Collection of P. L. Travers Autograph Letters Signed Archive.

TRAVERS, P.L.

$15,000.00

Item Number: 92809

Exceptionally rare collection of 28 typed and hand written letters and notes signed by the author of Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers. 36 pages, the letters are a collection of 20 years of correspondence between Travers and close personal friends John and Jacqueline Rutherfurd and offer an intimate glimpse into Travers’ personal life and many travels. In one note dated August 10, 1981, Travers writes: “Dear Jaqueline, I write, with a newly overhauled portable (and see how it works and imagine what I will have to say to them when I get back to London!) from Chandolin, the highest lived-in-all-the-year-round village in Europe. Lovely high air and I try to come for a short time every year to get away from London sea level. And I’m wearing a necklace and ear-rings so that the mountains can enjoy looking at them!” Another letter, dated December 20, 1981, reads in part: “I am waiting for a photograph of me that was taken for my new book that is coming out here in the spring…I wish I could say when the book will be out in the U. S. but there are all sorts of goings on there; I’ve rewritten one of the stories, called Bad Tuesday in the first Mary Poppins book as the San Francisco library put it in the index as being ‘insulting to minorities.’” Another letter dated May 7th 1980 reads in part: “That was a lovely poem to have received at three o’clock in the morning, Jacqueline! Truly beautiful…I will certainly keep it. I put special things into books and then come upon them ages after and am refreshed all over again. That is why I don’t lend my books. I’m not going to let others see my letters, my comments in the margins; why let them into my communing with myself?” Additionally included are the original envelopes addressed to the Rutherfurds in Travers’ hand. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box made by the Harcourt Bindery. An exceptional collection offering a unique glimpse into the personality of the very private author.

Best known for the Mary Poppins series of children's books, Australian-born British writer Pamela Lyndon Travers gained a reputation for her stubborn and reclusive nature. Travers insisted on acting as an adviser in Walt Disney's musical film adaptation of Mary Poppins and strongly disapproved of the final product, particularly the use of animation in the film. She received no invitation to the film's star-studded premiere and refused to allow any further adaptations of the series. The film Saving Mr. Banks was produced in 2013, offering a dramatized retelling of the working process during the planning of Mary Poppins starring Emma Thompson as P. L. Travers and Tom Hanks as Walt Disney.