Endnotes 09 May: Peter Pan Day, Museum Mysteries, Sri Lanka, Poetry, Walled Cities & More
Plus a new episode of The Library of Lost Time
Hello, friends! And Happy Peter Pan Day!
This holiday — sprinkled with fairy dust — is celebrated every year on 9 May, a.k.a. the birthday of Sir James Matthew Barrie. He’s the Scottish novelist and playwright who gave us the boy who never grows up. (And Tinkerbell! #tinkerbell4ever.)
Peter Pan first appeared in the author’s novel for adults, The Little White Bird, a collection of fanciful vignettes set in London’s Kensington Gardens; you can read it on Gutenberg.org.
Peter Pan is described as ‘betwixt and between’ a bird and a boy. He may have been based on Barrie’s older brother David, who died in an ice-skating accident just one day before his 14th birthday. As the story goes, Barrie and his mother could only ever think of their dearly departed David as a young boy.
Later, Barrie made the mischievous/melancholy character the star of his play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up. It debuted in 1904 at London’s Duke of York’s Theatre (still around, BTW) and was such a hit, the play and tales from The Little White Bird were smushed and expanded to become the 1911 book Peter and Wendy.
You can read the original book on Gutenberg.org — in 2020, SP Books, a publisher specializing in reproductions of iconic manuscripts, put out a gorgeous version of Barrie’s handwritten book with illustrations, like this one:
The Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library has highlights from its J.M. Barrie Collection online, including very awesome sketches of costume designs from the original 1904 stage production.
These characters have so captured readers’ imaginations, the story has been adapted into a pantomime, a 1924 silent film, the 1953 Disney classic animated film and 2003 live-action version), an ice-skating show, a TV special, and various retellings and sequels — all of which prompted LitHub to ask, Why Does Hollywood Keep Returning to Peter Pan?
I grew up with the stage version featuring Sandy Duncan (1980):
But Mary Martin (1960) is very, very good, too:
Best line of the book, IMO: Would you like an adventure now, or would you like to have your tea first?
Endnotes: 09 May
One of my all-time favorite episodes of Strong Sense of Place is this one about museums, so I was pretty happy to see this list of novels in which death comes calling at museums, with four new-to-me titles on it.
This Jane Austen quiz — but I’m hanging my head in shame because I only got 6/10.
In this episode of The Library of Lost Time, I recommended the fantastic story collection Exit Zero by Marie-Helene Bertino. You can read her story Viola in Midwinter free online! (Psst… I agree with everything in the intro on that post.)
So timely, so fun: Met Gala fashions paired with great books by Black authors. Click through for the whole slide show:
Oh, this house in Tangier is so dreamy. ‘Halfway up Old Mountain in Tangier, my home Gazebo gazes down over a seemingly infinite stretch of brilliant blue, the meeting point of two oceans, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The garden that drops towards the sea is a paradise of towering palms, umbrella pines, plumbago, datura lilies, bougainvillea, agapanthus. Terracotta paths are dappled with shade.’
13 Unbelievably Charming European Medieval Walled Cities.
Hmmm… you probably need this Daphne du Maurier Pencil Set.
When we saw a Dolce & Gabbana exhibit at the Grand Palais in Paris earlier this year, each gallery had a different scent to accent the fashions, lighting, and other details. Turns out, lots of hospitality brands are using aromas to create experiences. (BTW, the D&G exhibit will next be shown in Rome, in case you fancy a trip to Italy.)
Remember when we talked about Sri Lanka in this episode of our podcast? Dave and I are still daydreaming about when we’ll get to visit there. Suitcase magazine ideas about where to sleep, eat, and explore in Ahangama, Sri Lanka.
I loathe that this seems relevant to our interests, but here we are: How to Protect Yourself From Phone Searches at the US Border. ‘Customs and Border Protection has broad authority to search travelers’ devices when they cross into the United States. Here’s what you can do to protect your digital life while at the US border.’
I didn’t expect to find myself thinking, ‘Wow, that’s a great idea!’ as I read this post about the benefits of owning multiple e-readers. A light Kindle that’s always in my purse? Tempting.
Poetry is not a luxury. ‘I’m obsessed with words. I always have been. That was the breakthrough, to realize that I just am filled with sentences already. Poetry is almost like a little bite, a little song, and I just love the way poems can condense an emotion or really express one.’
Bookstores’ latest release? Beer, wine, dinner, coffee, and a unique aesthetic. Yes to all of it. (Shout-out to my mom for sending me this article.)
Titles to add to your TBR: The Washington Post picks for 10 noteworthy books for May and the 2025 Edgar Awards Winners.
New Episode of The Library of Lost Time
In each mini-podcast episode, we discuss two books at the top of our TBR, then share a fun book- or travel-related distraction. Get all the episodes and books galore here.
In this episode, we get excited about two new books: One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune and My Friends: A Novel by Fredrik Backman. Then Dave talks about the stellar winners of the 2025 Pen America Awards.
listen + show notes | transcript
The book you talked about from 1980 and the sandwich! I read a book at church camp early 80s called Just Like Ice-cream that was scandalous to my preteen brain and I can’t unremember it.
Have you ever watched the YouTube clips about school productions of Peter Pan gone disastrously wrong? I first heard about it on This American Life and they are pretty hilarious!