In the 1904 play Peter Pan – in which the Boy Who Never Grew Up made his first appearance – he was said to come from "the Never Never Land". In the 1928 version, this was shortened to "the Never Land".
Meanwhile, in the novelised version, Peter and Wendy – published in 1911 – J. M. Barrie had referred to "the Neverland". He describes this as a place in a child's mind: every child has his or her own Neverland. But in Barrie's novel, the word "Neverland" is always preceded by the definite article; it is the Neverland.
I'm not sure who first used the word 'Neverland' without the definite article, but I suspect it was Walt Disney in his 1953 cartoon film version of the Peter Pan story. It was probably in 1988, when Michael Jackson bought the ranch that he named Neverland (as referred to in the question), that the article was lost for ever.
My point, such as it is, is that "Neverland" is not actually a place in literature; it's "the Neverland". If you count plays as literature, it was originally "the Never Never Land", and later "the Never Land".
Wikipedia, needless to say, has a list of references in popular culture to Peter Pan and (the) Neverland, including a Doctor Who "audio drama", dated 2002, entitled Neverland – with Paul McGann as The Doctor. One of the earliest references in Wikipedia's list is Christopher Cross's use of the line "It's not far to Never Never Land" in his 1979 song Sailing.
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