Correspondence archive consisting of 28 letters from beloved children’s author and Mary Poppins creator P. L. Travers, featuring 16 TLSs and 12 ALSs signed either “P.” or “Pamela,” dated between 1974 and 1993, with the bulk of the letters written on postal cards or Royal Mail aerogrammes, amounting to 36 total pages ranging in size from 5.5 x 3.5 to 8.5 x 11.75. The letters are addressed to John and Jacqueline Rutherfurd and consist of everyday topics and pleasantries, with Travers’s responses offering an uncommon glimpse into the writer’s busy travel schedule. One letter from April 5, 1978, in part: “The phrase ‘Myths don’t die. But the King does,’ is marvelously true. For the writer is in fact talking of the old myth. The King of the Wood, who keeps watch night and day (another symbol, this, for attention, as the Work understands the word) for the man who is himself watching for the moment to slay the watcher and take over the Kingship….I shall be in the States early in may for about ten days. I am giving a talk at Chatham College, Pittsburgh. It is to be made into a great ceremonial occasion as the College that night is awarding me a degree in literature (probably the first ever given to a children’s writer and mythologist).”
A letter from May 23, 1978, in part: “There is no news. Except a lot of work. Being Doctor Travers makes it even harder. It seems to make more people want more things. This is not a complaint. Like the old song ‘I’ll live till I die.’ Not just die till I die.”
Another from November 29, 1978, in part: “I won’t write more as, though I have the rough draft completed, I have to do the second one of my lecture to the Jung people. In Cambridge, on 4th, I will give the one I gave in N.Y. last year so no problem about that…The only problem is will I be strong enough. Nothing wrong with me, heart, blood, lungs, liver, lights etc all systems go, and the usual number of arms and legs—but an old digestive disfunction, of twenty years or so has been handed over to homeopathic medicine, which can so debilitate you, on the way to health—if one doesn’t die first!”
A letter dated December 20, 1981, 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.’”
On May 7, 1980, Travers writes, 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?” Also includes two ANSs, signed “P.L.T.” and “Pamela.” Reverse of included mailing envelopes and aerogrammes addressed in Travers’s own hand, who incorporates her surname into the return address field. In overall fine condition. A rare and insightful letter collection written over the course of 20 years by the reclusive Mary Poppins writer.
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