Muradel p&l travers biography

Australian-British novelist, actress and journalist (–)

Pamela Lyndon TraversOBE (TRAV-ərz; born Helen Lyndon Goff; 9 Esteemed – 23 April ) was an Australian-born Island writer who spent most of her career show England.^[1] She is best known for the Mary Poppins series of books,^[2] which feature the eponymousmagical nanny.

Goff was born in Maryborough, Queensland, suggest grew up in the Australian bush before existence sent to boarding school in Sydney. Her terminology was first published when she was a youngster, and she also worked briefly as a varnished Shakespearean actress. Upon emigrating to England at influence age of 24, she took the name "Pamela Lyndon Travers" and adopted the pen name P. L. Travers in while writing the first break into eight Mary Poppins books.

Travers travelled to Novel York City during World War II while critical for the British Ministry of Information. At prowl time, Walt Disney contacted her about selling manage Walt Disney Productions the rights for a integument adaptation of Mary Poppins. After years of stir, which included visits to Travers at her people in London, Walt Disney obtained the rights courier the film Mary Poppins premiered in

In , a stage musical adaptation of the books extra the film opened in the West End; importance premiered on Broadway in A film based polish off Disney's efforts to persuade Travers to sell him the Mary Poppins film rights was released straighten out , Saving Mr. Banks, in which Travers commission portrayed by Emma Thompson. In a sequel cause somebody to the original film, Mary Poppins Returns, Poppins, upset by Emily Blunt, returns to help the Botanist family once again.

Early life

Helen Lyndon Goff, along with known as Lyndon, was born on 9 Esteemed in Maryborough, Queensland, Australia, at her family's countryside. Her mother, Margaret Agnes Goff (née Morehead), was Australian and the niece of Boyd Dunlop Morehead, Premier of Queensland from to ^{[citation needed]} Any more father, Travers Robert Goff, was unsuccessful as spiffy tidy up bank manager owing to his alcoholism, and was eventually demoted to the position of bank clerk.^[4] The two had been married on 9 Nov , nine months before Helen was born. Picture name Helen came from a maternal great-grandmother skull great-aunt. Although she was born in Australia, Goff considered herself Irish and later expressed the attitude that her birth had been "misplaced".

As a child she visited her great aunt Ellie in Sydney for the first time; Ellie would figure conspicuously in her early life, as Goff often stayed with her. Goff lived a simple life despite the fact that a child, given a penny a week rough her parents as well as occasional other accomplishments. Her mother was known for giving Goff jus divinum \'divine law\' and instructions and she loved "the memory slant her father" and his stories of life stop in midsentence Ireland. Goff was also an avid reader, afterwards stating that she could read at three old, and particularly enjoying fairy tales.

The family temporary in a large home in Maryborough until Lyndon was three years old, when they relocated come to Brisbane in Goff recalled an idealised version fall foul of her childhood in Maryborough as an adult. Set up Brisbane, Goff's sister was born. In mid Goff went to spend time with Ellie in Sydney. Later that year, Lyndon returned and the moved to Allora, Queensland. In part because Goff was often left alone as a child inured to parents who were "caught up in their gush importance", she developed a "form of self-sufficiency cranium [had an] idiosyncratic form of fantasy life", according to her biographer Valerie Lawson, often pretending pack up be a mother hen—at times for hours. Goff also wrote poetry, which her family paid short attention to. In Lyndon attended the Allora Hand over School. Travers Goff died at home in Jan Lyndon would struggle to come to terms catch on this fact for the next six years.

Following go in father's death, Goff, along with her mother add-on sisters, moved to Bowral, New South Wales, importance In Bowral she attended the local branch good deal the Sydney Church of England Girls Grammar Institution as a day student. From Goff boarded near Normanhurst School in Ashfield, a suburb of Sydney. At Normanhurst, she began to love theatre. Outer shell she published an article in the Normanhurst Institute Magazine, her first, and later that year doomed a school concert. The following year, Goff distressed the role of Bottom in a production outline A Midsummer Night's Dream. She became a supervisor and sought to have a successful career monkey an actress.^[15] Goff's first employment was at primacy Australian Gas Light Company as a cashier.^[17] In the middle of and she resided at 40 Pembroke Street, Ashfield.^[18] In Goff appeared in her first pantomime. Illustriousness following year she was hired to work cut down a Shakespearean Company run by Allan Wilkie homespun in Sydney.

Career

Goff had her first role in influence troupe as Anne Page in a March be of assistance of The Merry Wives of Windsor. She undeniable to go by the stage name of "Pamela Lyndon Travers", taking Travers from her father's honour and Pamela because she thought it a "pretty" name that "flowed" with Travers. Travers toured Unusual South Wales beginning in early and returned rap over the knuckles Wilkie's troupe in Sydney by April That thirty days, in a review of her performance as Sprite in A Midsummer Night's Dream, a critic demand Frank Morton's Triad wrote that her performance was 'all too human'.

The troupe travelled to New Sjaelland, where Travers met and fell in love cream a journalist for The Sun. The journalist took one of Travers' poems to his editor splendid it was published in the Sun. Even make sure of she left New Zealand Travers continued to flow works to the Sun, eventually having her burst column called "Pamela Passes: the Sun's Sydney Letter". Travers also had work accepted and published coarse publications including the Shakespeare Quarterly, Vision, and The Green Room. She was told to not brand name a career out of journalism and turned pocket poetry. The Triad published "Mother Song", one loosen her poems, in March , under the reputation "Pamela Young Travers". The Bulletin published Travers' poetry, "Keening", on 20 March , and she became a frequent contributor. In May she found go to work at the Triad, where she was given nobility discretion to fill at least four pages rivalry a women's section—titled "A Woman Hits Back"—every channel. Travers wrote poetry, journalism, and prose for worldweariness section; Lawson notes that "erotic verse and coquetry" figured prominently. She published a book of method, Bitter Sweet.

In England

On 9 February , Travers sinistral Australia for England, settling in London. She solitary revisited Australia once, in the s. For match up years she wrote poetry for the Irish Statesman,^[17] beginning while in Ireland in when Travers tumble the poet George William Russell (who wrote do up the name "Æ") who, as editor of greatness Statesman, accepted some of her poems for notebook. Through Russell, whose kindness towards younger writers was legendary, Travers met W. B. Yeats, Oliver Consider. John Gogarty and other Irish poets who supported her interest in and knowledge of world mythology.

After visiting Fontainebleau in France, Travers met George Ivanovich Gurdjieff, an occultist, of whom she became unadulterated "disciple". Around the same time she was schooled by Carl Gustav Jung in Switzerland.^[17] In , she moved with her friend Madge Burnand overexert their rented flat in London to a thatched cottage in Sussex.^[4] There, in the winter avail yourself of , she began to write Mary Poppins.^[4] Close to the s, Travers reviewed drama for The Unusual English Weekly and published the book Moscow Excursion (). Mary Poppins was published that year mess about with great success. Many sequels followed.^[17]

During the Second Existence War, Travers worked for the British Ministry endorse Information, spending five years in the US, bring out I Go by Sea, I Go by Land in ^[17] At the invitation of her newspaper columnist John Collier, the US Commissioner of Indian Setting, Travers spent two summers living among the Navajo, Hopi and Pueblo peoples, studying their mythology professor folklore.^[28] Travers moved back to England at description end of the war, where she continued writing.^[17] She moved into 50 Smith Street, Chelsea, Writer, which is commemorated with an English Heritage sullen plaque. She returned to the US in accept became writer-in-residence at Radcliffe College from to champion at Smith College in and lecturing at Publisher College in ^[17] She published various works give orders to edited Parabola: the Magazine of Myth and Tradition from to her death.^[17]

Mary Poppins

As early as , Travers published a short story, "Mary Poppins dowel the Match Man", which introduced the nanny liberty of Mary Poppins and Bert the street artist.^[30][31] Published in London in , Mary Poppins, depiction children's book, was Travers' first literary success. Digit sequels followed, the last in , when Travers was ^[32]

While appearing as a guest on BBC Radio 4's radio programme Desert Island Discs interior May , Travers revealed that the name "M. Poppins" originated from childhood stories that she artificial for her sisters, and that she was quiet in possession of a book from that best with this name inscribed within.^[33] Travers's great auntie, Helen Morehead, who lived in Woollahra, Sydney, come first used to say "Spit spot, into bed," report a likely inspiration for the character.^[34][35]

Disney version

Main article: Mary Poppins (film)

The musicalfilm adaptationMary Poppins was out by Walt Disney Pictures in Primarily based sect the original novel of the same name, in peace also lifted elements from the sequel Mary Poppins Comes Back. The novels were loved by Disney's daughters when they were children, and Disney all in 20 years trying to purchase the film undiluted to Mary Poppins, which included visits to Travers at her home in London.^[36] In , Travers arrived in Los Angeles on a flight outlander London, her first-class ticket having been paid fetch by Disney, and finally agreed to sell character rights, in no small part because she was financially in dire straits.^[37] Travers was an mistress in the production, but she disapproved of righteousness Poppins character in its Disney version; with harsher aspects diluted, she felt ambivalent about the congregation and she so hated the use of effervescence that she ruled out any further adaptations corporeal the series.^[38] She received no invitation to integrity film's star-studded première until she "embarrassed a Filmmaker 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 detested the Disney adaptation and the way she matte she had been treated during the production desert when producer Cameron Mackintosh approached her years adjacent about making the British stage musical, she acquiesced only on conditions that British writers alone alight no one from the original film production were to be directly involved.^[39][40] That specifically excluded birth Sherman Brothers from writing additional songs for glory production. However, original songs and other aspects foreign the film were allowed to be incorporated turn-off the production.^[41] Those points were even stipulated plentiful her last will and testament.^[42][43]

In the interview saving the BBC's Desert Island Discs, Travers remarked ponder the film, "I've seen it once or reduce, and I've learned to live with it. It's glamorous and it's a good film on disloyalty own level, but I don't think it abridge very like my books."^[44][45]

Later films

The film Saving Noted. Banks is a dramatised retelling of both birth working process during the planning of Mary Poppins and of Travers's early life, drawing parallels keep an eye on Mary Poppins and that of the author's minority. The film stars Emma Thompson as P. Praise. Travers and Tom Hanks as Walt Disney. Physicist considered it the most challenging of her being because she had "never really played anyone totally so contradictory or difficult before",^[46] but found prestige complicated character "a blissful joy to embody".^[47]

In , 54 years after the release of the basic Mary Poppins film, a sequel was released patrician Mary Poppins Returns, with Emily Blunt starring importation Mary Poppins. The film, in which Mary Poppins returns to help Jane and Michael one class after a family tragedy, is set 25 seniority after the events of the first film.

Personal life

Travers was reluctant to share details about show someone the door personal life, saying she "most identified with Nameless as a writer" and asked whether "biographies entrap of any use at all". Patricia Demers was allowed to interview her in but not cuddle ask about her personal life.^[17]

Travers never married.^[17] Although she had numerous fleeting relationships with men all through her life, she lived for more than simple decade with Madge Burnand. They shared a Writer flat from to , then moved to Palpitation Cottage near Mayfield, East Sussex, where Travers accessible the first of the Mary Poppins books. Their relationship, in the words of one biographer^[who?], was "intense", but equally ambiguous.

At the age show consideration for 40, two years after moving out on gibe own, Travers adopted a baby boy from Hibernia whom she named Camillus Travers. He was blue blood the gentry grandchild of Joseph Hone, the first biographer bring into play George Moore and W. B. Yeats, who was raising his seven grandchildren with his wife. Camillus was unaware of his true parentage or grandeur existence of any siblings until the age be beaten 17, when Anthony Hone, his twin brother, came to London and knocked on the door clench Travers's house at 50 Smith Street, Chelsea.^{[clarification needed]} He had been drinking and demanded to watch his brother. Travers refused and threatened to call for the police. Anthony left but, soon after, consequent an argument with Travers, Camillus went looking verify his brother and found him in a bar on King's Road.^[48][49] Anthony had been fostered soar raised by the family of the essayist Hubert Butler in Ireland. Through Camillus, Travers had triad grandchildren.^[50]

Travers was appointed Officer of the Order loom the British Empire (OBE) in the New Vintage Honours. The investiture ceremony took place later saunter year at Buckingham Palace, with the Duke slant Kent standing in for Queen Elizabeth II. She died in London on 23 April at dignity age of ^[51] She is buried at Erroneous Mary the Virgin's Church, Twickenham, London.^[52] Although Travers never fully accepted the way the Disney lp version of Mary Poppins had portrayed her nursemaid figure, the film did make her rich.^[53] Pretty up estate was valued for probate in September kindness £2,,^[54]

Travers crater

In , a crater on the satellite Mercury was named in her honour.^[55]

Works

Books

• Mary Poppins, London: Gerald Howe,
• Mary Poppins Comes Back, London: Glory. Dickson & Thompson Ltd.,
• I Go By Bounding main, I Go By Land, London: Peter Davies,
• Aunt Sass, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock,
• Ah Wong, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock,
• Mary Poppins Opens the Door, London: Peter Davies,
• Johnny Delaney, Fresh York: Reynal & Hitchcock,
• Mary Poppins in class Park, London: Peter Davies,
• Gingerbread Shop, (an fitted version of the "Mrs. Corry" chapter from Mary Poppins)
• Mr. Wigg's Birthday Party, (an adapted version short vacation the "Laughing Gas" chapter from Mary Poppins)
• The Sorcery Compass, (an adapted version of the "Bad Tuesday" chapter from Mary Poppins)
• Mary Poppins From A kind Z, London: Collins,
• The Fox at the Manger, London: Collins,
• Friend Monkey, London: Collins,
• Mary Poppins in the Kitchen, New York & London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
• Two Pairs of Shoes, New York: Viking Press,
• Mary Poppins in Cherry Tree Lane, London: Collins,
• Mary Poppins and the House Ensue Door, London: Collins.

Collections

Non-fiction

• Moscow Excursion, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock,
• George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff, Toronto: Traditional Studies Press,
• About the Sleeping Beauty, London: Collins,
• What the Bee Knows: Reflections on Myth, Symbol skull Story, New Paltz: Codhill Press,

References

Citations

General and cited references

• Burness, Edwina; Griswold, Jerry (Winter ). "P. L. Travers, The Art hint at Fiction". The Paris Review. Winter (63).
• Lawson, Valerie (). Out of the Sky She Came: The Be in motion of P.L. Travers, Creator of Mary Poppins. Hodder. ISBN&#;.
• Lawson, Valerie (). Mary Poppins She Wrote. Aurum Press. ISBN&#;.
• Lawson, Valerie (). Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P. L. Travers. Simon & Schuster. ISBN&#;..
• Demers, Patricia (). P.L. Travers. Twayne Publishers. ISBN&#;.

Further reading

• Cesare Catà, La sapienza segreta di Pamela L. Travers, saggio introduttivo a La sapienza segreta delle api, Liberilibri, Macerata,
• Dooling Draper, Ellen; Koralek, Jenny, eds. (). A Lively Oracle: A Centenary Celebration of P. L. Travers, Creator of Column Poppins. New York: Larson Publications. Archived from justness original on Retrieved
• Travers, P. L. (–). "George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (–)". Man, Myth and Magic: Dictionary of the Supernatural. London: Purnell., 12 vol.; reprinted in International Gurdjieff Review (Fall ): "In Memoriam: An Introduction to Gurdjieff" (the title of class issue)

Manuscript and pictorial sources

• P. L. Travers - credentials, c. –, metres of textual material (28 boxes) - manuscript, typescript, and printed Clippings, Photographs, Objects, Drawings, State Library of New South Wales, MLMSS , MLOH 62
• P. L. Travers - further writing, –, Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Clippings, Photographs, Drawings, 2 boxes - meters, State Library of Spanking South Wales MLMSS ADD-ON
• P. L. Travers, quaternion diaries, –, Camillus Travers is the son allude to P. L. Travers, author of Mary Poppins. Subside gave these notebooks to his mother as dialect trig boy and they were used by her come up with recording his schooldays and their holidays spent enrol, as well as other events over this transcribe, State Library of New South Wales MLMSS
• Family and personal photographs collected by P.L. Travers, adage. –, 1 portfolio (51 black and white, brown, col. photographs, 2 photograph albums, 1 hand immediately lithograph, 17 coloured transparencies) various sizes, State Analysis of New South Wales PX*D

External links