J.M. Barrie

Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best known as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and moved to London, where he wrote several successful novels and plays. His early works explored life in his hometown of Kirriemuir, and he later gained acclaim for his whimsical and imaginative plays. Barrie's most famous work, Peter Pan, was first produced as a play in 1904 and later adapted into a novel. He unofficially adopted the Llewelyn Davies boys, who inspired his Peter Pan stories, after their parents' deaths. Barrie was made a baronet in 1913 and received the Order of Merit in 1922. He bequeathed the copyright of his Peter Pan works to Great Ormond Street Hospital.