Barrie, James M(atthew)

Barrie, James M[atthew] (1860–1937), playwright. The English dramatist, who hid a barbed wit and slightly mocking view of life beneath often cloyingly sentimental surfaces, was first represented in America by The Professor's Love Story (1892) and Walker, London (1894). He was long associated with producer Charles Frohman and actress Maude Adams, an association that began with The Little Minister (1897). His subsequent successes included Quality Street (1901), The Admirable Crichton (1903) starring William Gillette, Peter Pan (1905), Alice Sit‐by‐the‐Fire (1905) with Ethel Barrymore, What Every Woman Knows (1908), A Kiss for Cinderella (1916), Dear Brutus (1918) with Gillette and Helen Hayes, and Mary Rose (1920). Barrymore toured in vaudeville for many years with his playlet The Twelve‐Pound Look, while Hayes later appeared in another short play, The Old Lady Shows Her Medals. Indeed, Hayes eventually became one of Barrie's leading advocates, appearing in revivals of several of his works, especially What Every Woman Knows, her curious blend of saccharine and iron precisely matching his.