P.L. Travers’s Followers (704)

Add New
Videos

Add a comment

P.L. Travers

Born

in Maryborough, Australia

August 09, 1899

Died

April 23, 1996

Genre

Children's, Fiction

Influences

J.M. Barrie, William Butler Yeats, Gurdjieff

edit data

Pamela Lyndon Travers was an Australian novelist, actress and journalist, popularly remembered for her series of children's novels about mystical nanny Mary Poppins.
She was born to bank manager Travers Robert Goff and Margaret Agnes. 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".
Travers began to publish her poems 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. Trav Pamela Lyndon Travers was an Australian novelist, actress and journalist, popularly remembered for her series of children's novels about mystical nanny Mary Poppins.
She was born to bank manager Travers Robert Goff and Margaret Agnes. 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".
Travers began to publish her poems 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.
In 1925 while in Ireland, Travers met the poet George William Russell 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. Later, the mystic Gurdjieff would have a great effect on her, as would also have on several other literary figures.
The 1934 publication of Mary Poppins was Travers' first literary success.Five sequels followed, as well as a collection of other novels, poetry collections and works of non-fiction.
The Disney musical adaptation was released in 1964. Primarily based on the first novel in what was then a sequence of four books, it also lifted elements from the sequel Mary Poppins Comes Back. Although Travers was an adviser to the production she disapproved of the dilution of the harsher aspects of Mary Poppins's character, felt ambivalent about the music and disliked the use of animation to such an extent that she ruled out any further adaptations of the later Mary Poppins novels. At the film's star-studded premiere, she reportedly approached Disney and told him that the animated sequence had to go. Disney responded by saying "Pamela, the ship has sailed." and walked away. Travers would never again agree to another Poppins/Disney adaptation, though Disney made several attempts to persuade her to change her mind.
So fervent was Travers' dislike of the Walt Disney adaptation and the way she felt she had been treated during the production, that well into her 90s, when she was approached by producer Cameron Mackintosh to do the stage musical, she only acquiesced upon the condition that only English born writers (and specifically no Americans) and no one from the film production were to be directly involved with the creative process of the stage musical. This specifically excluded the Sherman Brothers from writing additional songs for the production even though they were still very prolific. Original songs and other aspects from the 1964 film were allowed to be incorporated into the production however. These points were stipulated in her last will and testament.
Travers was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1977. She died in London in 1996.
Although Travers never married, she adopted a boy when she was in her late 30s. ...more

Combine Editions
P.L. Travers’s books

Average rating: 4.01 · 177,496 ratings · 9,388 reviews · 44 distinct works • Similar authors

	Mary Poppins (Mary Poppins, #1) 4.01 avg rating — 135,633 ratings — published 1934 — 370 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mary Poppins Comes Back (Mary Poppins, #2) by P.L. Travers, Mary Shepard (Illustrator) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 15,340 ratings — published 1935 — 141 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mary Poppins Opens the Door (Mary Poppins, #3) by P.L. Travers, Mary Shepard (Illustrator), Agnes Sims (Illustrator) 4.07 avg rating — 8,603 ratings — published 1943 — 93 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mary Poppins in the Park (Mary Poppins, #4) by P.L. Travers, Mary Shepard (Illustrator) 4.09 avg rating — 7,012 ratings — published 1952 — 92 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mary Poppins in Cherry Tree Lane (Mary Poppins, #5) 3.89 avg rating — 2,133 ratings — published 1982 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mary Poppins: The Complete Collection (Mary Poppins, #1-6) 4.08 avg rating — 1,833 ratings — published 1997 — 9 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mary Poppins and the House Next Door (Mary Poppins, #6) 3.89 avg rating — 1,628 ratings — published 1988 — 25 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mary Poppins (Mary Poppins, #1-4) by P.L. Travers, Mary Shepard (Illustrator) 4.20 avg rating — 851 ratings — published 2000 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mary Poppins and Mary Poppins Comes Back by P.L. Travers, Mary Shepard (Illustrator) 4.03 avg rating — 877 ratings — published 1946 — 41 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mary Poppins from A to Z (Mary Poppins, #7) by P.L. Travers, Mary Shepard (Illustrator) 3.83 avg rating — 658 ratings — published 1935 — 19 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by P.L. Travers…

Series by P.L. Travers

Mary Poppins (8 books)
by

P.L. Travers,

Mary Shepard (Illustrator)

4.01 avg rating — 174,792 ratings

Santa Claus has his work cut out for him this year. We asked on Facebook and Twitter: What fictional book thing do you want for Christmas? Here...

Polls

November 2021 Revisit the Shelf Poll

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro pub. 1989, 258 pp., last read Sept 2018

45 votes, 21.4%

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne pub1873, 252 pages, Group read Dec 2013

36 votes, 17.1%

Moby-Dick or, the Whale by Herman Melville pub. 1851, 654 pages, last read as a long-read April-June 2017

28 votes, 13.3%

The Epic of Gilgamesh by Anonymous pub BCE 1800, 120 pp. last read July 2019

27 votes, 12.9%

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin pub. 1968, 183 pp., last read 2018

26 votes, 12.4%

The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (pub. 1980 pp. 536, last read June 2016)

25 votes, 11.9%

Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers pub. 1934, 209 pages, last read Oct 2015

23 votes, 11.0%

210 total votes

comments and details

More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
100+ Books in 2024: Susan's 100+ Reading Challenge	93	545	Dec 30, 2009 02:32PM
The Seasonal Read...: WINTER CHALLENGE 2009-2010 COMPLETED TASKS	3143	3252	Feb 28, 2010 09:02PM
The Seasonal Read...: 5.10 ("The important thing is not what they think of me, but what I think of them.")	29	174	Apr 19, 2010 12:20PM
Goodreads Librari...: the author of Mary Poppins - combine	3	37	Oct 03, 2010 07:15PM
Fantasy Book Club: Australian Fantasy Authors	38	660	Oct 17, 2010 09:43PM
The Seasonal Read...: Fall Challenge 2010 Completed Tasks (do NOT delete any posts in this thread)	2785	1191	Nov 30, 2010 09:03PM
Romance Readers R...: Back-To-School Challenge (Quarterly)	570	498	Dec 06, 2010 11:13AM
Romance Readers R...: 2010 A-Z Author Challenge	557	942	Jan 22, 2011 10:59AM
One Million Pages...: April 2012 Readathon Summaries	7	15	Apr 30, 2012 09:44AM
The Seasonal Read...: Spring Challenge 2012: Completed Tasks -DO NOT DELETE ANY POSTS IN THIS TOPIC	2302	766	May 31, 2012 09:02PM

More…