Travers, P. L. (1906–1996)

Australian-English writer. Name variations: Pamela Lyndon Travers. Born Helen Goff Travers, Aug 9, 1906, in Queensland, Australia; died April 23, 1996, in London; dau. of Robert and Margaret (Goff) Travers (Irish-Scottish ranchers); never married; no children.

Theater and literary critic, writer on mythology and spirituality, whose success with her "Mary Poppins" books overshadowed her other literary accomplishments; was a writer, actress and dancer in Australia; was a freelance writer in England (1924–40); wrote regularly for New English Weekly; with illustrations by Mary Shepard, published Mary Poppins (1934), which was an instant success; lived in America (1940–45) and England (1945–65); was writer-in-residence at Radcliffe College (1965–66), Smith College (1966–67), and Scripps College (1970); returned to England (1976); wrote 12 books for children, including Mary Poppins (1934), Mary Poppins Comes Back (1935), Happy Ever After (1940), I Go by Sea, I Go by Land (1941), Mary Poppins Opens the Door (1943), Mary Poppins in the Park (1952), Two Pairs of Shoes (1980) and Mary Poppins in Cherry Tree Lane (1982), and 7 books for adults, including Moscow Excursion (1935), Aunt Sass (1941), In Search of the Hero: The Continuing Relevance of Myth and Fairy Tale (1970), (translator with Ruth Lewinnek) Karlfried Montmartin's The Way of Transformation (1971) and George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (1973).

See also Patricia Demers, P. L. Travers (Twayne, 1991); and Women in World History.