Pamela Travers is an English writer of Australian descent. Her main creative victory was a series of children's books about Mary Poppins. Pamela Travers, whose biography is presented in this article, lived an extraordinary, eventful and interesting life corresponding to the world of her books.
Childhood
The real name of the writer is Helen Goff. She was born on August 9 in the distant 1899. This happened in the Australian town of Maryborough. Her family was quite wealthy. My father, whose name was Travers Goff, worked as a bank manager. Mother, Margaret Morehead, was a niece to Queensland's Prime Minister. Pamela had Irish roots from her father.
In 1905, Travers' work forced the whole family to move to the neighboring town of Allora, where he was demoted to a bank clerk. The fault was served by the unfettered booze of the head of the family. Two years later, the venerable Travers gave up. In official papers, the cause of death indicated an epileptic seizure, but much later, his daughter, already a famous writer, admits that his father died from alcoholism.
After the funeral, the family moved to New South Wales, where the grandmother of Helen Pamela lived. She had her own sugar plantation. Goffs lived there for ten years.
As a child, Helen preferred a company of animals to human society. She had a very developed fantasy and imagination. She read many books and believed in fairy tales.
Youth
When the First World War began, Pamela Travers began studying at the Asheville School for Girls. It was there that her writer's talent manifested itself most vividly for her youth. She pleased the school theater with plays, wrote short stories and poems, her brothers and sisters were delighted with the fairy tales that came out from under the pen of Pamela.
She began to print very early in Australian magazines. However, writing books was not the ultimate dream of a young girl. She studied music and longed to become an actress.
In 1917, to fulfill his desire, Helen Goff moved to Sydney. It is there that she becomes P.L. Travers. Initials at that time were popular among women who wanted to participate in cultural and creative life.
For several years she successfully performed in the theater, playing the main roles. However, this activity did not bring tangible income, and in order to somehow exist, Pamela had to earn extra money as a journalist. For a long time, she led a column in a newspaper. The literary path also brought a small income. Meanwhile, her poems became increasingly popular. The subjects of the works were quite diverse. Some sang the father’s homeland - Ireland, others were erotic in nature.
In the end, writing took over, and Pamela decided to devote her life to literature.
Relocation to England
The turning point in the fate of the writer was 1924. It was then that she moved to England. Her journey was very interesting and was reflected in some works of Pamela. According to Travers, she had only ten pounds when she started on the road, and five of them were spent on some nonsense.
At first, she wrote small notes for Australian publishers in London and sent large articles about art to the newspapers of her homeland.
In 1925, while traveling around Ireland, Pamela Travers met the poet J.W. Russell, who became for her not just a friend, but also, in a sense, the ideologist of life. Their communication continued until 1935, until the death of Russell. He was the editor of the magazine, so Pamela often published. In addition, thanks to this person, the writer met many of the twentieth-century Irish poets who had a great influence on her.
Among them, a special place was occupied by William Yates, who instilled in her not just an interest in occultism, but faith in it. From the moment they met and until her last days, Pamela Travers considered this direction decisive in her fate.
The Triumph of Pamela
In 1934, the writer became ill with pleurisy and decided to leave London in order to gain strength outside the city in the fresh air. She settled in an old house in Sussex and temporarily abandoned literary activity.
Her friend Russell suggested that Pamela was working on a great novel about a witch (due to her occult preferences), but this was not so. She didn’t write at all, she only read a lot and looked after the garden. But once she was asked to look after two children, and Travers agreed. To somehow entertain the kids, she came up with an amazing story about an unusual nanny who flew to the children on an umbrella.
That is how the famous Mary Poppins was born, who suddenly appeared in the house number 17 on Cherry Street, the Banks family and other heroes. From an ordinary bedtime story, only Pamela Lyndon Travers could develop a plot for a book, but not one. "Mary Poppins" was released in the same 1934. It was an incredible success, a real triumph.
The following year, the continuation of the story of the nanny came out. In total, the writer created 18 works about the magical lady Mary, the last of which was published in 1989.
Pamela Travers' books were filmed in Hollywood in 1964. Disney Studios made a film, which was eventually nominated for an Oscar 13 times (won 5 awards). In 1983, the movie "Mary Poppins, Goodbye!" Was released in Russia, in which Natalya Andreichenko played the main role.
Personal life
There were a lot of relationships in the life of the writer, but she never got married. She was even credited with love affairs with women.
For a long time, Pamela Lyndon Travers, whose books were loved by all English children, dreamed of a baby, but she did not succeed in giving birth. Therefore, as soon as she was forty years old, she decided to adopt the baby. It turned out to be a boy from Dublin (Ireland). The choice was not accidental. Little John Cammilus was the grandson of Joseph Gon, who, in turn, was friendly with William Yates and was his biographer. Joseph and his wife were forced to raise one of their seven grandchildren and agreed to give one of them for adoption in order to somehow make life easier. Cammilus had a twin brother, but despite this, Pamela wanted to take only him alone.
After completing all the documents, John began to bear the name Cammilus Travers Ghosn. Pamela hid the truth from her son, but she still surfaced when he met his twin Anthony in one of the London bars. The young people were seventeen years old.
Cammilus died in 2011.
Interesting Facts
- P.L. Travers died in 1996, not having lived a couple of months before her 97th birthday.
- The writer was an officer of the Order of the British Empire.