DOCSLIB.ORG

AN INDISCRIMINATE CHILDHOOD by C. Ryann Noe Kathryn R. Kent, Advisor a Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requiremen

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
AN INDISCRIMINATE CHILDHOOD by C. Ryann Noe Kathryn R. Kent, Advisor a Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requiremen AN INDISCRIMINATE CHILDHOOD AGE FLUIDITY IN J. M. BARRIE’S PETER AND WENDY By C. Ryann Noe Kathryn R. Kent, Advisor A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors in English WILLIAMS COLLEGE Williamstown, Massachusetts May 19th, 2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor, Professor Katie Kent, for her consistent enthusiasm, for ceaselessly pushing me towards argumentative precision, and for patiently bearing all of my particularities. I could not have asked for a more effective guide. Further, thank you to Professor Gage McWeeny for heading the honors program, and for leading a very productive fall colloquium. Thank you to Professor Janneke van de Stadt for teaching the course I waited three years to take. Thank you to Willy for your unending patience with both my laments and effusions (there surely were plenty of both). Thank you to all of the friends and strangers who indulged my questions of what you read as a child, and how you read as a child, and whether or not you wish you were still a child. Finally, thank you to my parents for building me a childhood to which I am always happy to return. A children's story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children’s story. -C. S. LEWIS CONTENTS Introduction………………………………………………………….1 Chapter One: The Way We Read Now……………………………….4 Chapter Two: The Particular Case of Peter………………………….23 Chapter Three: The Complications of Form………………………...52 Bibliography………………………………………………………....70 Noe INTRODUCTION THE DELIGHT OF NEARLY READING I read Peter and Wendy nearly four times before I ever read it once. By “nearly” I naturally mean that I read the entirety of the text, up to the last chapter. This was neither for lack of interest, nor distraction, but because of that age-old truth that you can never read a book for the first time twice. My hair-brained solution to this conundrum was simple: I’ll delay the first time for as long as possible, while still reading it in the mean time. I fancied myself particularly devious and was successfully able to live in the perpetual delight of suspense for a full five years. I finally read the final chapter two weeks before beginning this project, mainly out of a defeated realization that I should in fact have read the book that would be my primary text. Latent in this story lies the conviction that there is a certain pleasure to be found in unknowingness. This is a belief that simultaneously plagued and inspired this project. As Chapter One will make readily apparent, I struggled to reconcile my joy in gaily reading children’s texts with my joy in scrupulously dissecting them. Criticism, like endings, at times seemed to “de-delight” the text, to replace wonder with arid understanding, and to end the play. I began to question whether literary criticism was fundamentally opposed to what I wanted children’s books to do. And so my thesis about children’s literature suddenly became a thesis about whether or not I should be doing a thesis about children’s literature. This internal struggle reflects much more than just my own apprehension; it illustrates greater questions that surround the critical reading of the children’s genre. How should the literary critic read a children’s book? Is it problematic to ignore the child 1 Noe audience, and to analyze children’s books just as one would analyze “adult” books? Throughout this project I want to be mindful of this procedure: the way that we are reading, the way that we are analyzing, not just what amounts from the process of doing so. I don’t affect to assume that there is one “right” way of reading children’s books, but this project is an attempt to think more intentionally about the relation between the mode of criticism and the matter it is employed upon. I do not precisely remember how Peter Pan (in all of its incarnations, including the novel Peter and Wendy) became the primary text of this project, but I do know why it is so helpful in probing these questions. Even those who have never read the story know of its emphatic demand, “Clap if you believe in fairies,” despite the fact that this particular address is from the original play production, and does not actually appear in either the novel or Disney movie, the two forms most readily accessible on the market today. Peter is known for engaging the audience, for demanding something from them. It is rife with direct address. It is this reader inclusion that makes Peter the perfect case study for questions related to audience. What happens when an adult claps their hands? What happens when an adult reads a book that is generically “children’s?” Why do we feel the need to delineate this audience, and what happens when a text, such as Peter and Wendy, refuses to do so? In order to address these questions, Chapter One first provides a critical backdrop, a brief history of the critical reading of children’s texts, in order to locate and substantiate this project’s prioritization of audience and direct address. In Chapter Two, we will examine our primary text, J. M. Barrie’s novel Peter and Wendy, analyzing its addresses to the reader, the “reader character” that they generate, and how this character affects the actual 2 Noe reader of the text. Chapter Three will examine the first instance of Peter Pan in J. M. Barrie’s adult novel The Little White Bird, as well as the 1953 Walt Disney Studios animated film, in order to evaluate how differing forms alter the novel’s construction of audience. As a whole this project aims to complicate the popular, yet reductive, reading of Peter as a story about the wonders of childhood and the horrors of adulthood, where adult and child are diametrically, even contentiously, opposed. Through a close reading of Peter’s constructed reader, the novel becomes a story of fluctuating age and temporality, and the experience of reading it becomes an age-allying act where both child and adult reader are incorporated into the performance. My aim is not to produce a polished final product whose work has all been done behind the scenes. I work to parade these processes, put them on display, air my own dissatisfactions, musings, inklings aloud, so as to anticipate my reader’s questions and subsequently address them together. As a result the project should read like a narrative of argumentative oscillations, a story about the act of critical work, rather than just an explication of its result. Further, in casting the reader as co-conspirator, through the use of the inclusive “we,” this project aims to maintain some rhetorical congruity with the direct addresses that it examines. 3 Noe CHAPTER ONE THE WAY WE READ NOW This is a project about a children’s book as analyzed by an adult.1 Already we see, if not an overt problem, an ostensible complication. Of what worth is an unintended reader’s criticism? Are any adult critic’s readings of Peter and Wendy merely greedy intrusions into a world meant for another? In order to address these questions, we begin with a history of the critical reading of the genre. In mapping the ways that children’s books have historically been read by scholars, we can diagnose the current state of literary criticism of the genre, and hopefully find a particular mode of reading that is able to critically elevate Peter, while also maintaining its children’s affiliation. While books have been written for Anglo-American children for at least the last three centuries, children’s books first garnered critical attention in Britain in the early nineteenth-century.2 Sarah Trimmer, educationalist, writer, and Sunday school enthusiast, is widely acknowledged as the first critic of the genre. Her periodical Guardian of Education ran from 1802 to 1806, and is the earliest known publication to regularly review children’s books; however, the journal was aimed not at scholars, but at mothers. Trimmer’s goal was to assist mothers in selecting “safe and good” 3 reading material that would bolster their children’s moral educations. This was not such an easy task, for as 1 Peter and Wendy was not originally written explicitly for children, as will be discussed in Chapter Three; however, since its original authorship, it has been appropriated by the children’s canon. Thus, to popular conception and generic definition it is a “children’s book” even if not originally written as one. 2 While the critical history of America is similar in ways to that of the United Kingdom, this project’s history focuses mostly upon the reading of children’s books in England since that is where Peter was first released. 3 Deborah Stevenson quoting Trimmer, “Classics and canons,” in The Cambridge Companion to Children’s Literature, ed. M.O. Grenby (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 109. 4 Noe Trimmer put it, “There is not a bad principle inimical to religion and virtue which can be named, that is not to be found in books for children.”4 5 Here she likely refers to the chapbooks (later known as Penny Dreadfuls) that lacked moral grounding and (perhaps resultantly) were “lapped up by children.”6 Her political conservatism and religious fervor tinged her reviews, reflecting priorities not atypical of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries when children’s texts were seen largely as tools for moral and evangelical development. With all of that said, the Guardian was transformative in its codification of the genre and its dissemination of serious literary assessment, and as the nineteenth-century wore on, other journals with educational bents began to follow suit.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Verge 10 Anna Richardson Broken Fragments
    Verge 10 Anna Richardson Broken Fragments of Immortality: Why People Will Always Love Peter Pan Elbow-deep into my research, I asked my fifty-four year old mother why she liked Peter Pan. She was visiting for the weekend, and while discussing my project had expressed her deep sentiments for Peter Pan. I was curious. I simply asked what it was about the story, and about the boy himself, that she found so appealing. She told me that she hadn’t wanted to grow up as a child, that Neverland had been so full of adventure and possibility. Frowning slightly, she said, “You know, I just was Peter Pan.” Chances are that many people, of varying ages, will answer similarly when asked about their feelings for Peter Pan. The boy who wouldn’t grow up has a firm grasp on the hearts and minds of generations of people across the globe who, being human, would give anything to stop time from steamrolling ahead, even if just for a few days. What is so fascinating about this phenomenon is that the story, the play, the movies, and the boy himself are inherently tragic, ridden with dilemmas and life-altering decisions. Peter is a “betwixt and between,” as author J. M. Barrie called him, part boy, part bird, part specter (Wiggins 95). Indeed, Peter Pan was not simply a character inked into being, living only on the page. He first came into existence via the childhood games of Barrie and the five Llewelyn Davies boys with whom Barrie had a strong personal relationship, becoming their main caregiver after their parents died.
    [Show full text]
  • J.M. Barrie and the Du Mauriers
    Volume 15 Number 4 Article 6 Summer 7-15-1989 J.M. Barrie and the Du Mauriers Rebecca A. Carey Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Carey, Rebecca A. (1989) "J.M. Barrie and the Du Mauriers," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 15 : No. 4 , Article 6. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol15/iss4/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Notes the influence of several members of the Du Maurier family on the writings of J.M. Barrie—particularly on Peter Pan. Additional Keywords Barrie, J.M.—Characters—Captain Hook; Barrie, J.M.—Relation to Du Maurier family; Du Maurier, George—Influence on J.M. Barrie This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R.
    [Show full text]
  • Classic Book Project When You Are Finished Reading Your Classic Book
    Classic Book Project When you are finished reading your classic book, you will be required to complete a two-part project. Part 1: While reading you must complete 12 job sheets (2 of each type: Summarizer; Vocabulary; Discussion Director; Literary Luminary; Connector; and Character Analyzer). Make sure you complete the job sheets fully (directions are on Google Classroom). Part 2: You must research the author and complete an “interview” of the author based on your research and your own thoughts about the book and author. You must have at least 3 sources (Wikipedia is not allowed), and you must cite your sources at the end of the interview. The format for an interview will be reviewed in class. The questions that must be answered are: What is the book’s genre? Describe what the book is about Where did you write it? How long did it take to write it? What led you up to writing the book (Why did you want to write it)? How was the book received? If you could change anything in the book now, what would it be? If the book was made into a movie, who would you want to star in it? If you could design a website for the book, what would you include in it? What is something personal about you that might surprise others? A sample interview is at the end of this document for your reference. 1. The interview and job sheets must be MLA format (Times New Roman size 12 with in-text citations, a Works Cited page, and page numbers).
    [Show full text]
  • 42-54. the Healing Nature of Peter Pan Banas P42-54
    The Healing Nature of Peter Pan Alyssa Banas Introduction: J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan made its stage debut on December 27th, 1904. Since that day it has kept its audience captive for generations, inspiring literary critics such as Nell Boulton, Peter Hollindale, Sarah Dunnigan, Ann Wilson, Maria Tatar, and Peter Dudgeon to utilize different lenses to interpret the text. After all, as Matt Freeman, a writer for Reading Today, once stated, “Barrie was one of those rare writers who managed to create a story with close to universal relevance and a prodigious ability to endure.” For this reason alone his tale continuously garners attention and scholarly intrigue. Yet, no matter how many times it has been studied only two possible recurring meanings have been put forth, both of which Nell Boulton mentions in her essay “Peter Pan and the Flight From Reality: A Tale of Narcissism, Nostalgia, and Narrative Trespass.” Boulton claims that the tale has a “curiously divided reputation” (307). She notes that some critics, like Freeman, have found the story to be “one of the immortals of literature” and “a symbol, even an archetype, of eternal childhood and innocence” (Boulton 307). While others, she finds, read the tale as “morally suspect, even verging on the abusive” (Boulton 307). In her essay, she discusses the darker interpretation by using Freudian theory to “explore the more perverse elements of Barrie’s vision” and claims that Peter represents Barrie’s suppressed sexuality (Boulton 308). However, I disagree with Boulton’s interpretation. In combining the biographical works of Hollindale and Tatar, and psychologists’ research on the therapeutic nature of fairy tales, I interpret Barrie’s tale as one of innocence with the purpose of healing.
    [Show full text]
  • INTRODUCTION Andrew Birkin's Book J. M. Barrie and the Lost Boys
    Notes INTRODUCTION Andrew Birkin's book J. M. Barrie and the Lost Boys (Birkin, 1979) was dramatised as a three-part television serial for BBC television in October 1978. CHAPTER I: PETER PAN AND FREUD References to Freud, by volume number, year ofwriting (in parenthesis) and first publication of work and page number, are to The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works 01 Sigmund Freud, 24 vols (London: Hogarth, 1953-74), and to the Pelican Freud where available. 2 'the first time he is founded in a Lye, it should rat her be wondered at as a monstrous Thing in him, than reproved as an ordinary Fault' (Locke, 1693, pp. 153-4). 3 There is no room here to discuss in detail Bettelheim's work on the fairy tale, but it should be noted that, while he interprets Little Red Riding Hood, for example, predominantly in terms ofthe girI's mastery ofOedipal conflict, he does stress throughout the book the partial nature of his reading and the multifarious and contradictory meanings which fairy tales carry in them­ selves, and which they may represent for different children at different moments of their psychic life. In fact, I see a tension between Bettelheim's stress on this complexity and his fundamental aesthetic - his belief in the artistic coherence ofthe fairy tale, the facility ofthe child's identification with its characters and meaning, and the assumption of its final and necessary resolution ofpsychic and sexual conflict. For the proximity ofthis concept of aesthetic form to realist forms of representation, see Chapter 2, pp.
    [Show full text]
  • The Little White Bird by J. M. Barrie
    The Little White Bird By J. M. Barrie 1 CONTENTS I. David and I Set Forth Upon a Journey II. The Little Nursery Governess III. Her Marriage, Her Clothes, Her Appetite, and an Inventory of Her Furniture. IV. A Night-Piece V. The Fight For Timothy VI. A Shock VII. The Last of Timothy VIII. The Inconsiderate Waiter IX. A Confirmed Spinster X. Sporting Reflections XI. The Runaway Perambulator XII. The Pleasantest Club in London XIII. The Grand Tour of the Gardens XIV. Peter Pan XV. The Thrush's Nest XVI. Lock-Out Time XVII. The Little House XVIII. Peter's Goat XIX. An Interloper XX. David and Porthos Compared XXI. William Paterson XXII. Joey XXIII. Pilkington's XXIV. Barbara XXV. The Cricket Match XXVI. The Dedication 2 THE LITTLE WHITE BIRD I. David and I Set Forth Upon a Journey Sometimes the little boy who calls me father brings me an invitation from his mother: "I shall be so pleased if you will come and see me," and I always reply in some such words as these: "Dear madam, I decline." And if David asks why I decline, I explain that it is because I have no desire to meet the woman. "Come this time, father," he urged lately, "for it is her birthday, and she is twenty-six," which is so great an age to David, that I think he fears she cannot last much longer. "Twenty-six, is she, David?" I replied. "Tell her I said she looks more." I had my delicious dream that night. I dreamt that I too was twenty-six, which was a long time ago, and that I took train to a place called my home, whose whereabouts I see not in my waking hours, and when I alighted at the station a dear lost love was waiting for me, and we went away together.
    [Show full text]
  • THE LITTLE WHITE BIRD Digitized by Tine Internet Arciiive
    DIVERSITY OF IRTH CAROLINA ool of Library Science 4^S ^ >>-^ UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 00022093501 THE LITTLE WHITE BIRD Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2011 with funding from University of Nortii Carolina at Chapel Hill http://www.archive.org/details/littlewhitebirdObarr Frotn a dya2L-iii^- /y Jfaller Apflcton dark THE STICK BOAT ON THE ROUND POND THE LITTLE WHITE BIRD BY J. M. BARRIE ILLUSTRATED BY ARTHUR RACKHAM NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1912 Copyright, 1902, by CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I David and I Set Forth Upon a Journey 3 II The Little Nursery Governess ... 13 III Her Marriage, Her Clothes, Her Ap- petite, AND AN Inventory of Her Furniture 25 IV ANight-Piece 37 V The Fight for Timothy 46 VI A Shock 57 VII The Last of Timothy 62 VIII The Inconsiderate Waiter .... 67 IX A Confirmed Spinster 82 X Sporting Reflections 92 XI The Runaway Perambulator .... 95 XII The Pleasantest Club in London . 108 XIII The Grand Tour of the Gardens . .119 XIV Peter Pan 131 XV The Thrush's Nest 144 XVI Lock-out Time 157 XVII The Little House 173 V vi CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE XVIII Peter's Goat 196 XIX An Interloper 209 XX David and Porthos Compared . 215 XXI William Paterson 224 XXII Joey 235 XXIII Pilkington's 247 XXIV Barbara 260 XXV The Cricket Match 271 XXVI The Dedication 275 ILLUSTRATIONS The stick boat on the Round Pound . Frontispiece PAGB The Broad Walk . 126 The Serpentine 20© vu THE LITTLE WHITE BIRD : THE LITTLE WHITE BIRD CHAPTER I DAVID AND I SET FORTH UPON A JOURNEY SOMETIMES the little boy who calls me father brings me an invitation from his mother: "I shall be so pleased if you will come and see me," and I always reply in some such words as these " Dear madam, I decline." And if David asks why I decline, I explain that it is because I have no desire to meet the woman.
    [Show full text]
  • Peter Pan Jr
    PLAY GUIDE Peter Pan Jr. Lyrics by Carolyn Leigh, Music by Morris (Moose) Charlap, Additional lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Additional music by Jule Styne, and Based on the play by J.M. Barrie Presented on the LCT Learning Stage: March 15-30 Show Sponsors: 418 W. Short Street Lexington, KY 40507 Thank you to our 859.254.4546 Major Contributors: www.lctonstage.org Dear Educator - Lexington Children’s Theatre is proud to be producing our 78th season of plays for young people and their families. As an organization that values the arts and education, we have created this Play Guide for teachers to utilize in conjunction with seeing a play at LCT. Our Play Guides are designed to be a valuable tool in two ways: helping you prepare your students for the enriching performance given by LCT’s performers, as well as serving as an educational tool for extending the production experience back into your classroom. We designed each activity to assist in achieving the Kentucky Academic Standards (KAS), including the National Core Arts Standards for Theatre. Teachers have important voices at LCT, and we rely heavily on your input. If you have comments or suggestions about our Play Guides, show selections, or any of our programming, your thoughts are greatly appreciated. Please email Jeremy Kisling, our Associate Artistic Director in Charge of Education, at [email protected]. Please use the Teacher Response form following a performance. We are thrilled that you rely on LCT to provide your students a quality theatrical experience, and we hope this resource helps you in your classroom.
    [Show full text]
  • The Little White Bird
    XIV PETER PAN If you ask your mother whether she knew about Peter Pan when she was a little girl, she will ' ' say, Why, of course I did, child ; and if you ask her whether he rode on a goat in those days, she will say, ' What a foolish question to ask; certainly he did.' Then if you ask your grandmother whether she knew about Peter Pan when she was a girl, she also says, ' Why, of course I did, child,' but if you ask her whether he rode on a goat in those days, she says she never heard of his having a goat. Perhaps she has forgotten, just as she sometimes forgets your name and calls you Mildred, which is your mother's name. Still, she could hardly forget such an important thing as the goat. Therefore there was no goat when your grand- mother was a little girl. This shows that, in tell- ing the story of Peter Pan, to begin with the goat (as most people do) is as silly as to put on your jacket before your vest. 141 142 THE LITTLE WHITE BIRD Of course, it also shows that Peter is ever so old, but he is really always the same age, so that does not matter in the least. His age is one week, and though he was born so long ago he has never had a birthday, nor is there the slightest chance of his ever having one. The reason is that he escaped from being a human when he was seven days old ; he escaped by the window and flew back to the Kensington Gardens.
    [Show full text]
  • Peter and Wendy, Peter Pan, Or the Boy Who Wouldn’T Grow Up, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens
    The Text that Did Grow Up How Peter Pan became a Culture Text BA Thesis Tessa Bos Supervisor: Dr. Chris Louttit English Language and Culture 17 June 2019 Bos S4318404//2 ENGELSE TAAL EN CULTUUR Teacher who will receive this document: Dr. Chris Louttit Title of document: The Text that Wouldn’t Grow Up: How Peter Pan became a Culture Text Name of course: BA Thesis Engelse Letterkunde Date of submission: 17 June 2019 The work submitted here is the sole responsibility of the undersigned, who has neither committed plagiarism nor colluded in its production. Signed Name of student: Tessa Bos Student number: 4318404 Bos S4318404//3 Abstract Peter Pan is a character known by virtually everyone who has ever come into contact with western popular culture. There are many texts, films, and theatre productions about him and his story. However, putting the general story presented in these cultural products next to the original texts by J. M. Barrie shows how much the cultural idea of Peter Pan has evolved into something different than the first text in which he appeared. This thesis aims to analyse why the idea of the story behind Peter Pan in the cultural imagination is so distinctly different from any of the texts that were written by its original author, J. M. Barrie. By applying the concept of Paul Davis’ culture-text onto the work and analysing the fluidity of the text as proposed by John Bryant, the thesis will show how different elements in the works characters, setting, and genre have created an environment in which approaching and adapting the central narrative of the work in new ways was a logical step and explains why there are so many versions that all differ in one way or another.
    [Show full text]
  • Amended Complaint 1-07-03
    1 Elizabeth H. Rader, State Bar No. 184963 Jennifer Stisa Granick, State Bar. No. 168423 2 Lawrence Lessig 3 CENTER FOR INTERNET & SOCIETY STANFORD LAW SCHOOL 4 Crown Quadrangle 5 559 Nathan Abbott Way Stanford, California 94305-8610 6 Telephone: (650) 724-0517 7 Facsimile: (650) 723-4426 8 Attorneys for Plaintiff 9 J. EMILY SOMMA 10 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 11 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION 12 13 JUNE EMILY SOMMA, ) 14 ) 15 Plaintiff, ) Civil Case No. 02-5889 EMC ) 16 v. ) 17 ) AMENDED COMPLAINT FOR GREAT ORMOND STREET ) DECLARATORY JUDGMENT 18 HOSPITAL, ) 19 ) Defendant. ) DEMAND FOR JURY TRIAL 20 ____________________________________) 21 22 Plaintiff, by and through her attorneys, alleges as follows: 23 THE PARTIES 24 25 26 27 28 29 AMENDED COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY JUDGMENT -1- 1 1. Plaintiff, J. Emily Somma, is the author of After the Rain: A New Adventure for 2 Peter Pan, published in Canada by Daisy Books and sold in the United States and elsewhere, and 3 4 a citizen of Canada residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. 5 2. Defendant Great Ormond Street Hospital is a children’s hospital and registered charity 6 in the business of providing medical services, having a primary place of business at 40-41 Queen 7 8 Square, London, England. A major source of Defendant’s outside funding comes from the United 9 States licensing of copyrights in J.M. Barrie’s play “Peter Pan.” 10 JURISDICTION AND VENUE 11 12 3. This Court has original jurisdiction over the subject matter of this lawsuit pursuant to 28 13 U.S.C.
    [Show full text]
  • Peter Pan Or the Boy Who Wouldn’T Grow Up
    Peter Pan or the boy who wouldn’t grow up Detail from the design by Charles A. Buchel for the first production of Peter Pan, 1904 Introduction For most people, the world’s first encounter with ‘the boy who wouldn’t grow up’ came in 1904 at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London. J.M. Barrie’s wonderful stage play debuted here in time for Christmas (after a delayed start as some of the numerous and extravagant stage effects were not ready on time). The reaction from all quarters was that it was a resounding success. J.M Barrie (1860-1937) was already an established novelist and playwright even before writing Peter Pan. Born in Scotland, he moved to London to develop his career and it was there that he met the Llewelyn Davis family who were to provide the inspiration for his most famous and enduring play. He met the Llewelyn Davis boys in 1897 whilst walking his dog in Kensington Gardens and made friends with them and their mother, Sylvia (daughter of Gerald du Maurier), and began to make up stories to keep them entertained. Following the death of their parents at a young age, Barrie became their guardian and trustee, along with their maternal grandmother, and paternal uncle in 1910. Peter Pan began life as on of a selection of short stories, The Little White Bird published by Barrie in 1902. These were all stories which developed from those told to the Llewelyn Davis boys. The stories of Neverland and the adventures of Peter and the Lost Boys eventually became a full stage play, Peter Pan, first staged in 1904 – and repeated almost every year since across the world, during the Christmas period, This is a testament to its popularity and universal themes which, just like Peter, have failed to grow old.
    [Show full text]