BARRIE (J.M.)

The Allahakbarrie Book of Broadway Cricket, ONE OF 50 COPIES, annotated, 1889; The Greenwood Hat, ONE OF 50 COPIES, inscribed, 1930; and 2 others

Footnotes

"ALLAHAKBARRIES WON BY 61" - A HAT-TRICK OF J.M. BARRIE RARITIES.

The Allahakbarrie Book of Broadway Cricket for 1899 was privately printed for Barrie on the occasion of the third match at Broadway. Two years earlier Barrie had persuaded Mary de Navarro, the former actress Mary Anderson, to host a cricket match with some of his friends taking part. Anderson's team included some of the American artists who had colonised the Cotswold village, such as Frank Millet, Alfred Parsons and Herman G. Herkomer, whilst Barrie's team was the Allahakbarries (derived from "Allahakbar", meaning "Heaven help us"). In 1899 Barrie had fifty copies of this booklet printed for presentation to his friends the night before the match, dedicating it to "Our dear enemy, Mary de Navarro". It contains a guide to the village, an account of the team and a forecast of the match, all written in a satirical style.

In this copy, the space left blank on page 27 ("so that the fortunate possessor of this work may append the scores actually made") has been filled in by Barrie himself with an inked list of the 11 players, their scores and the result - "Allahakbarries won by 61", possibly making this the copy that Barrie is said to have lost, or less conceivably, the replacement that the de Navarros sent him in 1922 (see Kevin Telfer, Peter Pan's First XI, 2010, which includes a full account of the match).

The 32 signatures, a much higher number than found in other copies traced, comprise those of: Mary Barrie, Sylvia Llewellyn Davies, J.M. Barrie, Bernard Partridge, Hesketh Pritchard, Augustine Birrell, Daisy Partridge, Eleanor Birrell, E.H. Gilmour, J.L. Gilmour, D. Meredith, B. Reed, E.J. Reed, Charles Standring, A.J. de Navarro, Owen Seaman, A.E.W. Mason, Sydney S. Pawling, Henry J. Ford, Charles Turley Smith, Philip Carr, Clayton Johns, F.D. Millett, Lily Millett, Alfred Parsons, Louise M. Dale, Herman G. Herkomer, Mary Anderson Navarro, Blanche Griffin, Harry Plunket Greene, William Meredith and Edgar Speyer.

The Greenwood Hat, also privately printed in an edition of 50 copies, is inscribed to the youngest of Barrie's "Lost Boys", Nicholas Llewellyn-Davies, brother of Sylvia (see above). It includes a chapter on the Allahakbarries and two photographic plates ('Mr Birrel batting - A.E.W. Mason at point - Gilmour coaching' and 'The dear enemy of the Allahakbarries'). It also mentions the booklet, which had "swollen to thirty [pages], just as Wisden grows and grows. They were privately printed in tiny editions, and are rarities now".