James Matthew Barrie was born in 1860 near Dundee in Scotland. He was the son of a weaver. He was educated at Glasgow Academy, Dumfries Academy and Edinburgh University. After working as a journalist in Nottingham he went to London and wrote for various newspapers and journals there. Between 1891 and 1902 Barrie published several successful novels and plays. Peter Pan, his greatest work, was first performed as a play in 1904. Although the original idea for Peter Pan appeared in an earlier adult novel, The Little White Bird, the full 'story' version for children was not set down on paper until 1911. J. M. Barrie died in 1937.