Pamela Lyndon Travers
OBE
(
; born
Helen Lyndon Goff
; 9 August 1899 ? 23 April 1996) was an Australian-British writer who spent most of her career in England.
[1]
She is best known for the
Mary Poppins
series
of books,
[2]
which feature the
eponymous
magical nanny
.
P. L. Travers
|
---|
![Travers in the role of Titania in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, c. 1924](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/40/PL_Travers.jpg/220px-PL_Travers.jpg) |
Born
| Helen Lyndon Goff
(
1899-08-09
)
9 August 1899
Maryborough
,
Colony of Queensland
|
---|
Died
| 23 April 1996
(1996-04-23)
(aged?96)
Chelsea
, London, England
|
---|
Resting place
| St Mary the Virgin's Church,
Twickenham
, London
|
---|
Pen name
| Pamela Lyndon Travers
|
---|
Occupation
| - Writer
- actress
- journalist
|
---|
Nationality
| Australian-British
|
---|
Genre
| Children's literature, fantasy
|
---|
Notable works
| Mary Poppins
book series
|
---|
Children
| 1
|
---|
Goff was born in
Maryborough, Queensland
, and grew up in the
Australian bush
before being sent to boarding school in Sydney. Her writing was first published when she was a teenager, and she also worked briefly as a professional
Shakespearean actress
. Upon emigrating to England at the age of 24, she took the name "Pamela Lyndon Travers" and adopted the pen name
P. L. Travers
in 1933 while writing the first of eight
Mary Poppins
books.
Travers travelled to New York City during
World War II
while working for the
British Ministry of Information
. At that time,
Walt Disney
contacted her about selling to
Walt Disney Productions
the rights for a film adaptation of
Mary Poppins
. After years of contact, which included visits to Travers at her home in London, Walt Disney obtained the rights and the film
Mary Poppins
premiered in 1964.
In 2004, a
stage musical adaptation
of the books and the film opened in the
West End
; it premiered on
Broadway
in 2006. A film based on Disney's efforts to persuade Travers to sell him the
Mary Poppins
film rights was released in 2013,
Saving Mr. Banks
, in which Travers is portrayed by
Emma Thompson
. In a 2018 sequel to the original film,
Mary Poppins Returns
, Poppins, played by
Emily Blunt
, returns to help the Banks family once again.
Helen Lyndon Goff, also known as Lyndon, was born on 9 August 1899 in
Maryborough
, Queensland, Australia, at her family's home.
Her mother, Margaret Agnes Goff (nee Morehead), was Australian and the niece of
Boyd Dunlop Morehead
,
Premier of Queensland
from 1888 to 1890.
[
citation needed
]
Her father, Travers Robert Goff, was unsuccessful as a bank manager owing to his alcoholism, and was eventually demoted to the position of
bank clerk
.
[4]
The two had been married on 9 November 1898, nine months before Helen was born.
The name Helen came from a maternal great-grandmother and great-aunt. Although she was born in Australia, Goff considered herself Irish and later expressed the sentiment that her birth had been "misplaced".
As a baby she visited her great aunt Ellie in
Sydney
for the first time; Ellie would figure prominently in her early life,
as Goff often stayed with her.
Goff lived a simple life as a child, given a penny a week by her parents as well as occasional other gifts. Her mother was known for giving Goff maxims and instructions and she loved "the memory of her father" and his stories of life in Ireland. Goff was also an avid reader, later stating that she could read at three years old, and particularly enjoying
fairy tales
.
The family lived in a large home in Maryborough until Lyndon was three years old, when they relocated to
Brisbane
in 1902. Goff recalled an idealized version of her childhood in Maryborough as an adult. In Brisbane, Goff's sister was born.
In mid-1905 Goff went to spend time with Ellie in Sydney.
Later that year, Lyndon returned and the family moved to
Allora, Queensland
.
In part because Goff was often left alone as a child by parents who were "caught up in their own importance", she developed a "form of self-sufficiency and [...had an] idiosyncratic form of fantasy life", according to her biographer Valerie Lawson, often pretending to be a mother hen?at times for hours.
Goff also wrote poetry, which her family paid little attention to. In 1906 Lyndon attended the Allora Public School.
Travers Goff died at home in January 1907. Lyndon would struggle to come to terms with this fact for the next six years.
Mary Poppins statue in Ashfield Park in honour of Goff (Travers) who lived nearby from 1918 to 1924
Following her father's death, Goff, along with her mother and sisters, moved to
Bowral
, New South Wales, in 1907, and she attended the local branch of the
Sydney Church of England Grammar School
.
She
boarded
at the now-defunct
Normanhurst School
in
Ashfield
, a suburb of
Sydney
, from 1912. At Normanhurst, she began to love theatre. In 1914 she published an article in the
Normanhurst School Magazine
, her first, and later that year directed a school concert. The following year, Goff played the role of Bottom in a production of
A Midsummer Night's Dream
. She became a
prefect
and sought to have a successful career as an actress.
[15]
Goff's first employment was at the
Australian Gas Light Company
as a cashier.
[17]
Between 1918 and 1924 she resided at 40 Pembroke Street,
Ashfield
.
[18]
In 1920 Goff appeared in her first
pantomime
.
The following year she was hired to work in a Shakespearean Company run by
Allan Wilkie
based in Sydney.
Goff had her first role in the troupe as Anne Page in a March 1921 performance of
The Merry Wives of Windsor
. She decided to go by the stage name of "Pamela Lyndon Travers", taking Travers from her father's name and Pamela because she thought it a "pretty" name that "flowed" with Travers.
Travers toured
New South Wales
beginning in early 1921 and returned to Wilkie's troupe in Sydney by April 1922. That month, in a review of her performance as
Titania
in
A Midsummer Night's Dream
, a critic for
Frank Morton
's
Triad
wrote that her performance was 'all too human'.
The troupe travelled to New Zealand, where Travers met and fell in love with a journalist for
The Sun
. The journalist took one of Travers' poems to his editor and it was published in the
Sun.
Even after she left New Zealand Travers continued to submit works to the
Sun
, eventually having her own column called "Pamela Passes: the
Sun's
Sydney Letter". Travers also had work accepted and published by publications including the
Shakespeare Quarterly, Vision
, and
The Green Room
. She was told to not make a career out of journalism and turned to poetry.
The Triad
published "Mother Song", one of her poems, in March 1922, under the name "Pamela Young Travers".
The Bulletin
published Travers' poem, "Keening", on March 20, 1923, and she became a frequent contributor. In May 1923 she found employment at the
Triad
, where she was given the discretion to fill at least four pages of a women's section?titled "A Woman Hits Back"?every issue. Travers wrote poetry, journalism, and prose for her section; Lawson notes that "erotic verse and
coquetry
" figured prominently.
She published a book of poetry,
Bitter Sweet
.
Travers' second London home in 50 Smith Street,
Chelsea
, London
On 9 February 1924, Travers left Australia for England, settling in London.
She only revisited Australia once, in the 1960s. For four years she wrote poetry for the
Irish Statesman
,
[17]
beginning while in Ireland in 1925 when Travers met the poet
George William Russell
(who wrote under the name "Æ") who, as editor of the
Statesman
, accepted some of her poems for publication. Through Russell, whose kindness towards younger writers was legendary, Travers met
W. B. Yeats
,
Oliver St. John Gogarty
and other
Irish poets
who fostered her interest in and knowledge of world
mythology
.
After visiting
Fontainebleau
in France, Travers met
George Ivanovich Gurdjieff
, an
occultist
, of whom she became a "disciple". Around the same time she was taught by
Carl Gustav Jung
in Switzerland.
[17]
In 1931, she moved with her friend Madge Burnand from their rented flat in London to a
thatched cottage
in Sussex.
[4]
There, in the winter of 1933, she began to write
Mary Poppins
.
[4]
During the 1930s, Travers reviewed drama for
The New English Weekly
and published the book
Moscow Excursion
(1934).
Mary Poppins
was published that year with great success. Many sequels followed.
[17]
During the Second World War, Travers worked for the
British Ministry of Information
, spending five years in the US, publishing
I Go by Sea, I Go by Land
in 1941.
[17]
At the invitation of her friend
John Collier
, the
US Commissioner of Indian Affairs
, Travers spent two summers living among the
Navajo
,
Hopi
and
Pueblo
peoples, studying their mythology and folklore.
[28]
Travers moved back to England at the end of the war, where she continued writing.
[17]
She moved into 50 Smith Street,
Chelsea
, London, which is commemorated with an English Heritage
blue plaque
. She returned to the US in 1965 and became
writer-in-residence
at
Radcliffe College
from 1965 to 1966 and at
Smith College
in 1966 and lecturing at
Scripps College
in 1970.
[17]
She published various works and edited
Parabola: the Magazine of Myth and Tradition
from 1976 to her death.
[17]
As early as 1926, Travers published a short story, "Mary Poppins and the Match Man", which introduced the nanny character of Mary Poppins and Bert the street artist.
[30]
[31]
Published in London in 1934,
Mary Poppins
, the children's book, was Travers' first literary success. Seven sequels followed, the last in 1988, when Travers was 89.
[32]
While appearing as a guest on
BBC Radio 4
's radio programme
Desert Island Discs
in May 1977, Travers revealed that the name "M. Poppins" originated from childhood stories that she contrived for her sisters, and that she was still in possession of a book from that era with this name inscribed within.
[33]
Travers's great aunt, Helen Morehead, who lived in
Woollahra
,
Sydney
, and used to say "Spit spot, into bed," is a likely inspiration for the character.
[34]
[35]
The
musical
film adaptation
Mary Poppins
was released by
Walt Disney Pictures
in 1964. Primarily based on the original 1934 novel of the same name, it also lifted elements from the 1935 sequel
Mary Poppins Comes Back
. The novels were loved by Disney's daughters when they were children, and Disney spent 20 years trying to purchase the film rights to
Mary Poppins
, which included visits to Travers at her home in London.
[36]
In 1961, Travers arrived in Los Angeles on a flight from London, her first-class ticket having been paid for by Disney, and finally agreed to sell the rights, in no small part because she was financially in dire straits.
[37]
Travers was an adviser in the production, but she disapproved of the Poppins character in its Disney version; with harsher aspects diluted, she felt ambivalent about the music and she so hated the use of animation that she ruled out any further adaptations of the series.
[38]
She received no invitation to the film's star-studded premiere until she "embarrassed a Disney executive into extending one". At the after-party, she said loudly, "Well. The first thing that has to go is the animation sequence." Disney replied, "Pamela, the ship has sailed".
Travers so disliked the Disney adaptation and the way she felt she had been treated during the production that when producer
Cameron Mackintosh
approached her years later about making the
British stage musical
, she acquiesced only on conditions that British writers alone and no one from the original film production were to be directly involved.
[39]
[40]
That specifically excluded the
Sherman Brothers
from writing additional songs for the production. However, original songs and other aspects from the 1964 film were allowed to be incorporated into the production.
[41]
Those points were even stipulated in her last will and testament.
[42]
[43]
In the 1977 interview on the BBC's
Desert Island Discs
, Travers remarked about the film, "I've seen it once or twice, and I've learned to live with it. It's glamorous and it's a good film on its own level, but I don't think it is very like my books."
[44]
[45]
The 2013 film
Saving Mr. Banks
is a dramatised retelling of both the working process during the planning of
Mary Poppins
and of Travers's early life, drawing parallels with
Mary Poppins
and that of the author's childhood. The film stars
Emma Thompson
as
P. L. Travers
and
Tom Hanks
as
Walt Disney
. Thompson considered it the most challenging of her career because she had "never really played anyone quite so contradictory or difficult before",
[46]
but found the complicated character "a blissful joy to embody".
[47]
In 2018, 54 years after the release of the original Mary Poppins film, a sequel was released titled
Mary Poppins Returns
, with
Emily Blunt
starring as Mary Poppins. The film, in which Mary Poppins returns to help Jane and Michael one year after a family tragedy, is set 25 years after the events of the first film.
Travers was reluctant to share details about her personal life, saying she "most identified with Anonymous as a writer" and asked whether "biographies are of any use at all".
Patricia Demers
was allowed to interview her in 1988 but not to ask about her personal life.
[17]
Bust of P. L. Travers, c. 1944, by
Gertrude Hermes
,
National Portrait Gallery
, London
Travers never married.
[17]
Though she had numerous fleeting relationships with men throughout her life, she lived for more than a decade with Madge Burnand, daughter of Sir
Francis Burnand
, a playwright and the former editor of
Punch
. They shared a London flat from 1927 to 1934, then moved to Pound Cottage near
Mayfield
, East Sussex, where Travers published the first of the
Mary Poppins
books. Their relationship, in the words of one biographer
[
who?
]
, was "intense", but equally ambiguous.
At the age of 40, two years after moving out on her own, Travers adopted a baby boy from Ireland whom she named Camillus Travers. He was the grandchild of
Joseph Hone
, the first biographer of
George Moore
and
W. B. Yeats
, who was raising his seven grandchildren with his wife. Camillus was unaware of his true parentage or the existence of any siblings until the age of 17, when Anthony Hone, his twin brother, came to London and knocked on the door of Travers's house at 50 Smith Street, Chelsea. He had been drinking and demanded to see his brother. Travers refused and threatened to call the police. Anthony left but, soon after, following an argument with Travers, Camillus went looking for his brother and found him in a pub on
King's Road
.
[48]
[49]
Anthony had been fostered and raised by the family of the essayist
Hubert Butler
in Ireland. Through Camillus, Travers had three grandchildren.
[50]
Travers was appointed
Officer of the Order of the British Empire
(OBE) in the
1977 New Year Honours
. The investiture ceremony took place later that year at
Buckingham Palace
, with the
Duke of Kent
standing in for Queen
Elizabeth II
. She died in London on 23 April 1996 at the age of 96.
[51]
She is buried at St Mary the Virgin's Church,
Twickenham
, London.
[52]
Although Travers never fully accepted the way the Disney film version of
Mary Poppins
had portrayed her nanny figure, the film did make her rich.
[53]
Her estate was valued for probate in September 1996 at £2,044,708.
[54]
- Mary Poppins
, London: Gerald Howe, 1934
- Mary Poppins Comes Back
, London: L. Dickson & Thompson Ltd., 1935
- I Go By Sea, I Go By Land
, London: Peter Davies, 1941
- Aunt Sass
, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1941
- Ah Wong
, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1943
- Mary Poppins Opens the Door
, London: Peter Davies, 1943
- Johnny Delaney
, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1944
- Mary Poppins in the Park
, London: Peter Davies, 1952
- Gingerbread Shop
, 1952 (an adapted version of the "Mrs. Corry" chapter from
Mary Poppins
)
- Mr. Wigg's Birthday Party
, 1952 (an adapted version of the "Laughing Gas" chapter from
Mary Poppins
)
- The Magic Compass
, 1953 (an adapted version of the "Bad Tuesday" chapter from
Mary Poppins
)
- Mary Poppins From A to Z
, London: Collins, 1963
- The Fox at the Manger
, London: Collins, 1963
- Friend Monkey
, London: Collins, 1972
- Mary Poppins in the Kitchen
, New York & London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975
- Two Pairs of Shoes
, New York: Viking Press, 1980
- Mary Poppins in Cherry Tree Lane
, London: Collins, 1982
- Mary Poppins and the House Next Door
, London: Collins. 1988.
- ^
PL Travers (British author)
. Encyclopædia Britannica.
- ^
These are usually classified as children's books, but Travers stated many times that they were not written for children.
- ^
a
b
c
Picardie, Justine (2008-10-28).
"Was P L Travers the real Mary Poppins?"
.
The Daily Telegraph
(telegraph.co.uk)
. London. Archived from
the original
on 2022-01-12
. Retrieved
2010-11-25
.
- ^
"The truth behind Mary Poppins creator P.L. Travers"
by Time Barlass,
The Sydney Morning Herald
, 5 January 2014
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
"Goff, Helen Lyndon [
pseuds
. P. L. Travers, Pamela Lyndon Travers]".
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(online?ed.). Oxford University Press.
doi
:
10.1093/ref:odnb/62619
.
(Subscription or
UK public library membership
required.)
- ^
"P L Travers (Mary Poppins) statue and plaque"
.
Monument Australia
. Retrieved
2023-06-28
.
- ^
Witchell, Alex (1994-09-22).
"At Home With: P. L. Travers; Where Starlings Greet the Stars"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
2013-11-21
.
- ^
Valerie Lawson,
Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P. L. Travers
, 2005, p. 100.
- ^
Text of the short story
- ^
Cullinan, Bernice E; Person, Diane Goetz (2005),
Encyclopedia of Children's Literature
, Continuum, p.?784,
ISBN
978-0-82641778-7
, retrieved
2012-11-09
- ^
"P L Travers"
.
Desert Island Discs
.
BBC Radio 4
. 1977-05-21.
Audio recording of the episode featuring Travers with Roy Plumley.
- ^
McDonald, Shae (2013-12-18).
"PL Travers biographer Valerie Lawson says the real Mary Poppins lived in Woollahra"
.
Wentworth Courier
. Sydney:
The Daily Telegraph (Sydney)
[dailytelegraph.com.au].
- ^
Nance, Kevin (2013-12-20).
"Valerie Lawson talks
Mary Poppins, She Wrote
and P.L Travers: Biography reveals original character's sharp edge"
.
Chicago Tribune
. p.?2
. Retrieved
2014-01-12
.
- ^
"Saving Mr Banks: the true story of Walt Disney's battle to make Mary Poppins"
.
The Telegraph
. Retrieved 17 May 2017
- ^
"What Saving Mr Banks tells us about the original Mary Poppins"
.
The Guardian
. Retrieved 17 May 2017
- ^
Newman, Melinda (2013-11-07).
"
Poppins
Author a Pill No Spoonful of Sugar Could Sweeten: Tunesmith Richard Sherman recalls studio's battles with Travers to bring Disney classic to life"
.
Variety
. Retrieved
2013-11-07
.
- ^
Ouzounian, Richard (2013-12-13).
"P L Travers might have liked Mary Poppins onstage"
.
The Toronto Star
. Retrieved
2014-03-06
.
- ^
Rainey, Sarah (2013-11-29).
"Saving Mr Banks: The true story of PL Travers"
.
The Daily Telegraph
. Archived from
the original
on 2022-01-12
. Retrieved
2015-05-14
.
- ^
Rochlin, Margy (2013-12-06).
"A Spoonful of Sugar for a Sourpuss: Songwriter Recalls P. L. Travers,
Mary Poppins
Author"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
2015-05-14
.
- ^
Norman, Neil (2012-04-14).
"The real Mary Poppins"
.
Daily Express
. Retrieved
2015-05-14
.
- ^
Erbland, Kate (2013-12-26).
"The Dark, Deep and Dramatic True Story of
Saving Mr. Banks
"
.
Film.com
. Archived from
the original
on 2016-01-05
. Retrieved
2015-05-14
.
- ^
"Saving Mr Banks (2013): Did the real P L Travers weep at the Mary Poppins movie premiere?"
. History vs Hollywood
. Retrieved
2020-03-01
.
- ^
Desert Island Discs: P L Travers
.
BBC Radio 4
. 1977-05-23. Event occurs at 17:02
. Retrieved
2020-03-01
.
- ^
Thompson, Emma (2014-01-09).
"Not-So-Cheery Disposition: Emma Thompson on Poppins' Cranky Creator"
.
Fresh Air
(Interview). Interviewed by Dave Davies. NPR.
Archived
from the original on 2021-04-16
. Retrieved
2021-04-16
.
- ^
Thompson, Emma (24 November 2014).
Interview with Boyd Hilton
Archived
5 March 2016 at the
Wayback Machine
. London. A Life in Pictures. BAFTA
- ^
Hone, Joseph (2013-12-06).
"Steely, self-centred, controlling ? the Mary Poppins I knew"
.
Irish Examiner
. Retrieved
2018-06-08
.
- ^
Minus, Jodie (10?11 April 2004). "There's something about Mary".
The Weekend Australian
. p.?R6.
- ^
Fox, Margalit (1996-04-25).
"P. L. Travers, Creator of the Magical and Beloved Nanny Mary Poppins, Is Dead at 96"
.
The New York Times
.
- ^
Rochlin, Margy (2014-01-03).
"Not Quite All Spoonfuls of Sugar: Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson Discuss
Saving Mr. Banks
"
.
The New York Times
. Retrieved
2014-01-05
.
- ^
Wilson, Scott (2016).
Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons
(3rd?ed.). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company. p.?755.
ISBN
9780786479924
.
- ^
Valerie Lawson,
Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P. L. Travers
, 2005, pp. 270?274.
- ^
Valerie Lawson,
Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P. L. Travers
, 2005, p. 360.
- ^
"Travers"
.
Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature
.
NASA
. Retrieved
2022-03-10
.
General and cited references
edit
- Cesare Cata, La sapienza segreta di Pamela L. Travers, saggio introduttivo a La sapienza segreta delle api, Liberilibri, Macerata, 2019
- Dooling Draper, Ellen; Koralek, Jenny, eds. (1999).
A Lively Oracle: A Centennial Celebration of P. L. Travers, Creator of Mary Poppins
. New York: Larson Publications. Archived from
the original
on 2007-08-07
. Retrieved
2014-07-03
.
- Travers, P. L. (1970?1971). "George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (1877?1949)".
Man, Myth and Magic: Encyclopedia of the Supernatural
. London: Purnell.
, 12 vol.;
reprinted
in
International Gurdjieff Review
3.1 (Fall 1999):
"In Memoriam: An Introduction to Gurdjieff"
(the title of the issue)
Manuscript and pictorial sources
edit
- P. L. Travers - papers, c. 1899?1988, 4.5 metres of textual material (28 boxes) - manuscript, typescript, and printed Clippings, Photographs, Objects, Drawings, State Library of New South Wales,
MLMSS 5341, MLOH 62
- P. L. Travers - further papers, 1901?1991, Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Clippings, Photographs, Drawings, 2 boxes - 0.26 meters, State Library of New South Wales
MLMSS 5341 ADD-ON 2130
- P. L. Travers, four diaries, 1948?1953, Camillus Travers is the son of P. L. Travers, author of Mary Poppins. He gave these notebooks to his mother as a boy and they were used by her for recording his schooldays and their holidays spent together, as well as other events over this period, State Library of New South Wales
MLMSS 7956
- Family and personal photographs collected by P.L. Travers, c. 1891?1980, 1 portfolio (51 black and white, sepia, col. photographs, 2 photograph albums, 1 hand coloured lithograph, 17 coloured transparencies) various sizes, State Library of New South Wales
PX*D 334