J. M. Barrie

J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) was born in Kirriemuir, Angus, and worked as a journalist before turning to fiction and the stage. He introduced the character of Peter Pan first within the adult novel The Little White Bird (1902), then in the enormously successful play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up (1904) and the prose retelling Peter and Wendy (1911); Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906) drew out and illustrated the character's earliest appearance from The Little White Bird as a book for children in its own right. He later gave the copyright to Peter Pan to Great Ormond Street Hospital for children, which still receives royalties from it in the UK. He died in London at seventy-seven.