Peter and Wendy: The Restored Text

•With supplemental material documenting the development of J.M. Barrie’s concept of Peter Pan over the years:
•“The Evolution of Peter Pan,” tracing the growth of the Peter Pan mythology;
•Editor’s supplement: “A Gift of Ghosts,” revealing background and insight into the origin of Peter Pan in J.M. Barrie’s personal life.
•Text restored to original form, which editions since the mid-20th century may have changed or deleted.
•Includes all 14 illustrations created by F.D. Bedford, rarely seen and now restored from the first edition in 1911.

Peter Pan is vanishing. Unauthorized changes have tinkered with J.M. Barrie’s magic. How can we know that the book we call “Peter Pan” is presented the way Barrie first penned it? Since the mid-20th century, readers couldn’t be certain─ until this edition.

With the award-winning Hook & Jill Saga, the Reginetta Press drew grown-up readers back to the Neverland. Now it carries us to the Island again, this time on the wings of Barrie’s own words….

“All children, except one, grow up.” Peter Pan himself grew in his author’s imagination, from the true boys Barrie knew, to the infant of The Little White Bird, to the Wonderful Boy on stage, to his familiar form in Peter and Wendy. But no evolution of Barrie’s text is necessary for us to revel in his Neverland, in any era, and at any age.

With Peter and Wendy: The Restored Text, the Reginetta Press preserves the integrity of Barrie’s manuscript, before it is lost to time. All other versions stand “second-to-the-right” of J.M. Barrie’s.

This Reginetta Press edition replicates the exact text of J.M. Barrie’s 1911 novelization of the Peter Pan story, Peter and Wendy, and reproduces the F.D. Bedford illustrations.

Born in 1860 in Angus, Scotland, J.M. Barrie soon became one of the world's greatest story-tellers. A prolific novelist and playwright, Barrie is best remembered today for his modern mythology of Peter Pan and the Neverland. Barrie wrote several incarnations of Peter, beginning in his adult novel "The Little White Bird" in 1902. The play, "Peter Pan; or the Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up" was first staged in London in December of 1904. In 1911, Barrie released the novelization of the play, which was intended to set the story down in writing for all time. Modern publishers, however, have made alterations to that work, "Peter and Wendy." This work, "Peter and Wendy: The Restored Text" from the Reginetta Press brings Barrie's original novel back to readers in its 1911 first-edition text.

Peter Von Brown is a J.M. Barrie scholar, receiving Honors at Knox College for his Independent Study of Sir J.M. Barrie as a Modern Mythmaker. Von Brown's research resulted in a paper on the socio-psychological ramifications of Pan in our culture, and a new novel. "Peter Pan's NeverWorld" is an extension of "Peter and Wendy." It is based upon J.M. Barrie's notes, jotted down as Barrie mused upon a new adventure for Pan. Thus, "Peter Pan's NeverWorld" is as close as eager readers can come to an authentic sequel to the beloved story. Von Brown's next work was "Peter Pan: Betwixt and Between," gathering the threads of Barrie's works to explore Peter's passage from infancy in Kensington Gardens to boyhood in the Neverland. Peter Von Brown designed the cover image for "Peter and Wendy: The Restored Text."

Editor Andrea Jones is the author of the award-winning series, the "Hook & Jill" Saga (Reginetta Press). Based closely upon J.M. Barrie's "Peter and Wendy," "Hook & Jill" is a serious parody of the Peter Pan story. Intended for adult readers, the novel questions the premise of Barrie's original work: is it desirable to remain a child, or is it a greater adventure, after all, to grow up? Jones' research for "Hook & Jill" led her to the realization that "Peter and Wendy" had been altered by modern publishers; as her tribute to J.M. Barrie, she set out to restore the text. Within the "Hook & Jill" Saga series, Jones deepens and explores Barrie's famous and infamous characters. A total of five books are charted for the "Hook & Jill Saga." Graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Andrea Jones studied Oral Interpretation of Literature, with a Literature minor. Her earlier career was in television production.