Mary Poppins.

TRAVERS, P.L.

Item Number: 54060

London: Gerald Howe, 1934.

First edition of this children’s classic. Octavo, original cloth, illustrated with 27 line cuts (13 full-page) and chapter tailpieces by Mary Shepard. Signed by P.L. Travers on the front free endpaper. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with light rubbing and wear to the crown of the spine. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box made by the Harcourt Bindery. Signed first editions are of exceptional rarity, with none having appeared at auction since the time of publication.

"The first Mary Poppins stories were written when [Travers] was recovering from an illness, and were told to two children of her acquaintance. Mary Poppins appeared in 1934 and was an immediate success" (Carpenter & Prichard, 540). It centers on magical English nanny of the same name. She is blown by the east wind to Number 17 Cherry Tree Lane, London, and into the Banks's household to care for their children. It was adapted by Walt Disney in 1964 into a musical film titled Mary Poppins, starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. It received a total of thirteen Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture – an unsurpassed record for any other film released by Walt Disney Studios – and won five; Best Actress for Andrews, Best Film Editing, Best Original Music Score, Best Visual Effects, and Best Original Song for "Chim Chim Cher-ee". In 2013, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Mary Poppins is widely considered to be Walt Disney's "crowning achievement", being his only film to garner a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars in his lifetime. In 2004, Disney Theatrical in collaboration with Cameron Mackintosh produced a stage musical also called Mary Poppins in London's West End theatre. The stage musical was transferred to Broadway. In 2013 the film Saving Mr. Banks depicted the making of the 1964 film.