The Little White Bird

Extract: I. David and I Set Forth Upon a Journey Sometimes the little boy who calls me father brings me an invitation from his mother: "I shall be so pleased if you will come and see me," and I always reply in some such words as these: "Dear madam, I decline." And if David asks why I decline, I explain that it is because I have no desire to meet the woman. "Come this time, father," he urged lately, "for it is her birthday, and she is twenty-six," which is so great an age to David, that I think he fears she cannot last much longer. "Twenty-six, is she, David?" I replied. "Tell her I said she looks more." I had my delicious dream that night. I dreamt that I too was twenty-six, which was a long time ago, and that I took train to a place called my home, whose whereabouts I see not in my waking hours, and when I alighted at the station a dear lost love was waiting for me, and we went away together. She met me in no ecstasy of emotion, nor was I surprised to find her there; it was as if we had been married for years and parted for a day. I like to think that I gave her some of the things to carry. Were I to tell my delightful dream to David's mother, to whom I have never in my life addressed one word, she would droop her head and raise it bravely, to imply that I make her very sad but very proud, and she would be wishful to lend me her absurd little pocket handkerchief. And then, had I the heart, I might make a disclosure that would startle her, for it is not the face of David's mother that I see in my dreams. James Matthew Barrie, better known under the signature of J. M. Barrie (Kirriemuir, May 9, 1860 - London, 19 June 1937), 1st Baronet, is a writer and Scottish playwright, famous for creating the character of Peter Pan. During his years of study in Glasgow, James Barrie makes friends (Stuart Gordon, Welwood Anderson), he discovers Shakespeare and the theater and up a troupe of amateurs with his comrades. He entered the University of Edinburgh in 1878, which showed four years later with a Master of Arts (MA). He worked as a reporter for the Journal of Nottingham there he contracted the habit of smoking the pipe that exalt in My Lady Nicotine in 1890. He moved to London in his account in 1885 and collaborates with various newspapers. He noted in 1889 by the publication of a collection of chronicles, The Eleven of Edinburgh. In 1890 Barrie made a small room, The Phantom of Ibsen, who ridicules the Norwegian playwright popular on the London stage. His novel, The little minister some success in 1891 and in 1892 our young author Conan Doyle met with whom he becomes friends. His play, A professor's love story, also met with great success and in 1894 he married the same year, the actress Mary Ansell, but the marriage will fail. Childless, the couple divorced in 1909 at the request of the wife (who took a lover) and against the will of the writer who opposes separation. J. M. Barrie was a menu and slender man, small. It has sometimes emphasized his almost childlike approach (like his hero Peter who will not grow). It is assumed that this unusual character was asexual and it was one of the reasons for divorce (see Peter Pan Syndrome). In 1897, in Kensington Park, James Barrie meets the Llewelyn Davies children (George, Jack and Peter) for which he imagines the adventures of Peter Pan. Our author binds to parents, Sylvia, daughter of writer George du Maurier, and Arthur, respected lawyer.