“ My dear Rackham, It was immensely good of you to put that delicious little picture in my copy of ‘Peter’. It was also one of Rackham’s biggest financial successes, reprinted numerous times and leading to the production of the Peter Pan Portfolio, a selection of twelve of the artist’s favourite illustrations reproduced in their original sizes.Barrie was so pleased by this gift, and by Rackhams’ work, that he replied in a letter, But it was the partnership between Rackham and Barrie that made Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens the “outstanding Christmas gift-book of 1906″ and one of the most beloved of all 20th-century children’s books. The “boy who never grew up” had first appeared as one of many stories in The Little White Bird (1902), and became a successful theatrical production the following year. Barrie visited the Rip Van Winkle exhibition and was so taken with Rackham’s artwork that a meeting was arranged to discuss collaboration on a Peter Pan book. The colour plates to Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens by Arthur Rackham made the book immediately popular, and drew attention to Rackham, who was not well-known before then.

The Peter Pan chapters were extracted and published as a separate work in 1906. The 1906 limited first edition is illustrated with about 50 colour plates by illustrator Arthur Rackham Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens was originally part of an earlier work, The Little White Bird by J.M.Barrie. In 1906 Barrie sanctioned the publication of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, and illustrated by Arthur Rackham, in which Peter is a seven-day-old infant. Besides the date and minor differences in title-page layout, this edition is similar to the 1906 first edition. This wonderful book contains 50 hand mounted Rackham colour plates consisting of one frontispiece illustration and 49 others grouped together at the rear of the book, all with tissue guards. Here in Special Collections we have a beautiful copy of Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (UK Hodder and Stoughton 1907) bound in russet cloth with gilt illustration and lettering to the front cover and spine. Barrie Illustrated by Arthur Rackham – SP 2767. By Yvette Campbell, Special Collections & Archives Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens by J.M.

Peter in kensington gardens