Sources

1. Some Davies Letters and Papers, 1874–1915, compiled in six volumes by Peter Llewelyn Davies between 1945 and 1951. Peter outlined the purpose of what he referred to as the family Morgue in a series of notes found after his death: ‘Intention: To show, by extracts from letters & diaries, with short notes, the sort of Davies and du Maurier people we are sprung from…. To “lay a ghost” in my own case, and free myself to either destroying all documents or dispersing them between Jack & Nico’. In a letter sent to his two surviving brothers to accompany the first instalment of the Morgue, Peter wrote: ‘If you think the whole thing is a mistake, you can always tear it up and throw it away, as I shall now proceed to tear up and throw away the letters, some of which are here copied’. Peter's original plan had been to take his compilation up to the death of Michael in 1921, but his process of destruction overtook the speed of his transcription, and by 1952 he had abandoned the task at George's death, consigning all further material in his possession to the incinerator. In every sense the Morgue is a tragic document, since its compilation was, in Nico's opinion, a contributory factor towards Peter's suicide.

2. The Walter Beinecke Jnr Collection, housed at Yale University as part of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The collection contains the major part of Barrie's letters and manuscripts extant (including much Davies material not transcribed in the Morgue), as well as the surviving copy of The Boy Castaways of Black Lake Island, and Barrie's forty-eight notebooks. These notebooks were made available to me on microfilm, and some of my transcriptions differ from the same extracts printed in earlier biographies; similar discrepancies occur with many of Barrie's letters in the Beinecke Collection, particularly when compared with those in The Letters of J. M. Barrie (Peter Davies Ltd, 1942). While making no claim to infallibility, I believe my transcriptions to be accurate, thanks to Nico's help in deciphering the more illegible passages of Barrie's handwriting.

3. The Barrie Birthplace Collection, administered by the National Trust for Scotland, which contains unpublished drafts of Barrie's works, as well as a number of early photographs.

4. Material owned by Nicholas Llewelyn Davies, including the majority of photographs reproduced here. Many of the letters and documents in his possession do not appear in Peter's Morgue.

5. The Margaret Ogilvy Sweeten Collection, which includes letters and photographs associated with Barrie's childhood, and with the Barrie and Ogilvy families.

6. The Mary Hodgson Collection, made available by her niece, Mrs Mary Hill. It contains various photographs, mementoes and letters from the Davies boys, particularly Peter and Nico, who wrote to her frequently until her death in 1962.

7. The Pauline Chase letters in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

8. The Roger Lancelyn Green Collection. As author of Fifty Years of Peter Pan (Peter Davies Ltd, 1954), Roger Lancelyn Green has amassed a wealth of Barrie knowledge and material. His collection includes Nina Boucicault's 1904 rehearsal script of Peter Pan.

9. The Lillie Library Collection, University of Indiana. In his Dedication to Peter Pan, Barrie implied that the original draft of the play had been lost. In fact he had given it to Maude Adams, who in turn presented it to the Lillie Library.

10. Dolly Ponsonby's unpublished Diaries, 1890–1914, made available by the Dowager Lady Ponsonby.

11. Material owned by Geraldine Llewelyn Davies, including several hundred letters from Barrie to Jack and herself, as well as personal correspondence with her husband.

A number of smaller collections have also been consulted, their owners being acknowledged in the Introduction. In addition I have drawn extensively from my own taped interviews, and correspondence carried out between 1975 and 1978 by Sharon Goode and myself.