A wonderful adaptation of the tale of Mary Poppins won the hearts of millions of children throughout the Soviet Union, but few people know the details of the book itself and its author. A lot of adaptations, productions and imitators, that's what got the image of Mary Poppins.
Summary
The tale begins with how the Banks family gathers for morning tea at the table and begins to reflect on the fact that they will need a new nanny. Many babysitters already worked in this house, but not one of them managed to find a common language with the children who live here, these are Michael, Jane and the twins: John and Barbara. And at this very moment, the author Mary Poppins first appears on the pages of a fairy tale. This is a determined girl who immediately introduces herself to family members and says that she is their new nanny.
How Mary Poppins appeared
But no member of the family can understand how this young lady appeared at the Banks house. It seems that she either came out of the air or came down from the sky with the help of her umbrella-cane, which is constantly in her hands. Members of the Banks family like her, for them she is Miss Perfection, who has no and cannot have any shortcomings, except for one thing - she loves to keep an eye on her reflection in store windows. But this can hardly be called a flaw, given how charming Mary Poppins is.
The writer describes the new nanny of the family as strict and demanding, but the children are very happy with her because she understands them well and can easily find a common language with them. She demonstrates incredible magic tricks to her pupils, gives a potion that turns into ice cream right in the spoon, drives up the stair railing, unfastens the buttons and hooks of children's clothes, just by looking at them.
Why do babysitters like children so much?
Not only children are fascinated by the nanny, animals and even statues find her wonderful. She introduces her wards to a boy with a dolphin, whose statue is in the city park and learns about the details of the life of a stray dog and one of the neighboring dogs, Mary Poppins is capable of all this. The fairy tale describes not just a good nanny, she has excellent manners and teaches the same thing to children.
Like a real fairytale nanny, she does magic things. She has not only an umbrella, which she constantly carries with her, but also a huge carpet bag, which contains a variety of things, sometimes such that in fact they would hardly fit in a bag of this size. Simply put, this is a great nanny, which is better not to come up with. She is a real magician, but not ordinary, her main concern is the children about whom she thinks and can always come to their aid, even in the most unexpected situations.
Mary Poppins and her wards
Author Mary Poppins allows the reader to guess for himself where this magical nanny came from. When the pupils Michael and Jane ask her about how much time she will stay with them, the sorceress answers that this depends only on the wind, because it is with his help that she moves from one family to another. The nanny shows her pupils many miracles, but, strangely enough, this magic is interesting only to children, adults do not find anything remarkable in it. Mary Poppins tells her wards about what happens in the zoo at night, about the house in which the children depicted on the china dish live, and shows them all this.
She tells the children how stars appear in the sky. According to her, she herself takes there the little foil stars that Jane and Michael make, and sticks them in the sky. Children are full of joy, they find themselves in a magical world, in a fairy tale filled with magic and miracles, in which any child wants to be.
They only worry that when they become adults, they will forget about everything that happened to them. After all, very often adults forget what happened to them in childhood, but still the children hope that their hearts will forever remain the best nanny in the world - Mary Poppins.
Who wrote this tale
The author of the book, making noise throughout the civilized world, was the famous English writer Pamela Travers. The biography of the woman who gave the world a nanny sorceress is as mysterious as the life of Mary Poppins herself. The writer herself said about her heroine that it’s hard even to say which one of them came up with that the idea of creating this character spun in her head for a very long time and finally resulted in a fairy tale that is now known to every child.
Biography
It is very difficult to establish the details of her personal life, since she, like Mary Poppins, fantasized a lot, talking about her life. The real name of the writer is Helen Lyndon Goff, and she was born in Australia on August 9, 1899. Her parents were British immigrants. The future author Mary Poppins from childhood was fond of books, learning to read at the age of three years.
When little Lindy was seven years old, her father died, and her mother was forced to move to her relative. She put the girl in a boarding house, the director of which allowed her to read whatever she wanted and participate in school performances. Already at the age of 16 she had to get a job because the family needed money. She became a stenographer, but continued to attend all of Sydney's performances, still dreaming of becoming an actress. Later, she entered the theater group and decided to take the pseudonym Pamela Travers.
Mary Poppins and her story were already visible in perspective. Soon after she received her first round of applause, she set about writing poems and articles for various magazines. In 1924, she had already been offered to go to England as a correspondent.
The image of the nanny sorceress
This is how Mary Poppins appeared. Who wrote this work is known to many, but hardly everyone boasts knowledge of the history of the creation of this tale. The poet George Russell, who, like Pamela, believed in the existence of various magical creatures and fairies, had a special influence during this period. He taught her many new things, told her about Celtic mythology, introduced her to popular Eastern teachings, Buddhism and Hinduism. He introduced the future writer to another outstanding therefore - William Yeats, who contributed to the appearance of the image of Mary Poppins.
The author of the book on the adventures of a nanny sorceress began to create her image from stories that were successful with readers, but she decided to continue to develop the story of Mary Poppins. She continued to engage in journalism, even visited Russia, which resulted in the publication of the Moscow Excursion book, which the Soviet authorities did not like.
Soon she collected all her materials, which contained stories about Mary Poppins, and combined all these stories into a book that she published in the United States, because the market there was wider than in England. The book was incredibly successful, and after it everyone remembered the name of P. Travers. Mary Poppins became famous all over the world. However, the writer was upset that her books were considered nothing more than fairy tales.
The success that Pamela achieved did not diminish her industriousness, and she continued to engage in journalism and write reviews. In 1935, her friend and patron, George Russell, passed away. Now she had no one to share her travels with in magical worlds. But already in 1938 she was lucky to meet with George Gurdjieff, the famous Theosophist, who was one of the founders of the nascent New Age movement. Leading an acquaintance with such a person was considered exclusive, but for an ambitious writer it was a double bait. He was not only popular, but also engaged in dancing, which so attracted Pamela.
Children in the life of Pamela
But as before, the author of the stories about the nanny sorceress did not have enough that her heroine Mary Poppins loved her so much. Who wrote so much about children should love them very much - this was also true for Pamela. Since she was already 40 years old and still not married, she decided to take an adopted child.
They became a sickly boy named Camillus, to whom she decided not to reveal the secrets of his origin and said that she was his mother. The situation became more complicated when Camillus met his own brother and found out that he was adopted. They continued to live together, but Camillus never managed to get a job in life, he did not receive an education and could not find a good job.
Income
In 1959, an already wealthy Pamela signed a contract with Walt Disney for 100 thousand pounds from the sale of copyright to Mary Poppins. Who wrote the tale, now will know not only readers, but also lovers of cartoons.
The old age of the writer was pretty calm. She taught at Harvard and Northampton, was fond of meditation and the study of Buddhism in Japan. If earlier she was just a follower of great people, now she has become a guru for others. Pamela became more reserved and less likely to communicate with people. She left this world on April 23, 1996.
The heroine Mary Poppins helped every child to feel the magic and magic of the world. She tried to make it clear that both the child and the adult should not forget about the existence of magic in the world and continue to believe in it at any age.