Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Sir J. M. Barrie
-
Standard Name: Barrie, Sir J. M.
Used Form: Sir James Barrie
Used Form: Sir James Matthew Barrie
SJMB
began his career in the late nineteenth century as a journalist, then moved to short stories, then novels, then plays. Those of his plays which survive in the repertoire, for professionals or amateurs, all involve departures from actuality, and purposeful suspension of the laws of space and time. Far and away the most famous, the basis of Barrie's continuing fame, is the adult play which became a children's classic, Peter Pan.
DA
's juvenile novella The Young Visiters (written in 1890, when she was just nine years old) was published by Chatto and Windus
in London, with a preface by J. M. Barrie
(author of Peter Pan).
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Author summary
Daisy Ashford
Daisy Ashford
was an avid writer as a child. She became famous when she rediscovered a novella she wrote at the age of nine, The Young Visiters, and it was published with a preface...
Education
Daisy Ashford
In the preface to Daisy's novel, The Young Visiters, J. M. Barrie
describes the young DA
as a girl who read everything that came her way, including, as the context amply proves, the grown-up...
Textual Production
Daisy Ashford
The preface by J. M. Barrie
was a mixed blessing since the novella was widely rumoured to have actually been written by Barrie.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Bolin, Alice. “Daring Daisy Ashford, the Greatest Ever Nine-Year-Old Novelist”. The Paris Review.
Many editions have been published, both in print and online, since 1919...
Literary responses
Daisy Ashford
J. M. Barrie
praised the liveliness of the writing: How incomparably, for instance, the authoress dives into her story at once. How cunningly throughout she keeps us on the hooks of suspense, jumping to Mr...
Wealth and Poverty
Lady Cynthia Asquith
Money had became tight for LCA
and her husband (though cushioned by their wealthy and generous extended families) when he joined up in the First World War, cutting off the income from the Bar which...
Textual Production
Lady Cynthia Asquith
This article (written in two days) began a series in the Times entitled The Woman's View and signed A Correspondent. She received fifteen guineas for an article of 750 words, generally written in two...
Textual Production
Lady Cynthia Asquith
LCA
's column for the Times and her articles elsewhere led naturally to further miscellaneous work for and about children. (Evelyn Waugh
was mistaken in his unshakable belief that she was the true author...
Literary responses
Lady Cynthia Asquith
The Times Literary Supplement gave this book a respectful single-paragraph review under the category Education. It may have been Asquith's social standing as much as her talent which continued to provide her with reviews of...
Colles, Hester Janet. “A Gallery of Children”. Times Literary Supplement, No. 1245, p. 804.
804
Sales in...
Publishing
Lady Cynthia Asquith
She was persuaded to write these memoirs by Jimmie or James Barrie
, nephew of her late employer Sir James Barrie
, as a text for his recently-launched publishing firm
.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Employer
Lady Cynthia Asquith
Having much enjoyed nursing, LCA
did her first day as private secretary to the writer J. M. Barrie
, for a promised salary of four or five hundred pounds a year (which, however, proved to...
Family and Intimate relationships
Lady Cynthia Asquith
In less than three months LCA
lost in rapid succession her mother
, her eldest (institutionalised) son, her patron J. M. Barrie
, and her father
: it was Barrie's death which seemed to distress her most.
LCA
's next book, Portrait of Barrie, blended two genres she had previously written, biography and personal memoir, in an account of her years as an employee of the famous playwright.
Cookman, Anthony Victor. “The Barrie Legend”. Times Literary Supplement, No. 2758, p. 791.
791
Residence
Lady Cynthia Asquith
Though Clouds was rich in memories for LCA
, she actually grew up in Stanway House, north-east of Winchcombe in Gloucestershire. This was, she wrote, my very own home—the core of the world so...
Timeline
1878: William Swan Sonnenschein and J. Archibald...
1901: The publication of George Douglas Brown's...
Writing climate item
1901
The publication of George Douglas Brown
's novel The House with the Green Shutters marked the first attack on the Scottish school of fiction that was afterwards known as Kailyard.
May 1926: Eighteen-year-old actress Peggy Ashcroft...
Building item
May 1926
Eighteen-year-old actress Peggy Ashcroft
made her professional debut in J. M. Barrie
's Dear Brutus with the Birmingham Repertory Company, when another performer was transferred.
1947: James Barrie, great-nephew of playwright...
Writing climate item
1947
James Barrie
, great-nephew of playwright Sir James Barrie
, founded an imprint to publish popular books, among them Lady Cynthia Asquith
's diaries.
Texts
Barrie, Sir J. M. Auld Licht Idylls. Hodder and Stoughton, 1888.
Barrie, Sir J. M. Becky Sharp. 1891.
Barrie, Sir J. M. Dear Brutus. Hodder and Stoughton, 1922.
Barrie, Sir J. M. Letters of J.M. Barrie. Editor Meynell, Viola, Peter Davies, 1942.
Barrie, Sir J. M. Mary Rose. Hodder and Stoughton, 1924.
Barrie, Sir J. M. Peter Pan. Hodder and Stoughton, 1928.
Barrie, Sir J. M., and H. B. Marriott Watson. Richard Savage. Privately printed, 1891.
Barrie, Sir J. M. The Admirable Crichton. Hodder and Stoughton, 1914.
Barrie, Sir J. M. The Boy David. Peter Davies, 1938.
Barrie, Sir J. M. The Little White Bird. Hodder and Stoughton, 1902.
Barrie, Sir J. M. What Every Woman Knows. Hodder and Stoughton, 1918.
