The Little White Bird

The Little White Bird is a novel by the Scottish writer J. M. Barrie, ranging in tone from fantasy and whimsy to social comedy with dark, aggressive undertones. It was published in November 1902 by Hodder & Stoughton in the UK and Scribner's in the US. Scribner's also published it serially in the monthly Scribner's Magazine from August to November. The book attained prominence and longevity thanks to several chapters written in a softer tone than the rest, which introduced the character and mythology of Peter Pan. In 1906, those chapters were published separately as a children's book, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens. The Peter Pan story began as one chapter and grew to an "elaborate book-within-a-book" of more than one hundred pages during the four years Barrie worked on The Little White Bird. The complete book has also been published under the title The Little White Bird, or Adventures in Kensington Gardens.