L.P.(PAMELA) TRAVERS
Australian author (1899-1995)
Biography:
The Australian born Pamela Travers grew up on a plantation in the West Indies. She got her start as a journalist, reviewer and poet. Later in life she became an editor of Parabola, The Magazine of Myth and Tradition. To be true, she was a folklorist and a mythographer first, and she always said that writing children's books was an accident in her life.
"The idea of Mary Poppins has been blowing in and out of me, like a curtain at a window, all my life" she said.
She died at the age of 96, on Saint George's Day.
After the first book of Mary Poppins, Travers wrote other stories around the same character, but they were not as successful as 1934 novel. She worked mainly with Mary Shepard, who has been the illustrator of Mary Poppins books for more than 50 years.
Works written by Travers about Mary Poppins:
Mary Poppins, illustrated by Mary Shepard, 1934
Mary Poppins comes back, illustrated by Mary Shepard, 1935
Mary Poppins Opens the Door, illustrated by Agnes Sims, 1943
Mary Poppins in the Park, illustrated by Mary Shepard, 1952
Mary Poppins in the Cherry Tree Lane, illustrated by Mary Shepard, 1982
Mary Poppins in the House Next Door, illustrated by Mary Shepard, 1988
Adaptations:
Although Mary Poppins was quite a popular book in England, it became a real best-seller after Walt Disney's film version, released on 29th August 1964. The musical comedy was considered to be Disney's masterpiece and his crowning achievement. Walt Disney was after the film rights for many years, since he fist learned of Mary Poppins in 1948, but the tenacious Travers did not release them until 1961.