Barrie's feelings re: Peter Pan label

[Stacy Sobieski]

Is there any evidence as to what Barrie's feelings were regarding the fact that the Davies boys were often branded with the label of "the real Peter Pan"? It seems that every time the boys did something which the media deemed newsworthy, they were referred to in the papers as Peter Pan (referring to the newspaper headlines on page 1 of Andrew's book). Surely Barrie himself was the real boy who never grew up, so how did he feel about the fact that the Davies boys (especially, in my opinion, Peter) had to live with this label? Was there any sense of guilt? Was this subject ever discussed between Barrie and the boys?

[andrew]

A fascinating question, to which there's no ready answer that I know of. I doubt that JMB was really aware of the misery Peter endured by virtue of his namesake, and of course Nico was quite happy with the association - probably George too, and Michael I imagine took it in his laconic stride. Of course Barrie was aware of the inevitable Peter Pan association for all 5 boys, and gloriously lampooned it at the time of Nico's marriage in 1926 (in the database search for "Nico wedding" and go to pages 3 and 4 to see the real press cuttings of the event, then search for "Nico spoof" and read Barrie's wonderful send-up) -- but whether he was aware of Peter's hurt is anyone's guess... not that there was much he could have done about it. My guess is that Peter's pride would have prevented him from ever having really let on to Barrie, and I can't think of anyone else who would have told him the truth.

[Stacy Sobieski]

Thanks for sharing, Andrew. Reading Barrie's send-up sure brought a smile to my face.

Hope all is well with you.