James Matthew Barrie—better known today under his initials, as J. M. Barrie—was born on May 9, 1860. Barrie was a playwright and novelist who is best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan, the boy who would not grow up.

Barrie was the ninth of ten children, two of whom had already died when he was born. When he was seven, his next-oldest brother, David, died in an ice skating accident. Barrie's mother took the death particularly hard, as David had been her favorite. James did his best to make his mother happy by filling the gap left by David's death, going so far as to wear his brother's clothes and to imitate him. As an adult, James said that his mother got through the ordeal by consoling herself that David would never grow up to leave her, that he would always be a child.

Barrie's parents hoped that he would become a minister, but he knew from an early age that he wanted to be an author, and wrote his first plays while still in his teens. He studied literature at the University of Edinburgh, then began writing stories for a London newspaper. These stories were inspired by his mother's stories of her childhood in the Scottish countryside, and eventually developed into his early novels A Window in Thrums (e-book | print) and The Little Minister (e-book). While these books are generally dismissed by modern critics as overly sentimental nostalgia, they were popular at the time.

By the early 1890s, Barrie was writing primarily for the theater. His career as a playwright was uneven but mostly successful. The 1902 play The Admirable Crichton (e-book | print) was his most popular early work; it told the story of an aristocratic family marooned on a desert island with their servants, the only ones with the practical knowledge to help the group survive.

In 1897, Barrie met new friends who would have an important influence on his personal and professional life. He first met the Llewelyn Davies family through their preschool children, who played in the park where Barrie walked his dog. Young George and Jack enjoyed the stories that Barrie made up for them, especially the ones in which Barrie teased them with the notion that their infant brother Peter could fly like a bird.

Those stories led to the creation of Peter Pan. The earliest version of the character can be found in Barrie's 1902 novel The Little White Bird (e-book | print); here, Peter Pan is an infant who flies away from his family to be with the fairies. The Peter Pan we know today, and the other elements of the story—Wendy, Captain Hook, Neverland—were introduced in Barrie's 1904 play Peter Pan, which Barrie published as a novel (e-book | e-audio | print | audio) in 1911.

Barrie's connection to the Llewelyn Davies family had grown closer over the years, and when Arthur Llewelyn Davies dies in 1907, Barrie provided financial support to his widow, Sylvia, and their children (there were now five brothers). After Sylvia's death, Barrie and Sylvia's sister served as surrogate parents to the children until they reached adulthood.

Barrie died of pneumonia in 1937. He had continued to write novels and plays until shortly before his death, but none of his work ever recaptured the success of Peter Pan.

Many authors, composers, and directors have created their own versions of the Peter Pan story. Musical versions were written by Leonard Bernstein in 1950, Moose Charlap and Carolyn Leigh in 1954 (this is the best-known version, featuring Mary Martin and Cyril Ritchard), and Piers Chater Robinson in 1985. There's also a ballet, with music by Stephen Warbeck.

The Walt Disney 1953 animated musical version of Peter Pan features songs by several composers. Steven Spielberg's Hook imagines a grown-up Peter, played by Robin Williams, forced to return to Neverland to confront Captain Hook (Dustin Hoffman). And the 2004 film Finding Neverland tells a slightly fictionalized version of Barrie's relationship with the Llewelyn Davies boys; it was adapted as a stage musical in 2012.

We can only scratch the surface of the novels inspired by Peter Pan. Geraldine McCaughrean's Peter Pan in Scarlet (e-book | print | audio) is the authorized sequel. Laurie Fox's The Lost Girls (e-book | print) imagines a modern Wendy, a descendant of the original, and a family history of young Darling women who have "gone mad." In Another Pan (e-book), Daniel and Dina Nayeri put a dark spin on the story, with a desperate Peter searching for the magic that he needs to stay young forever.

Jodi Lynn Anderson retells the story from the perspective of the Native American princess Tiger Lily (e-book | e-audio | print); in Peter Darling (e-book), Austin Chant offers a transgender variation, with Peter as the boy who Wendy has always known himself to be. And Peter David's Tigerheart (e-book | print) adds a few new characters to the story, including a female pirate who is every bit the equal of Captain Hook.

Piers Dudgeon's biography of Barrie, The Real Peter Pan (e-book), focuses mostly on his friendship with the Llewelyn Davies children.

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May 9, 1937

Glenda Jackson was born. Jackson was one of the most acclaimed actresses of the 1970s and 1980s, working in film, television, and theater. She retired from acting in 1992 and served as a member of the British Parliament for 23 years, before returning to the stage in 2015. Jackson is currently appearing as King Lear on Broadway. Two of Jackson's early films are available for streaming at Hoopla—the historical drama Mary, Queen of Scots; and the love-triangle drama Sunday Bloody Sunday, one of the earliest films to feature sympathetic portrayals of gay and bisexual characters.

May 10, 1969

John Scalzi was born. Scalzi is a science fiction novelist whose books often offer updated takes on military SF and space opera. His writing is also known for its humor, a relatively rare commodity in science fiction. Scalzi won the 2013 Hugo Award for Best Novel for Redshirts (e-book | print | audio), in which the junior members of a starship crew wonder why they keep dying on the ship's missions, while the command officers always survive unscathed.