J. M. Barrie

Scottish writer and playwright (1860-1937) · United Kingdom · Writers · Died at 77

J. M. Barrie is read about 1,299 times a day, in 66 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 15 October 2026

The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 390 days, one point a day.

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He wrote the boy who never grew up, and the play became bigger than everything else he ever made. Peter Pan turned into the kind of cultural fixture that swallows its author - most people know the character, fewer remember Barrie's name.

Writers Writer / Author Literature Fiction Theatre Journalism Screenwriting Poetry

A life in dates

1937Died19 June 19371922“Never ascribe to an opponent motives meaner than your own.”In their words3 May 1922Rectorial Address, St. Andrew's (3 May 1922)Read the whole statement

1910“One's religion is whatever he is most interested in, and yours is Success.”In their wordsThe Twelve-Pound Look (1910)Read the whole statement

1908“Oh, it's - it's a sort of bloom on a woman. If you have it, you don't need to have anything else; and if you don't have it, it doesn't much matter what else you have.”In their wordsAct IRead the whole statement

“There are few more impressive sights in the world than a Scotsman on the make.”In their wordsAct IIRead the whole statement

1903“I'm not young enough to know everything.”In their wordsErnest, Act IRead the whole statement

1890“I do loathe explanations.”In their wordsMy Lady Nicotine (1890) ch. 16Read the whole statement

1860Born9 May 1860

Also in Deutsch

Photos 12

Barrie in 1892

Some of Barrie's novels

Peter Pan statue (1912) by Sir George Frampton in Kensington Gardens, London

Barrie, c. 1895

Authors v Artists cricket match in London, May 1903. Barrie, who joined the newly formed Authors Cricket Club in 1891, is seated in the front row, 3rd from right.

Blue plaque on 100 Bayswater Road, London where Barrie lived

In their own words 10

J. M. Barrie

10 statements, newest first

Never ascribe to an opponent motives meaner than your own.
May 3, 1922, Rectorial Address, St. Andrew's (3 May 1922), Own words
Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.
1917, As quoted in Christ's Second Coming Fulfilled (1917) by Marion Morris, p. 144, Own words
One's religion is whatever he is most interested in, and yours is Success.
1910, The Twelve-Pound Look (1910), Own words

Wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0

Awards

Order of Merit

Baronet

In their orbit

Spouse: Mary Ansell

About this person

James Matthew Barrie was born in Scotland on 9 May 1860, educated there, then moved to London and built a career writing novels and plays that succeeded on their own terms. He met the Llewelyn Davies boys, and they sparked something: first a baby with magical adventures in Kensington Gardens, tucked into his 1902 adult novel The Little White Bird, then the 1904 West End fairy play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up - an ageless boy, an ordinary girl named Wendy, a fantasy place called Neverland. The play popularized the name Wendy and overshadowed everything else he wrote. After the boys' parents died, Barrie unofficially adopted them. George V made him a baronet in 1913 and added him to the Order of Merit in 1922. Before he died on 19 June 1937, he gave the Peter Pan rights to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, which still holds them.

Country

United Kingdom

In common with J.

Katharine HepburnAlso in Quality Street (1937)

Bonita GranvilleAlso in Quality Street (1937)

Anna May WongAlso in Peter Pan (1924)

Ruth ChattertonAlso in The Doctor's Secret (1929)

May WhittyAlso in The Little Minister (1915)

Reginald DennyAlso in The Little Minister (1934)

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