Christian Yandell's Peter Pan and Wendy 1925

Christian Yandell: Australian Fairy Tales 1925 | Catalogue of Work | Christian Yandell | Peter Pan and Wendy 1925 | Pre-Raphaelite Wonderland 2015 | Whitcombe's Alice in Wonderland 1924 |

Contents

1. Neverland downunder
2. Melbourne edition
3. Yandell's illustrations
4. Educational Supply Association
5. Videos
6. References

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Abstract: Australians were introduced to J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan and Wendy characters through expanded English print editions of the original play which supplied the local market during the first half of the twentieth century. This began with the 1902 novel The Little White Bird - extracts of which were published in 1904 as Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens - and the more substantial Peter and Wendy of 1911, with illustrations by F.D. Bedford. It followed on the successful 1904 London stage play. The first Australian publication to feature Barrie's Neverland appeared around 1925 in a little known abridged edition of Peter Pan and Wendy, specially prepared for Grade III primary school students and based on the English "Authorized School Edition" of 1915. The Melbourne edition featured four examples of the black and white line drawings of young Victorian artist Christian Yandell.

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1. Neverland downunder

One of the classic books of children's fantasy fiction is the English author J.M. Barrie's 1911 novel Peter and Wendy. It told the story of a group of young children visiting a fairyland known as Neverland, and adventures therein and was based on characters which first appeared in his 1902 novel The Little White Bird, and then in his 1904 play Peter Pan: or, the boy who wouldn't grow up (Barrie 1911, Wikipedia 2024). The play was an immediate success with London audiences. A glowing review from London critic Sydney Brookes appeared in the Sydney, Australia, newspaper The Sunday Sun on 24 September 1905. The 1911 novel ran over 17 chapters to 267 pages. It was published internationally and featured eleven exquisite black and white line illustrations by F.D. Bedford. The chapter headings were as follows:

• I - Peter Breaks Through
• II - The Shadow
• III - Come Away, Come Away
• IV - The Flight
• V - The Island Come True
• VI - The Little House
• VII - The Home Under the Ground
• VIII- The Mermaid's Lagoon
• IX - The Never Bird
• X - The Happy Home
• XI - Wendy's Story
• XII - The Children Are Carried Off
• XIII - Do You Believe in Fairies?
• XIV - The Pirate Ship
• XV - 'Hook or Me This Time'
• XVI -The Return Home
• XVII - When Wendy Grew Up

Famous artists such as Sir Arthur Rackham went on to illustrate Neverland and its characters, including Pan, Wendy, the Lost Boys, Tinker Bell and Captain Hook. Plays, films and books followed over the years. The latter were primarily sourced by Australian booksellers from Britain through to the 1970s, in often expensive and heavily illustrated hardback editions. American editions were also popular locally, especially following the release of the classic Walt Disney animated film Peter Pan in 1953 and its associated comic books and illustrated novelisations. A cheap, abridged Australian version of Peter Pan and Wendy appeared around 1925, published by the Educational Supply Association of Melbourne and illustrated by a young local artist Christian Yandell. That little known and rare publication is described below. New Zealand school book supplier Whitcombe & Tombs also issued an 86 page The Story of Peter Pan for the Australasian primary school market around the same time, though details of that publication are not known to the present writer.

The first Australian retail edition of Peter Pan and Wendy was previously thought to have been that published by Anderson Print and Publications, Melbourne, in 1944, towards the end of World War II. Its appearance at that time was due to a lack of book supplies coming from Britain. It was a mere 32 pages in length due to local and overseas paper shortages, and much shorter than the 1925 Melbourne edition which contained ten chapters and ran to 130 pages.

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2. The Melbourne edition

Around 1925 the Melbourne-based Educational Supply Association published an abridged edition of J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan and Wendy. It was issued with permission from Oxford University Press and Hodder & Stoughton, London. Edited by Florence E. Tweddell, it was intended for use in primary schools, specifically Grade III students, and serviced that large, non-retail Australian market. It is the first Australian produced edition of Barrie's most famous work. Despite this, the book remains little known to collectors, art historians, and the public at large. Why? The fact is, school texts in general, though once common, are now rare for many reasons, some of which are outlined below:

1. They were subject to heavy use by students and, as a result, were not highly valued at the time and often ended up in the garbage bin. Surviving copies usually show signs of this use, in the form of markings throughout in pencil and ink, school cataloguing labels, stamps and stickers, the use of sticky tape to maintain the weak binding, torn and worn pages, coloured-in illustrations, and missing covers and interior pages.
2. They were not available for purchase in normal retail bookshops, as such they missed out on the parent present-for-children market, or purchases arising from serendipitous browsing opportunities.
3. Due to low quality production and lacking dust jackets, they often also had bland covers, and were easily missed if offered in bookstores.
4. They were in many instances not subject to normal national or centralised library cataloguing standards, and therefore did not enter the public record when card and later online catalogues were consulted.
5. They were not publicised through reviews in magazines and newspapers, as normal retail editions were.
6. They had a restricted audience as their main clients for purchase were teachers and school librarians, not the general public.

Cover pages of a used copy, with stickers, stamps, pencil and ink marks.

Evidence of the underground nature of such publications exists in the fact that Peter Pan and Wendy was not included in the catalogue of the Christian Waller (nee Yandell) exhibition staged at the Bendigo Art Gallery during 1992 (Thomas 1992). Fourteen contemporary print publications were listed, including her work for the 1924 Whitcome's school edition of Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland (Carroll 1924). The only library catalogue reference found to the book by the present writer was to a copy in the Lu Rees Archive at the National Centre for Australian Children's Literature, University of Canberra. The contents of the Melbourne edition were as follows:

• Biographical Note
• Chapter I - The Shadow
• Chapter II - "Come Away!" "Come Away!"
• Chapter III - The Island
• Chapter IV - The Little House
• Chapter V - The Mermaids' Lagoon
• Chapter VI - The Happy Home
• Chapter VII - Wendy's Story
• Chapter VIII - The Children Are Carried Off
• Chapter IX - The Pirate Ship
• Chapter X - The Return Home
• Notes and explanations

The ten chapter titles are almost identical to those from the 1911 edition. Bibliographic details are often scare for school texts such as Peter Pan and Wendy, and where they do exist they can be brief and lack vital information such as date of publication, as is the case with the Melbourne edition. It remains unclear when Peter Pan and Wendy was published, though circa 1925 was suggested by a recent auction sale. Based on comparison's with other works by Yandell, specifically 1924's Alice in Wonderland, an approximate date of 1925 is reasonable. The following notice from The Barrier Miner, Broken Hill, on 30 May 1925, provides some context in regards to the availability of Barrie's work in Australia at that time:

"PETER PAN AND WENDY"

A shortened and cheap edition of "Peter Pan and Wendy" specially arranged for children with the consent of the author, Sir James Barrie, is beautifully printed, and plentifully illustrated in color. It forms a most appropriate birthday gift for school children.

As the school edition under discussion does not contain any colour, this notice likely refers to the arrival in Australia of the latest English edition of Peter Pan and Wendy, first published during 1915 in an abbreviated version for "little people" by May Byron. From 1921 it included colour plate illustrations by Mabel Lucie Atwell and was distributed by Barrie's British publisher Hodder & Stoughton and the American firm of Scribner's & Sons. That book remained a standard for young people through to the 1960s, by which time Disney editions had taken the lead in popularity, as with the Little Golden Books illustrated example. A special edition for schools was published in 1915 by Oxford University Press, and formed the based for the Melbourne edition a decade later.

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3. Christian Yandell's illustrations

Christian Yandell four drawings for Peter Pan and Wendy were typical of her commissioned works at the time, and similar to other faery and children's literature related illustrations by fellow Victorian artist Ida Rentoul Outhwaite. Whilst the latter adhered to the subject of faery throughout her career, with an emphasis on colourful watercolours and the inclusion of Australian animals, Yandell had shown a preference for painterly representations of Arthurian mythology from the late 1910s. She later adopted esoteric and theosophical motifs through the use in her private studio, wherein she refined her use of linocut and lithography. The 1940s and 1950s revealed religious-themed stained glass work for installation in churches. Yandell's four Peter Pan and Wendy illustrations were as follows:

1. Then suddenly, Hook found himself face to face with Peter (frontispiece). Image of Captain Hook and Peter Pan engaged in a sword fight on board ship.
2. The window was blown open .... and Peter flew in (page 17). Image of Peter Pan entering the bedroom of Wendy and her brothers.
3. Peter kept watch outside with drawn sword (page 56). Peter resting outside a hut.
4. The rock was very small .... and Peter .... was standing erect .... with that smile on his face (page 72). Peter Pan standing on a rock.

They are illustrated below.

#1 Frontispiece and title page.

#2 Darling children in their bed room, page 17.

#3 Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, page 56.

#4 Peter Pan on a rock, page 72.

The drawings are highly detailed, un-coloured and feature Peter Pan. Two included Tinkerbell and Captain Hook, but Wendy, the The Lost Boys and the mermaids are not depicted. The drawings reflect Yandell's skill with figures and competent use of line to define detail and texture. Yandell is not listed in the title page of Peter Pan and Wendy, though her name appears within the published illustrations. Basic library cataloguing of the work excludes reference to her fine black and white line drawings and, as a result, art historians have failed to cite her work therein. The current article is, as far as the writer is aware as of September 2024, the first to do so.

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4. Educational Supply Association

What was the origin of the edition of Peter Pan and Wendy issued by the Educational Supply Association of Melbourne? In order to answer this question, we need to travel to London, as following news item from 1927 outlines some aspects of the London-based firm which facilitated its production (The Catholic Press, 8 September 1927).

The Primary Schools

THE TEACHING OF ARITHMETIC.

If there is one charm in London that appeals especially to a teacher, it is the ease with which one can get access to all the latest publications in educational subjects. Not only are there headquarters of all the chief publishers in the city, but they are in such proximity that no time need be wasted in going from one to the other. Moreover, there is what is possibly the largest establishment of its kind in the world, the Educational Supply Association, which distributes books to the schools, has a special room for teachers, in which all the newest books in each subject are arranged in sections, and it is possible to examine ten or twenty text books in a few minutes. Something of this kind would be a boon to teachers in our part of the world, and possibly it will come some day. It was while in this room that I came across an excellent series of arithmetics, well-graded, and low in price. The print was clear, and the matter good. Moreover, there was for each grade a corresponding book for teachers, which supplied a systematic series of exercises in mental arithmetic.

This organisation had supplied furniture, appliances and books for schools in the British Empire since the 1870s. The earliest Australian reference the writer has found to a local branch is from 1895 in regard to Fremantle, Western Australia sale rooms. During 1916 the Victorian State School Teachers Union held a meeting at the Collins Street, Melbourne rooms of the firm. The Association, in collaboration with Oxford University Press and publishers Hodder and Stoughton, facilitated access to J.M. Barrie in securing rights to print the local abridged version of Peter Pan and Wendy for schools during 1925. In 1915 the Oxford University Press, in association with Humphrey Milford, had produced a 127 page "Authorized School Edition" of Peter Pan and Wendy, with seven illustrations by F.D. Bedford, taken from the 1911 edition. This formed the basis for the Melbourne edition.

Frontispiece by F.D. Bedford and cover page, Humphrey Milford at Oxford University Press edition, 1945 edition.

It is assumed that both 1915 and 1925 texts were the same, and that the local "adaptation" by Florence Eleanor Tweddell (b.1895), as noted on the cover page, mainly comprised securing the Yandell illustrations and supervising the local publication process.

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5. Videos

* Nick Willing (dir.), Neverland - Journey back to where it all began, 2011, YouTube, duration: 165.36 minutes. Two-part TV series. A prequel to Peter Pan and Wendy.

* J.M. Barrie documentary, Author Documentaries, 15 October 2021, duration: 72.48 minutes.

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6. References

Barrie, J.M., The Little White Bird, Hodder & Stoughton, London, / Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1902, 349p.

-----, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1906. Illustrations by Arthur Rackham.

-----, The Peter Pan Picture Book / The Story of Peter Pan, G. Bell & Sons, London, 1907. Illustrations by Alice B. Woodward. Novelization by Daniel O'Connor.

-----, Peter and Wendy, Hodder & Stoughton, London / Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1911, 267p. Illustrations by F.D. Bedford. Contains 17 chapters.

------, Peter Pan - The boy who would never grow up to be a man. Retold from Sir James M. Barrie's famous play. Edited and arranged by Frederick Orville Perkins, with sixteen illustrations by Alice B. Woodward, Silver Burdett & Company, Boston, 1911. Chapters - 17. Text available online.

-----, Peter Pan and Wendy, retold by May Byron for little people, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1915. Abridged edition by May Byron. Contains 13 chapters.

-----, Peter Pan and Wendy, Humphrey Milford and Oxford University Press, London, 1915, vi, 127p. Authorised School Edition. Illustrations by F.D. Bedford. Contains 10 chapters. "This is the story of the play that has been adapted for school use."

-----, Peter Pan and Wendy, retold by May Byron for little people, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1921, 185p. Abridged edition by May Byron. Illustrations by Mabel Lucie Atwell. Chapters - 17; illustrations - 12.

-----, Peter Pan and Wendy, The Educational Supply Association, 227 Collins Street, Melbourne, c.1925, 130p. Adaptation by Florence E. Tweddell. Illustrations by Christian Yandell.

-----, Walt Disney's Peter Pan, A Little Golden Book, Walt Disney Productions, Western Publishing Company, Wisconsin, 1952 / Random House, New York, 2007, 24p.

Carroll, Lewis, Alice in Wonderland for Children Aged 9 to 10 Years, Whitcombe’s Story Books. No. 415. Whitcombe & Tombs Ltd., Christchurch & Auckland, 1924–1960 (9 editions). Adaptation by E. A. Stewart. Cover design Carlton Studio, Melbourne. Illustrations by Christian Yandell.

Peter and Wendy, Wikipedia, accessed 26 September 2024.

Thomas, David. The Art of Christian Waller, Exhibition catalogue, Bendigo Art Gallery, 1992, 70p.

Walt Disney Productions, Peter Pan [animated], 1953, 77 minutes.

------, Return to Neverland [animated], Disney Movie Toons, 2002, 73 minutes.

------, Peter Pan and Wendy [live action], 2023, 109 minutes.

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Christian Yandell: Australian Fairy Tales 1925 | Catalogue of Work | Christian Yandell | Peter Pan and Wendy 1925 | Pre-Raphaelite Wonderland 2015 | Whitcombe's Alice in Wonderland 1924 |

Last updated: 10 October 2024

Michael Organ, Australia