A little girl named Helen was born in a small town on the other side of the world in at the very end of the 19th century in the year 1899. Ever since she was little she was special and had an almost magical and mystical aura about her. Always fascinated by nature and the outdoors, she loved to look at the stars with her father. As her imagination grew, so did her acting abilities and when she was 10 years old Helen became a professional actress and took the name Pamela Lyndon Travers. When she was 17, she moved to Dublin Ireland and got to know the poet W.B. Yeats, who encouraged her to write poems and stories about the way she looked at the world. As her story continued on she did not seek to know the answers to life but rather delighted in continually coming up with more and more questions. She met and studied with the Russian mystic Gurdjeff in the 1940's. She studied the teachings of the Indian guru Krishnamurti as well as Sufi Islam and Hinduism.
The most famous of her writings were a series of books about an English nanny named Mary Poppins. Who was Mary Poppins? Was she the ultimate nanny? A witch? An angel? Some people think that Marry Poppins was an elemental spirit in a mystical way. She could talk to animals, talk to the wind, and put the stars back in the sky. She was magical and wonderful.
There is a book out by Valerie Lawson published by Hodder in 1999 called Out of the Sky She Came: The Life of P.L. Travers, Creator of Mary Poppins. The book goes into the mystic life of P.L. Travers, the little girl who loved to look at the stars.
I met P.L. Travers when I was a student at the University of Connecticut. I was taking a course in Children's Literature taught by Francelia Butler. I enjoyed the course a lot and after I got an "A" the professor asked if I would like to be an assistant for the following year. I did and that next year we were very lucky to get P.L. Travers to lecture to our class. She spoke about the need for heros and how we look at them in literature, especially fairy tales. She talked about how it is more magical and spiritual to paint a picture with words and ideas but to not reveal everything to the reader. Leave something to the mystic she said.
About 20 years after our meeting, P.L. Travers died in England at the ripe old age of 96. I wonder if she found any answers to all of the searching and yearning of her life. I wonder if she realized that she would become immortal by penning the stories that get us thinking about that special magical time called childhood. Who would have thought that I would be reading her books and other wonderful stories to whole new generations of children born in the 21st century?
The Mary Poppins I Knew
A little girl named Helen was born in a small town on the other side of the world in at the very end of the 19th century in the year 1899. Ever since she was little she was special and had an almost magical and mystical aura about her. Always fascinated by nature and the outdoors, she loved to look at the stars with her father. As her imagination grew, so did her acting abilities and when she was 10 years old Helen became a professional actress and took the name Pamela Lyndon Travers. When she was 17, she moved to Dublin Ireland and got to know the poet W.B. Yeats, who encouraged her to write poems and stories about the way she looked at the world. As her story continued on she did not seek to know the answers to life but rather delighted in continually coming up with more and more questions. She met and studied with the Russian mystic Gurdjeff in the 1940's. She studied the teachings of the Indian guru Krishnamurti as well as Sufi Islam and Hinduism.
The most famous of her writings were a series of books about an English nanny named Mary Poppins. Who was Mary Poppins? Was she the ultimate nanny? A witch? An angel? Some people think that Marry Poppins was an elemental spirit in a mystical way. She could talk to animals, talk to the wind, and put the stars back in the sky. She was magical and wonderful.
There is a book out by Valerie Lawson published by Hodder in 1999 called Out of the Sky She Came: The Life of P.L. Travers, Creator of Mary Poppins. The book goes into the mystic life of P.L. Travers, the little girl who loved to look at the stars.
I met P.L. Travers when I was a student at the University of Connecticut. I was taking a course in Children's Literature taught by Francelia Butler. I enjoyed the course a lot and after I got an "A" the professor asked if I would like to be an assistant for the following year. I did and that next year we were very lucky to get P.L. Travers to lecture to our class. She spoke about the need for heros and how we look at them in literature, especially fairy tales. She talked about how it is more magical and spiritual to paint a picture with words and ideas but to not reveal everything to the reader. Leave something to the mystic she said.
About 20 years after our meeting, P.L. Travers died in England at the ripe old age of 96. I wonder if she found any answers to all of the searching and yearning of her life. I wonder if she realized that she would become immortal by penning the stories that get us thinking about that special magical time called childhood. Who would have thought that I would be reading her books and other wonderful stories to whole new generations of children born in the 21st century?
Amazing, Magical, and Mystical
Ray Welch, Napa California