P. L. Travers
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Pamela Lyndon Travers OBE (9 August 1899 – 23 April 1996) was the author of Mary Poppins.
She was born Helen Lyndon Goff in Maryborough, Queensland, Australia, to bank manager Travers Robert Goff and Margaret Agnes (née Morehead). Her father died when she was seven, and, although "epileptic seizure delirium" was given as the cause of death, Travers herself "always believed the underlying cause was sustained, heavy drinking".[1]
Travers began to have her poems published while still a teenager and wrote for The Bulletin and Triad while also gaining a reputation as an actress. She toured Australia and New Zealand with a Shakespearean touring company before leaving for England in 1924. There she dedicated herself to writing under the pen name P. L. Travers (the two first initials were used to disguise a woman's name, a practice common to writers from J. K. Rowling to D. C. Fontana).
In Ireland in 1925, Travers met the poet George William Russell (AE) who, as editor of The Irish Statesman, accepted some of her poems for publication. Through Russell, Travers met William Butler Yeats and other Irish poets who fostered her interest in and knowledge of world mythology.
The 1934 publication of Mary Poppins was Travers' first literary success.[2] A number of sequels followed, as well as a collection of novels, poetry collections and non-fiction works. A Disney film of the Mary Poppins stories was released in 1964.
Travers was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1977. She died in London in 1996.
Although she never married, she adopted a boy when she was in her late 30s.[3]
Contents |
[edit] Books by P. L. Travers
[edit] Mary Poppins books
- Mary Poppins (1934)
- Mary Poppins Comes Back (1935)
- Mary Poppins in the Park (1935)
- Mary Poppins Opens the Door (1943)
- Gingerbread Shop (1952)
- Mr. Wigg's Birthday Party (1952)
- The Magic Compass (1953)
- Mary Poppins From A-Z (1962)
- Mary Poppins in the Kitchen (1975)
- Mary Poppins in Cherry Tree Lane (1982)
- Mary Poppins and the House Next Door (1988)
[edit] Novels
- I Go By Sea, I Go By Land (1941)
- Fox at the Manger (1962)
- Friend Monkey (1971)
- Two Pairs of Shoes (1980)
[edit] Collections
- Stories from Mary Poppins (1952)
- Mary Poppins in Cherry Tree Lane / Mary Poppins and the House Next Door (1999)
- Mary Poppins Omnibooks (1999)
[edit] Non-fiction
- About the Sleeping Beauty (1975)
- What the Bee Knows: Reflections on Myth, Symbol and Story (1989)
[edit] References
- ^ Lawson, V., 1999, Out of the sky she came: The life of P. L. Travers, creator of Mary Poppins, published in association with Belladonna Books. ISBN 0-7336-1072-2
- ^ Maryborough City Council page on Mary Poppins
- ^ ABC Radio National interview with Valerie Lawson, Travers biographer, in 2003
[edit] Books on P. L. Travers
- Out of the Sky She Came: The Life of P.L. Travers, Creator of Mary Poppins Valerie Lawson 1999 ISBN 0-7336-1072-2
- A Lively Oracle: a Centennial Celebration of P. L. Travers, Creator of Mary Poppins. Ellen Dooling Draper and Jenny Koralek, editors. (New York: Larson Publications, 1999).
- Mary Poppins She Wrote. Lawson,V., Aurum Press, 2005. ISBN 1-84513-126-6
[edit] External links
- Gurdjieff by P.L. Travers, from Man, Myth and Magic: Encyclopedia of the Supernatural 12 vol., (London: Purnell, 1970-1971) reprinted on the International Gurdjieff Review web site.
- Finding aid to Papers of P. L. Travers in State Library of New South Wales (pdf file).
- Becoming Mary Poppins: P. L. Travers, Walt Disney, and the making of a myth. (Caitlin Flanagan, The New Yorker, 12 December 2005)
- Secret Life of a Letter to the Editor, (Valerie Lawson, Columbia Journalism Review, February, 2006)
