#49: The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up

We’re all familiar with Peter Pan, also known as The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, one of the most popular children’s fictional characters. Scottish novelist J. M. Barrie invented the iconic character, and according to some theories, he based it on his older brother, David, who died in an ice-skating accident the day before his 14th birthday.

Peter Pan first appeared in Barrie’s novel The Little White Bird, and a few years later, he wrote a play starring the iconic character. Before it became a success, he decided to gift all the rights to the character to a children’s hospital in London. The character became more and more popular and thus more and more profitable, and copyrights lasted for decades after Barrie’s death in 1937.