November
19, 2004
Dear
Cecil:
I have a
friend who continually insists that various historical figures were pedophiles.
She's made accusations against such diverse notables as Richard the
Lion-Hearted, William Wallace, Julius Caesar, and James Barrie, the author of Peter
Pan. I find the accusation against such a beloved figure as Barrie
particularly objectionable. I put it to you, O Great Dispenser of Wisdom: Was
James Barrie a buggerer?
One might have
phrased this a bit more delicately, Puf. Then again, what's the point? With the
release of Finding Neverland, a film about the story behind Peter
Pan starring Johnny Depp as Barrie, it's certainly the first question a
lot of people will ask. So here's the answer: I don't think so. Of course,
that's what I said about another guy with an unusual interest in kids, Charles
Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll), right before those pictures of naked little girls
showed up. But I deal in the world of what's known.
A nicely
understated account of the matter may be found in J.M. Barrie & the
Lost Boys: The Love Story That Gave Birth to Peter Pan by Andrew Birkin
(1979). The seventh child of a Scottish weaver, Barrie possessed the two
prerequisites of artistic greatness: talent and an unhappy childhood. Two
things contributed significantly to the latter. First, he was short, barely
five feet tall by age 17. Second, he ranked a distant second (if that) in the
affections of his mother, whose favorite was his charming, handsome, etc.,
brother David, who was killed in an accident when not quite 14. James, then 6,
attempted to console his desolate parent by adopting the mannerisms of the dead
youth. On some level he never stopped, and in spirit remained a boy all his
life.
Still, he was
a boy who could write. Barrie moved to London in his mid-20s and enjoyed quick
success, first as a journalist, then a novelist, and finally a playwright.
Though shy and moody, he met a pretty (and short) young actress named Mary
Ansell and married her in 1894.
The marriage
was not happy. Barrie was later rumored to be impotent, but it seems more
accurate to say he had little interest in sex. At any rate he never succeeded
in getting Mary pregnant, though she was anxious for a child. Barrie too loved
children--he just preferred to let other people make them. He and Mary began
taking walks with their dog in Kensington Gardens, a park near their London
home. He became a favorite of the children brought there by their nannies, entertaining
them with his antics and stories about pirates and fairies. The children Barrie
was fondest of were the young sons of Arthur and Sylvia Llewelyn Davies. He was
an aspiring lawyer; she was beautiful and sweet. Barrie charmed Sylvia as he
had charmed her kids and soon insinuated himself into the household, visiting
frequently and joining the family on holidays, somewhat to the distress of Mary
and Arthur. Ever in need of material, Barrie began incorporating his
experiences with the Llewelyn Davieses into his work. The pirate stories he
told the boys--eventually there were five: George, Jack, Peter, Michael, and
Nico--became the basis for his 1904 play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Would
Not Grow Up. It was unlike anything ever seen on the stage, among other
things requiring an elaborate apparatus to permit the players to fly, but
proved a huge hit in Britain and the U.S.
Barrie
remained close to the Llewelyn Davies family. When Arthur and Sylvia died of
cancer within a few years of each other, the playwright found Sylvia's
handwritten will in which she requested that Jenny, the sister of the boys'
nanny, help look after them. In copying the document for Sylvia's mother Barrie
mistranscribed "Jenny" as "Jimmy," i.e.,
himself--unintentionally, according to Birkin. But even if he did it on
purpose, family and friends agree he alone had the resources to take care of
the boys, and he became their guardian. Judging from their correspondence,
Barrie was part father to the five, part mother, and part . . . well, lover
gives the wrong idea, but he was emotionally attached to a degree some found
morbid, to George and Michael particularly. George was killed during World War
I, however, and Michael drowned at Oxford in 1921. (Some suspected it was
suicide.) Peter, who became a successful publisher, threw himself under a
London subway train in 1960. You may think: these were troubled folk. Maybe so,
but no evidence survives to pin the blame on Barrie, who died in 1937. As for
pedophilia, Nico offered what, barring some shocking revelation, will surely
stand as the last word on Barrie's sexuality, or lack of it: "He was an
innocent--which is why he could write Peter Pan."
OTHER INTERESTING ARTICLES: Next [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
Academic year
2008/2009
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
©Marta Soler Gamero /marsoga@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de Valčncia Press