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To say that Peter Pan has universal appeal is an understatement. Generations of children and adults have crowded performances of the play, the silent motion picture has been revived to ongoing acclaim, a cartoon version is among Disney's best loved films, and a recent movie with a new twist on the story was among the most popular releases of 1991. James Barrie originally conceived the character in... More

To say that Peter Pan has universal appeal is an understatement. Generations of children and adults have crowded performances of the play, the silent motion picture has been revived to ongoing acclaim, a cartoon version is among Disney's best loved films, and a recent movie with a new twist on the story was among the most popular releases of 1991. James Barrie originally conceived the character in 1902, when Peter appeared in a novel titled The Little White Bird. Two years later, the first staged presentation of the play Peter Pan was an immediate success, with the popular actress Nina Boucicault receiving rave London reviews. In The Peter Pan Chronicles, Bruce K. Hanson tells the whole story of Peter Pan: how and why James M. Barrie wrote it and how his life was affected by it. Through meticulous research, Hanson brings to life the stellar performances of those who portrayed Peter over the years. Many of the world's foremost actresses have portrayed Peter. (Traditionally, Peter Pan has been played by a woman.) In America enraptured audiences have applauded Maude Adams, Marilyn Miller, Jean Arthur, and Mary Martin as the crowing boy who taught Wendy and her brothers to fly and took them to Never Never Land. On the London stage Maggie Smith, Elsa Lanchester, Glynis Johns, and Hayley Mills were only a few of the leads. In recent years Mia Farrow essayed Peter on television, the gymnast Cathy Rigby scored on Broadway, while Robin Williams appeared as a grown-up and somewhat jaded Peter, opposite Dustin Hoffman's Captain Hook in the Steven Spielberg film Hook. Readers of all ages will be delighted by The Peter Pan Chronicles. They will make fresh contact with Peter, Wendy, Tiger Lily, the Lost Boys, and, most especially, Tinker Bell, for whom most of us applauded when we were younger. Hundreds of rare photographs and illustrations are interwoven throughout the text.

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