It's the birthday of J.M. Barrie (books by this author), born James Matthew Barrie in Kirriemuir, Scotland (1860). He was a shy boy and a shy man. His contemporary Charles Lewis Hind wrote: "Barrie is a little man, shy-looking and dark, with black hair, a dome-like forehead, pale as ivory, and eyes that look as if they always want to escape from what he is doing. [...] He loves to spring surprises on rather a dense world. He is the child — a silent, inward-laughing, restless child, learning his lessons in his own way — who will never grow up. [...] The career of J.M. Barrie shows how useless schools of journalism or literature are to produce the real writing man or woman. What were Barrie's assets? An intense love for home, for the Scots folk with whom he grew up; for children; the power to express himself in straightforward, supple English — and, above all else, humor; something of Puck, something of Ariel, something of Charles Lamb and Tom Hood, mixed with Celtic wistfulness and wonder. Add to that sympathy, the observation of a cat watching a bird, with the power to use everything he sees and feels as material for his craft, and we begin to understand why the poor Scots boy has become Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Bt. Cr. 1913. I wager that all this is nothing to him. In his heart he is still Jamie of Kirriemuir, N.B., always making mental notes, hurrying over high tea (scones and jam) so that he may dip his pen in a penny ink bottle, and chuckle over the writing of an Auld Licht Idyll, and, mind you, being a Scot, always with his eye on the goal."
Once Barrie went to a dinner party with the poet and scholar A.E. Housman, whom he had wanted to meet for a long time, but he was so shy that he couldn't talk to him. He wrote him a letter afterward that said: "Dear Professor Houseman, I am sorry about last night, when I sat next to you and did not say a word. You must have thought I was a very rude man: I am really a very shy man. Sincerely yours, J.M. Barrie." Housman wrote back: "Dear Sir James Barrie, I am sorry about last night, when I sat next to you and did not say a word. You must have thought I was a very rude man: I am really a very shy man. Sincerely yours, A.E. Housman. P.S. And now you've made it worse for you have spelt my name wrong."
But Barrie was playful and outgoing when he was with children, and he loved to write for and about them — his masterpiece was Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up (1904). It's the story of Peter Pan, whose magical powers include his ability to fly and his perpetual youth; and the human children he befriends: Wendy, John, and Michael Darling.
In 1929, Britain's most famous children's hospital, the Great Ormond Street Hospital, asked J.M. Barrie to come do a series of lectures there. But he was too shy to speak in public. Instead, he offered to donate all the royalties from Peter Pan to the hospital. He died eight years later, and according to British law, copyrights last for 50 years after the artist's death. After those 50 years, the work enters the public domain and the royalties stop coming. For years, the Great Ormond Street Hospital received royalties not just from sales of the book, but from plays, merchandise, TV shows, and movies, including Hook (1991) and Finding Neverland (2004). In 1987, Peter Pan had been scheduled to enter public domain, but the British Parliament made a special case and extended the royalties so that the hospital could continue to thrive. Unfortunately, European Union law decrees that a copyright lasts 70 years after the death of the author, and they made no special allowances for Peter Pan. So in 2007, the Great Ormond Street Hospital lost its copyright in the European Union at large — but it still receives royalties from anything Peter Pan that happens in Britain.
J.M. Barrie wrote: "I'm not young enough to know everything."
Once Barrie went to a dinner party with the poet and scholar A.E. Housman, whom he had wanted to meet for a long time, but he was so shy that he couldn't talk to him. He wrote him a letter afterward that said: "Dear Professor Houseman, I am sorry about last night, when I sat next to you and did not say a word. You must have thought I was a very rude man: I am really a very shy man. Sincerely yours, J.M. Barrie." Housman wrote back: "Dear Sir James Barrie, I am sorry about last night, when I sat next to you and did not say a word. You must have thought I was a very rude man: I am really a very shy man. Sincerely yours, A.E. Housman. P.S. And now you've made it worse for you have spelt my name wrong."
But Barrie was playful and outgoing when he was with children, and he loved to write for and about them — his masterpiece was Peter Pan; or, the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up (1904). It's the story of Peter Pan, whose magical powers include his ability to fly and his perpetual youth; and the human children he befriends: Wendy, John, and Michael Darling.
In 1929, Britain's most famous children's hospital, the Great Ormond Street Hospital, asked J.M. Barrie to come do a series of lectures there. But he was too shy to speak in public. Instead, he offered to donate all the royalties from Peter Pan to the hospital. He died eight years later, and according to British law, copyrights last for 50 years after the artist's death. After those 50 years, the work enters the public domain and the royalties stop coming. For years, the Great Ormond Street Hospital received royalties not just from sales of the book, but from plays, merchandise, TV shows, and movies, including Hook (1991) and Finding Neverland (2004). In 1987, Peter Pan had been scheduled to enter public domain, but the British Parliament made a special case and extended the royalties so that the hospital could continue to thrive. Unfortunately, European Union law decrees that a copyright lasts 70 years after the death of the author, and they made no special allowances for Peter Pan. So in 2007, the Great Ormond Street Hospital lost its copyright in the European Union at large — but it still receives royalties from anything Peter Pan that happens in Britain.
J.M. Barrie wrote: "I'm not young enough to know everything."
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