For most people, Mary Poppins is a childhood favourite, and as Disney is set to release Marry Poppins Returns in December, she will soon be back in the spotlight.
However, before Julie Andrews and her flower-pot hat, there were the original Mary Poppins books written by P.L. Travers, who was born Helen Lyndon Goff in Queensland, Australia in 1899.
Growing up Travers claimed that she could read by the age of three, and taught herself this by studying the al- phabet on household packaging. She also devoured fairy stories and was particularly fond of the Brothers Grimm.
After a mediocre career as an actress and dancer, during which she adopted the stage name of Pamela Travers, she took up journalism, left Australia and traveled to London in 1924 to scrape together a living reporting on theatres and actors. But during this time, she remained obsessed with fairy tales, symbolism, the night sky, stars and the idea of becoming a poet.
A year after her arrival, the Irish intellectual George William Russell (known as AE) accepted some of her verse for his weekly, The Irish Statesman. AE suggested that
Travers write a tale using her ideas of fantasy, and weave into it stories of inanimate objects coming to life. Thanks to this suggestion Mary Poppins first appeared in a series in 1926 and the first book was published in 1934. Travers had literary pretensions and did not believe that “real” writers wrote for children. So, although she was already obscured by her pseudonym, she decided to use only her initials, protection against being labeled a silly woman writing unimportant stories.
Protective about her creation, it took more than 20 years to convince Travers to sell the film rights to her stories. Ul- timately, Walt Disney’s persistence won him the prize. The success of Mary Poppins gave Walt the money needed to buy 27,500 acres of swampland near Orlando, FL. This land is currently home to Walt Disney World.
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