Mary Poppins, She Wrote: The Life of P. L. Travers
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The story of Mary Poppins, the quintessentially English and utterly magical children's nanny, is remarkable enough. She flew into the lives of the unsuspecting Banks family in a children's book that was instantly hailed as a classic, then became a household name when Julie Andrews stepped into the starring role in Walt Disney's hugely successful and equally classic film. Now she is a Broadway sensation all over again.But the story of Mary Poppins's creator, as this first biography reveals, is just as unexpected and remarkable. The fabulous English nanny was conceived by an Australian, Pamela Lyndon Travers, who in 1924 came to London from Sydney as a journalist. She became involved with theosophy and traveled in the literary circles of W. B. Yeats and T. S. Eliot. Most famously, she clashed with "the great convincer" Walt Disney over the adaptation of the Mary Poppins books into film.Travers, whom Disney accused of vanity for "thinking you [Travers] know more about Mary Poppins than I do," was as tart and opinionated as Julie Andrews's big-screen Mary Poppins was cheery and porcelain beautiful. "You've got the nose for it," Travers candidly assessed the star. Yet it was a love of mysticism and magic that shaped P. L. Travers's life as well as the character of Mary Poppins. The clipped, strict and ultimately mysterious nanny was the conception of someone who remained thoroughly inscrutable and enigmatic to the end of her ninety-six years."Who is P. L. Travers?" the American press inquired of "this unknown Englishwoman" whose creation resulting in Hollywood gold had won her international fame. Valerie Lawson's illuminating biography, Mary Poppins, She Wrote, provides the first and only glimpse into the mind of a writer who fervently believed that "Everyday life is the miracle." Publishers Weekly The original Mary Poppins was not as "saccharine" as the movie character, says Lawson, and her bittersweet biography of the supernanny's elusive creator, Travers (1899-1996), convincingly portrays a writer who created her character out of the childhood sorrows that haunted her. Drawing on archival sources and private papers, Lawson, a writer for the Sydney Morning Herald, sensitively traces Travers's emotionally deprived girlhood in Australia, where she was raised largely by an elderly aunt; her early career as an actress and columnist; and her 1924 emigration to London, where she worked as a journalist and theater reviewer. Emphasizing how Travers's desire for the father who had died when she was seven affected both her life and work, Lawson explores mythological and literary influences on the six Mary Poppins stories, written over 54 years (the first was published in 1934). Never married, Travers adopted an Irish baby boy; Lawson movingly reveals the emotional fallout of their failed relationship. After detailing Travers's fussy movie negotiations with Walt Disney and the downplaying of her authorship in the 1964 hit film, Lawson captures the melancholy of Travers's retreat into isolation and old age. 2 photo inserts. (Oct. 14) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.
ContentsList of Illustrations Preface Part I: The Nymph, 1899-1934 Prologue: The Moment Between Day and Dark Chapter 1: The Real Mr. Banks Chapter 2: Ellie and Allora Chapter 3: Old England in Australia Chapter 4: The Creation of Pamela Chapter 5: Falling into Ireland Chapter 6: Lovers, Gurus and the Glimmering Girl Part II: The Mother, 1934-1965 Prologue: Out of the Sky Chapter 7: Poppins and Pamela in Wonderland Chapter 8: A Beautiful Night for a Death Chapter 9: The Crossing of Camillus Chapter 10: Through the Door to Mabeltown Chapter 11: Monsieur Bon Bon Says Au Revoir Chapter 12: Shadowplay Chapter 13: The Americanization of Mary Part III: The Crone, 1965-1996 Prologue: An Old Woman in a Rocking Chair Chapter 14: A Crone among the Sleeping Beauties Chapter 15: Looking for Pamela Travers Chapter 16: Fear No More the Heat of the Sun Notes Bibliography Published Books by P. L. Travers Acknowledgments Index Illustration Sources
