First edition of Peter Pan dedicated to nanny goes on sale at antique book fair

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/may/17/jm-barrie-peter-pan-first-edition-signed-nanny-sale

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JM Barrie rarely signed or dedicated his books – but he did so for the woman he clashed with throughout his life, it has emerged.

A first edition of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens will be one of the more fascinating objects at this month’s London International Antiquarian Book Fair because of a short sentence hand written at the front of the book.

It reads: “To Mary Hodgson with kindest regards from J.M Barrie Jan 1907.”

Hodgson was the nurse and nanny to the Llewellyn Davies boys, who inspired Peter Pan, after Barrie came across them as he walked his St Bernard, Porthos, in Kensington Gardens, London.

Los Angeles-based rare books dealer David Brass discovered the book in January. He said: “I knew who Mary Hodgson was and I just thought ‘wow, this is quite incredible’ and then I started to research it more.

“It is a fascinating story. Mary Hodgson had such an important role in the thought process behind Peter Pan. Barrie met these boys in Kensington Gardens, he befriended them, he was the child who never grew up and he was writing about himself but using the boys as models.”

It was 1897 when Barrie bumped into Hodgson as she walked in the park with the Llewellyn Davies children – George, Jack and baby Peter.

He was charmed by them and began regularly accompanying them through the park, telling them fantastic stories of fairies and pirates.

Barrie developed a close friendship with the boys’ mother, Sylvia, and became a regular fixture at their home.

The encounters provided Barrie with inspiration for Peter Pan, who first appeared in his 1902 novel The Little White Bird; followed by a play, Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up in 1904; and then the Arthur Rackham-illustrated Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens in 1906.

Another key character in the story is the father Arthur Llewellyn Davies who, understandably, thought Barrie’s attention to the children odd and his almost daily visits too much.

At the heart of the remarkable story was Hodgson, who brought the children up. She was horrified by Barrie’s permissive, anything-goes attitude and felt he was undermining her authority. Barrie presumably knew how she felt, possibly helping to explain why the Darling children’s nanny in his book is a Newfoundland dog called Nana.

Barrie’s “lost boys” are also the boys who fall out of their prams when the nurse is looking the other way. If not claimed in a week, they are sent to Neverland, where Peter Pan is their captain.

“I think there was a love-hate relationship between Barrie and Hodgson,” said Brass. “They couldn’t do without each other but they disliked each other. The central thing though was the children.”

Hodgson had a difficult relationship with Barrie but she also cherished the book he signed for her, putting her own cover on it and looking after it, given its good condition.

Both Llewellyn Davies parents died young – Arthur died aged 44 in 1907, followed by Sylvia, aged 43, in 1910. Sylvia wanted Hodgson to continue looking after the children with Barrie as their trustee and guardian, making the pair in effect surrogate parents.

“There was this continual fight going on between them,” said Brass. “Barrie was the man who let them do whatever they wanted and Hodgson was the matronly figure who kept telling them off.”

The relationship continued until 1918 when Hodgson resigned because of a clash with the wife of a now grown up Jack.

Despite the disagreements Barrie was saddened, and wrote: “No need for me to repeat of what estimable service to me have been your love and devotion to the boys.”

The first edition came up for auction in London last year and was bought by a dealer who showed it at California’s book fair. It was there that Brass, who moved from London to LA 23 years ago, bought it. “It is the next best thing to the dedication copy,” he said.

The Barrie story was made into a movie – Finding Neverland, with Johnny Depp – although Hodgson was airbrushed out of the story.

Related: Loitering in Neverland: the strangeness of Peter Pan

It is a fascinating one and an easy one to be viewed disapprovingly through a contemporary lens. Today, striking up overly affectionate relationships with children in a park would see Barrie end up on a register, and there persists the notion that some of his attentions or actions were inappropriate.

Brass defends the author, however. “Barrie had the greatest heart in the world. What he did wasn’t weird in those days. Now, it’s weird. It was then okay to take children out in to the park and have them talk to strangers.”

Brass is offering the first edition for £20,000. “I think this is such an important book,” he said. “That’s why I bought it and why I’m bringing it to the London book fair.”

• The 58th London International Antiquarian Book Fair is at Olympia 28-30 May.