Dzheyms Barri

James Barrie was a Scottish playwright and novelist, the author of the well-known children's fairy tale Peter Pan.

He was born on 9 May 1860 in Kirriemuir and was the ninth child in a weaver's family. He studied at Dumfries Academy and then at the University of Edinburgh. After graduating from the university, he worked in the editorial office of the Nottingham Journal.

He began his literary career in 1885. In 1889, the writer published a series of tales from village life, Auld Licht Idylls, and the novel from journalistic life When a Man's Single. Barrie then wrote the unsuccessful melodrama Better Dead (1888), the love-psychological novels A Little Minister (1891), Sentimental Tommy (1896) and its sequel Tommy and Grizel (1900), and the book about his mother, Margaret Ogilvy (1896).

From 1897 Barrie turned to drama. He gained fame with Quality Street (1901), a comedy depicting England in the early 19th century. Barrie's plays (Mary Rose, The Admirable Crichton, Quality Street, What Every Woman Knows) placed him among the outstanding playwrights of the time.

In 1898 Barrie met Sylvia and Arthur Davies. This acquaintance marked the beginning of a long friendship between Barrie and the Davies family. In 1894 he married the young actress Mary Ansell, who had appeared in one of his plays. The marriage was dissolved in 1909. The Barries had no children. After the deaths of Sylvia and Arthur Davies, Barrie became the unofficial guardian of their children, five boys.

He died on 19 June 1937, leaving no direct heirs.