Autograph letter signed, “J. M. Barrie,” to Hilda Trevelyan, the actress who created the role of Wendy Darling in the original 1904 production of Peter Pan
London: , 1916. Item #06837
“I Can Think of No One Who Would Play Mrs Dearth as Well”
An Important J. M. Barrie Letter to His Original Wendy, Hilda Trevelyan, Apparently Concerning Her Performance of Mrs Dearth in Dear Brutus - Written Five Days After the Play's 1917 London Première
BARRIE, J. M. Autograph Letter Signed, “J. M. Barrie,” to actress Hilda Trevelyan, Barrie's original Wendy in Peter Pan. London: Adelphi Terrace House, Strand, W.C.2, 22 October 1917.
Two pages written in ink on both sides of a single sheet of Barrie's Adelphi Terrace House stationery, (7 x x 5 1/2 inches; 179 x 140 mm.). With an original pen-and-ink drawing by Barrie at the conclusion, consisting of a target of concentric circles surrounded by scattered marks. Faint horizontal crease from folding, otherwise fine.
A remarkable and apparently unrecorded letter from J. M. Barrie to Hilda Trevelyan, the actress who had created the role of Wendy in the original 1904 production of Peter Pan, praising a recent performance and - most significantly - apparently identifying the role under discussion as Mrs Dearth in Barrie's newly produced play Dear Brutus.
Barrie writes: “Dear Hilda, It was a beautiful performance you gave, and I won't have you meddle with it. The part is rather shadowy, nothing at all like the part I should like to give you some day, and my heart was in the father & daughter scene mainly, with the result that in the writing the other scenes suffered. I can think of no one who would play Mrs Dearth as well, and I know that is also Gerald's opinion…” Barrie continues with personal remarks, looks forward to seeing Trevelyan again, and concludes with a characteristically whimsical response to a letter she had sent him: “Your letter is characteristic and might be illustrated thus - ” beneath which Barrie has drawn a small target of concentric circles surrounded by scattered hits, a delightful visual joke presumably suggesting that Trevelyan's letter had fired in several directions without quite striking the bull's-eye. Signed: “Yours J. M. Barrie”
The letter is of considerable theatrical interest. Barrie's Dear Brutus had opened at Wyndham's Theatre, London, on October 17, 1917 - only five days before this letter was written.
Gerald du Maurier, almost certainly the “Gerald” whose approving opinion Barrie invokes, created the role of Mr Dearth. The opening-night role of Mrs Dearth was played by Hilda Moore, while Faith Celli appeared as Margaret, the imaginary daughter of Mr Dearth.
At the emotional heart of Dear Brutus is precisely the father-and-daughter relationship to which Barrie refers in this letter. In the enchanted wood, the childless artist Will Dearth discovers the daughter he might have had, Margaret. Their relationship became one of the most affecting elements of the play.
Barrie's explanation to Trevelyan is therefore extraordinarily revealing. He acknowledges that the female role was “rather shadowy” because his heart had been principally in the “father & daughter scene,” with the result that in writing it “the other scenes suffered.” He nevertheless assures Trevelyan that he can think of no one who would play Mrs Dearth as well, adding that Gerald du Maurier shared his opinion.
The precise circumstances of Trevelyan's “beautiful performance” remain tantalizingly uncertain. She is not recorded in the opening-night cast of Dear Brutus, Mrs Dearth being played publicly by Hilda Moore. Barrie's language nevertheless appears to indicate that he had recently witnessed Trevelyan perform the part in some capacity - possibly at a private reading, rehearsal, preliminary presentation, or other pre-production performance. The letter therefore appears to preserve evidence of Hilda Trevelyan's otherwise undocumented association with the creation of Mrs Dearth, written at the very moment Dear Brutus reached the London stage.
The association is particularly significant because Trevelyan occupied a special position among Barrie's actresses.
Hilda Trevelyan (1877–1959) created Wendy Darling in the original production of Peter Pan at the Duke of York's Theater in December 1904. She subsequently became one of Barrie's favored interpreters, appearing as Richardson in Alice-Sit-by-the-Fire (1905), creating Maggie Wylie in What Every Woman Knows (1908), and starring as “Miss Thing,” the Cinderella figure, in A Kiss for Cinderella (1916), opposite Gerald du Maurier as the policeman.
Barrie's affection for his first Wendy endured. In a later letter to Trevelyan of December 27, 1920, he memorably told her: “You are Wendy, and there will never be another to touch you.”
The present letter demonstrates that their relationship extended considerably beyond Peter Pan. Thirteen years after Trevelyan created Wendy, Barrie was still discussing her performances with unusual personal attention, reassuring her against altering her interpretation, confiding his own dissatisfaction with the construction of the part, invoking Gerald du Maurier's judgment in support of hers, and expressing the hope of someday writing her a role more worthy of her talents.
An exceptional theatrical letter linking J. M. Barrie, his original Wendy, Hilda Trevelyan, Gerald du Maurier, and the creation of Dear Brutus, written just five days after the play's première - and apparently revealing a previously undocumented connection between Trevelyan and the role of Mrs Dearth. With a charming original drawing by Barrie.
Loosely inserted in a copy of: BARRIE, J. M. Peter Pan; or, The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up. London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, 1928. First edition of the play in book form. Octavo (7 3/16 x 4 3/4 inches; 183 x 121 mm.). xxxiii, [1, blank], [1]–160 pp. Title-page printed in red and black. Publisher’s original blue cloth, front cover and spine with white paper label printed in blue. In the original cream printed dust jacket, lightly toned, small pieces missing from top and bottom of spine not touching any letters. A near fine copy in a good dust jacket. Housed in a felt-lined, half red morocco over red cloth boards ruled in gilt, clamshell case. Spine with five raised bands elaborately tooled and lettered in gilt in compartments. Fine.
Price: $4,500.00