41}} He did not meet Sylvia until a chance encounter at a dinner party in December. She told Barrie that Peter had been named after the title character in her father's novel, ''Peter Ibbetson''.{{Sfnp|Birkin|2003|pp=44–45}}

[[File:Michael Llewelyn Davies as Peter Pan.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Michael Llewelyn Davies]] as Peter Pan, 1906. Photo was taken by Barrie at Cudlow House in [[Rustington]], West Sussex]]
Barrie became a regular visitor at the Davies household and a common companion to Sylvia and her boys, despite the fact that both he and she were married to other people.<ref name="Birkin"/> In 1901, he invited the Davies family to Black Lake Cottage, where he produced an album of captioned photographs of the boys acting out a pirate adventure, entitled ''The Boy Castaways of Black Lake Island''. Barrie had two copies made, one of which he gave to Arthur, who misplaced it on a train.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jmbarrie.co.uk/boycastaways/ab_on_JMB_RSC.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722005156/http://www.jmbarrie.co.uk/boycastaways/ab_on_JMB_RSC.html |archive-date=22 July 2011 |title=Andrew Birkin on J. M. Barrie |publisher=Jmbarrie.co.uk |date=5 April 1960 |access-date=8 May 2010}} Retrieved from Internet Archive 27 December 2013.</ref> The only surviving copy is held at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.<ref>[http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/digitallibrary/castaways.html J. M. Barrie's Boy Castaways] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100115125916/http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/digitallibrary/castaways.html |date=15 January 2010 }} at the [http://www.library.yale.edu/beinecke/index.html Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University]</ref>

The character of Peter Pan was invented to entertain George and Jack. Barrie would say, to amuse them, that their little brother Peter could fly. He claimed that babies were birds before they were born; parents put bars on nursery windows to keep the little ones from flying away. This grew into a tale of a baby boy who did fly away.{{Sfnp|White|1994|p=29}}

[[File:1899-08-08-Porthos.jpg|left|thumb|upright|Barrie’s Saint Bernard dog Porthos in 1899]]
Arthur Llewelyn Davies died in 1907, and "Uncle Jim" became even more involved with the Davies family, providing financial support to them. (His income from ''Peter Pan'' and other works was easily adequate to provide for their living expenses and education.){{Sfnp|Birkin|2003|p=154}} Following Sylvia's death in 1910, Barrie claimed that they had recently been engaged to be married.{{Sfnp|Birkin|2003|pp=91–92}} Her will indicated nothing to that effect but specified her wish for "J. M. B." to be trustee and guardian to the boys, along with her mother Emma, her brother [[Guy du Maurier]] and Arthur's brother Compton. It expressed her confidence in Barrie as the boys' caretaker and her wish for "the boys to treat him (& their uncles) with absolute confidence & straightforwardness & to talk to him about everything."{{Sfnp|Birkin|2003|pp=188–189}} When copying the will informally for Sylvia's family a few months later, Barrie inserted himself elsewhere: Sylvia had written that she would like Mary Hodgson, the boys' nurse, to continue taking care of them, and for "Jenny" (referring to Hodgson's sister) to come and help her; Barrie instead wrote, "Jimmy" (Sylvia's nickname for him).{{Sfnp|Birkin|2003|p=194}} Barrie and Hodgson did not get along well but served together as surrogate parents until the boys were grown.{{Sfnp|Birkin|2003|pp=196, 271}}

Barrie also had friendships with other children, both before he met the Davies boys and after they had grown up, and there has since been unsubstantiated speculation that Barrie was a [[paedophilia|paedophile]].<ref>{{cite news |author=Picardie |first=Justine |date=13 July 2008 |title=How bad was J. M. Barrie? |newspaper=Telegraph |location=London |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/donotmigrate/3556421/How-bad-was-J.M.-Barrie.html |url-status=dead |access-date=22 July 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090304154450/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/donotmigrate/3556421/How-bad-was-J.M.-Barrie.html |archive-date=4 March 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Parker |first=James |url=http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2004/02/22/the_real_peter_pan/ |title=The real Peter Pan – The Boston Globe |publisher=Boston.com |date=22 February 2004 |access-date=22 July 2009}}</ref> One source for the speculation is a scene in the novel ''[[The Little White Bird]]'', in which the protagonist helps a small boy undress for bed, and at the boy's request they sleep in the same bed.<ref name="White 1994">{{Cite book |last=White |first=Donna R. |url=https://archive.org/details/britishchildrens141zaid |title=British Children's Writers, 1880–1914 |publisher=[[Gale Research]] |year=1994 |isbn=978-0810355552 |editor-last=Zaidman |editor-first=Laura M. |location=[[Detroit, Michigan]] |url-access=registration}}</ref> However, there is no evidence that Barrie had sexual contact with children, nor that he was suspected of it at the time. Nico, the youngest of the brothers, denied as an adult that Barrie ever behaved inappropriately. "I don't believe that Uncle Jim ever experienced what one might call 'a stirring in the undergrowth' for anyone—man, woman, or child", he stated.{{Sfnp|Birkin|2003|loc=Introduction to the Yale Edition}} "He was an innocent—which is why he could write Peter Pan."{{Sfnp|Birkin|2003|p=130}} His relationships with the surviving Davies boys continued well beyond their childhood and adolescence.

The [[Peter Pan statue]] in Kensington Gardens, erected secretly overnight for [[May Morning]] in 1912, was supposed to be modelled upon old photographs of Michael dressed as the character. However, the sculptor, [[Sir George Frampton]], used a different child as a model, leaving Barrie disappointed with the result. "It doesn't show the devil in Peter", he said.{{Sfnp|Birkin|2003|pp=142, 202}}

Barrie suffered bereavements with the boys, losing the two to whom he was closest in their early twenties. George was killed in action in 1915, in the [[First World War]].<ref>{{cwgc|id=456458|name=Davies, George Llewelyn|access-date=24 August 2016}}</ref> Michael, with whom Barrie corresponded daily while at boarding school and university, drowned in 1921, with his friend, Rupert Buxton,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jmbarrie.co.uk/audio/?mode=3 |title=Audio |publisher=Jmbarrie.co.uk |access-date=8 May 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930032624/http://www.jmbarrie.co.uk/audio/?mode=3 |archive-date=30 September 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> at a known danger spot at [[Sandford Lock]] near [[Oxford]], one month short of his 21st birthday.{{Sfnp|Birkin|2003|loc=Introduction to the Yale Edition, pp. 291–293}} Some years after Barrie's death, Peter compiled his ''Morgue'' from family letters and papers, interpolated with his own informed comments on his family and their relationship with Barrie. [[Peter Llewelyn Davies#Death|Peter died]] in 1960 by throwing himself in front of an Underground train at Sloane Square station.