Wednesday 29 May 2024, 5.30-6.30pm (followed by a drinks reception till 7pm)
Milstein Room, Cambridge University Library
By 1911, when J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan first appeared in novel form as Peter and Wendy, it was already well-known. Barrie himself created several versions of Peter and his surrounding mythos, including the 1904 play on which the novel is based, while countless other adaptations and reworkings continue to be produced into the twenty-first century.
Examining holdings from the University Library's Tower Collection, this talk will bring Peter Pan’s early paratexts into focus, from the ephemeral tie-in publications produced in parallel with Barrie's own – including a colouring book and an ABC – to the illustrated dust-jackets and covers of the novel itself. Munby Fellow 2023-24, Dr Sarah Pyke, will trace Barrie's most famous creation from page to stage and back again, showing how a book historical approach can help us to read Peter Pan as, above all, a text invested in its own materiality.
