Barrie, Sir J.M.

i) the Rev. Mr John Llewelyn Davies (Arthur's father), in pencil, 4 pages, 8vo, envelope, 2^L Portman Mansions, postmarked 10 June 1906

Barrie reports on the state of John's son, Arthur, who the surgeon thinks is getting on "very well indeed...I have been with him since eight & Sylvia [his wife] is there now...Crompton [Arthur's brother] will be seeing him today sometime";  he can now be visited, though, he says,  it is hard to follow what he says:

...He wrote today to me what things he was thinking...among them are `Kirkby View' ...& `Buttermere'...lying there like a wounded soldier but this is of course temporary or at least mostly temporary & it may be that no one not very familiar with his face & voice can see any difference. All this is in the future...I dont think the surgeons can say at all at present whether there is any likelihood of [the cancer] returning...

[For Arthur's notes made in hospital after his operation see next lot]. Arthur Llewelyn Davies, father of the five `Lost Boys' and model for Mr Darling in Peter Pan, was operated on early in June 1906 for cancer of the jaw. For some time after the operation Arthur's face was completely bandaged and he was unable to talk, but he managed to communicate with Barrie by making notes, as discussed in this letter to Arthur's father John Llewelyn Davies, the Rector of Kirkby Lonsdale in Westmorland (for a note on the family, see next lot). Barrie and Arthur had not always enjoyed an easy relationship since the author had befriended his sons and his wife and became a constant visitor at 31 Kensington Park Gardens, though Arthur knew that the little Scotsman "presented no threat to their marriage, that he was `quite harmless' " (Birkin, p.59). However, the advent of Arthur's illness in 1906 heralded a change, and by the end--Arthur was to die within a year of this letter--Arthur was to be very thankful for all the "wonderful things" Barrie had done for the family (see Birkin, p.144). Arthur died on 18 April 1907.

ii) Gwen du Maurier (wife of Sylvia Llewelyn Davies's brother, Guy du Maurier, who was killed in France in 1915): 10 letters, 19 pages, 8vo, chiefly Adelphi Terrace House, envelopes, 14 June 1910 to 22 March 1920

Barrie writes to Gwen arranging to meet her with Peter; discussing a dental examination of Nico; commenting on Peter's being "safe" so far as they know (in 1917?) and his being with Michael and Nico "high up on the Severn" in Wales and planning to see them in Scotland; discussing his visit to France, where he saw a "great deal of the front", saw four parachutists bail out from balloons ("not a thing to forget"), and found George's grave ("...I'm so sorry I was within a few yards of Guy's & didn't know it till too late..."; passing on further news of Michael, Peter and Jack; expressing pleasure that she liked his play; and thanking her for contributing to a worthy cause ("...I do think the splendid way you have given yourself up to it is worthy of Guy's wife...").

Gwen's husband Guy du Maurier ("a professional soldier too sensitive for his job": Birkin) was killed in action in France a few days before George Llewelyn Davies early in March 1915. Unlike George's letters home to his family and to Barrie, Guy did not hold back on the reality of trench warfare and the brutalities of the conflict (see Birkin, p.236).

iii) Dolly  Ponsonby, thanking her for her kind letter, which warmed him up a bit, and sending news of Michael and Nicholas, particularly of the delight in Nicholas's by-line in a local newspaper ("...I can see him smiling..."), 2 pages, 8vo, 23 Campden Hill Square, London, 4 December 1910 

Dolly (later Lady) Ponsonby was the daughter of the composer Sir Hubert Parry, an old friend of the Llewelyn Davies family. Sylvia and Arthur often visited the Parrys at Rustington and Dolly became a close friend of Sylvia's in particular. In 1898 she married Arthur Ponsonby, a British attaché at Copenhagen.

iv) Mrs [Hugh] Lewis (friend of J.M. Barrie and the Llewelyn Davies boys): 6 letters, 10 pages, 8vo, envelopes, Adelphi Terrace House and (1) Stanway Winchcombe, 9 September 1914 to 5 July 1925

Barrie writes in 1914 about his correspondent's "dead boy", saying they must "all try to do something", and gives news of the Llewelyn Davies boys:

Jack is in the North Sea, he is scarcely allowed to tell me that much, and George and Peter are waiting for their commissions. So the world suddenly alters and we must hope for the better. But it has all at once passed into the hands of our young men, and for what they may be we are responsible. I believe they are to be as right as rain...

He writes after the war of his travel plans, mentions Michael (staying near Corfe Castle with another undergraduate), Nico, as well as Peter Lewis and other common friends, Hugh and Medina Lewis's going to America ("...They wanted me to go out and produce P. Pan on the films, but I withdrew into hiding..."), a photograph of Michael at Eton, Nico's new friend Bridgeman and Nico's progess at New College, Oxford (where he is unsuccessfully trying to learn a part for a Christmas play), Barrie's meeting the author of  A Shropshire Lad [A.E. Housman], and other matters.  

v) Miss K.M. [Medina] Lewis (one of Mrs Lewis's daughters), 3 pages, 8vo, envelope, Glan Hafren, nr Newtown, Montgomeryshire, a cheerful account of  the "jolly house" Barrie and Peter Llewelyn Davies have taken in Wales, near a ruin, where they are "self-supporting without having to resort to making bread out of potatoes, or potatoes out of gravel" and enjoy playing "Running croquet", 13 June 1915

J.M. Barrie had received a letter from Mrs Hugh Lewis, enclosing a drawing of Peter Pan by her son Peter, in September 1912. It turned out that Peter Lewis's godfather was one of Barrie's literary heroes, George Meredith. A correspondence ensued and a friendship developed, with Peter and his three sisters (including May and Medina)  becoming good friends of the Llewelyn Davies boys. Barrrie and the boys made several visits to the Lewises' home Glan Hafren in Wales.

vi) to Mary Hodgson (the Llewlyn Davies family's nanny): 3 letters, one in pencil, 6 pages, 8vo, one unstamped envelope, 23 Campden Hill Square, Adelphi Terrace House, and 17 Park Lane, London, 10 June 1918 to 26 February [1920]

Barrie declares: "I suppose I must accept your resignation very sorrowfully as the wisest step in circumstances that are very difficult. No need for me to repeat of what inestimable service to me have been your love and devotion to the boys, particularly to Michael and Nicholas who came into our hands when they were so young", expressing the hope that she will still see much of them and his wishes for her future. He adds: "I also hope you will now let me make the arrangement Mrs Davies asked me to make in the last weeks of her life and which I told you of a day or two after her death...I trust you will allow her earnest wish to be carried out." He writes two weeks later that no one knows as well as he does "what you have been to the boys, except indeed to the boys themselves and says "the knowledge that if the need arose 'the trust continues' is the best that could be said to me". Two years later he suggests to her arrangements about getting together with Michael and Nico.

the first of these letters to Mary is Barrie's acceptance of the resignation of the `lost boys' nurse and later co-guardian mary hodgson following her clash with jack's new wife gerrie early in 1918. Mary Hodgson, already connected with the Llewelyn Davies family home in Kirkby Lonsdale,  joined Arthur and Sylvia at 31Kensington Park Gardens early in 1897, initially acting as nursemaid to George, Jack and the soon-to-arrive Peter. It was whilst Mary was walking with the two boys and their baby brother in Kensington Gardens in 1897 that they made the acquaintance of J.M. Barrie: thus the real story behind Peter Pan began. Mary was of incalculable importance in the upbringing of all five Llewelyn Davies boys, and was named in the rough will Sylvia left after her death as the preferred co-guardian of her boys (for the controversy over this will, and Barrie's mis-transcription of the second named guardian, see lot 289). Whilst all the boys adored Mary, she had a difficult relationship with Barrie from the outset, and seems to have heavily disapproved of his influence. There is a rather caustic portrayal of her by Barrie in The Little White Bird, as the nurse Irene to "David" (i.e.George): it was in this novel that the the story of Peter Pan first appeared. When Sylvia died in 1910, following their father Arthur's death in 1907, the five orphans found themselves with two contenders for the role of  "nice motherly person" (as Peter Pan refers to her in Peter and Wendy): Mary Hodgson and Barrie. "The inevitable conflict that arose from their rivalry was only held in check by the boys themselves, particularly Michael and Nico, whose devotion to Mary was unshakeable" (Birkin, p.196). Jack Llewelyn Davies married Geraldine Gibb in September 1917 and a few months later they moved into the family home at 23 Campden Hill Square. A worse rivalry ensued between Gerrie, nominally the lady of the house, and Mary, culminating in January 1918 with an ultimatum from Mary followed by the distress of Gerrie's miscarriage. Mary then offered her resignation, as she had once before, but this time Barrie accepted it--"sorrowfully"--as shown in the present letter. The "arrangement" referred to by Barrie was a sum of £500, left to Mary by Sylvia, to which Barrie offered to add a further £500 of his own. Mary refused to accept either amount ("She was mortified at the news of Gerrie's miscarriage, and suffered such guilt over her behaviour towards her that in later life she steadfastly refused to meet any of the boys' wives in case her innate jealousy once again mastered her better self...": Birkin, p.272).

vii) "Bunty", about life in London, the house and the "grand improvements" they are meditating, 2 pages, 8vo, Adelphi Terrace House, 17 June 1919

viii) to "Jenny" (sister of Mary Hodgson, and also friend of the Llewelyn Davies boys, named in Sylvia's draft will), sending her £100 from Jack and looking forward to their "grand reunion", 2 pages, Adelphi Terrace House, 11 May 1920

ix)  to [Robin] Dundas (Michael Llewelyn Davies's tutor at Oxford): 3 letters, all about Michael, whom he discusses at length, in the year after Michael's death, 5 pages, 8vo, Adelphi Terrace House, 8 June to 15 November 1922

...It may seem strange to you that I did not write to you long ago, but what happened was in a way the end of me, and practically anything may be forgiven me now. He had been the one great thing in my life for many years, and though there are little things to do they are very trivial...you were a good and wise friend and I am not likely to forget it...

In subsequent letters he expresses pleasure that the photograph of Michael has made them both friends, discusses an appropriater monumental inscription to Michael, invites Dundas to dinner, comments on what Dundas is doing about "that terrible place" [Sandford Pool, Oxford, where Michael drowned] ("...Though the place is terrible to me  I am glad you have done this. I see it every night of my life..."), reporting that two sonnets written by Michael are to be published in the Eton Chronicle ("...including one I quoted in that address about George. It was not St. Andrews students I was seeing on that occasion, but an Oxford one..."), adding news of Nico ("...He is not of course a Michael...He will never probably be 'intellectual' in any prominent way, but...he has a powerful brain, and he is very lovable...He has a...childish fear of breaking down when that name [Michael] is mentioned...")

barrie's letters to michael's oxford tutor, testifying to his intense and long-lasting grief after michael's death at the age of 20 in 1921. Michael matriculated at Oxford in January 1919, and was soon  introduced to—and charming—members of the Bloomsbury Set, such as Roger Senhouse, Lytton Strachey and Dora Carrington, often attending Ottoline Morrell’s home Garsington Manor at weekends. The friendship with Senhouse was a very close one, but by 1920 Michael was spending more and more time with the clever but  “dark, gloomy and saturnine” Rupert Buxton, who had almost as many academic distinctions to his credit from Harrow as Michael had from Eton. Robert (later Lord) Boothby later recalled: “My friendship with Michael and Senhouse were almost perfection, and those Oxford days were the happiest of my life. We were gay together, always gay; but when Buxton came along, the gaiety left” (quoted by Birkin, p.285). On 19 May 1921 Michael and Rupert Buxton were bathing in the mill pond at Standford Pool, Oxford, when they got into difficulties and drowned. Michael had never learnt how to swim and had had always retained a strong fear of water, leading to speculation afterwards that the two inseparable companions had formed a mutual suicide pact. The tragic event made front page news, the Evening Standard heading their story "the tragedy of peter pan", and reporting that  "the `original' of Peter Pan was named George, [who] was killed in action in March 1915…Now both boys who are most closely associated with the fashioning of Peter Pan are dead. One recalls the words of Peter himself: `To die would be an awfully big adventure'…" Michael’s death had a profound effect on almost everyone who had met him (“I am sure if he had lived he would have been one of the remarkable people of his generation, wrote Lytton Strachey to Ottoline Morrell): but his friends’ grief was completely eclipsed by the intensity of Barrie’s despair, as recorded in the present letters. Michael’s death had, in Mackail’s phrase, `altered and darkened everything for the rest of his life’. In the summer before he died Michael and Barrie had climbed Eilean Shona, at the summit of which Michael read the author a newly composed sonnet: this is one of the two sonnets referred to by Barrie in the present correspondence with Dundas, which he read to the students of St. Andrew's University in 1922 (as part of his address, Courage), and which were to be published in the Eton Chronicle (copy included in next lot). In his St. Andrew's address Barrie had not referred to Michael by name, but--quoting from Peter Pan--spoke of him simply as "the lad that will never be old" (see Birkin,, pp.299-300)

x) Lady Northbourne, welcoming the news that her daughter is coming to Nico's cricket match and thanking her for all her kindness to Nico, 1 page, 8vo, Adelphi Terrace House, 18 July 1924

xi) Typed letter signed by George M. Booth of Alfred Booth & Co., Ltd, to Barrie, about potential job openings for Jack Llewelyn Davies, 2 pages, Adelphi Terrace House, 5 January 1931