Editing P. L. Travers (section)

== Career ==
Goff had her first role in the troupe as Anne Page in a March 1921 performance of ''[[The Merry Wives of Windsor]]''. She decided to go by the stage name of "Pamela Lyndon Travers", taking Travers from her father's name and Pamela because she thought it a "pretty" name that "flowed" with Travers.{{Sfn|Lawson|2006 |p=66|pp=}} Travers toured [[New South Wales]] beginning in early 1921 and returned to Wilkie's troupe in Sydney by April 1922. That month, in a review of her performance as [[Titania (A Midsummer Night's Dream)|Titania]] in ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'', a critic for [[Frank Morton (journalist)|Frank Morton]]'s ''Triad'' wrote that her performance was 'all too human'.{{Sfn|Lawson|2006 |p=|pp=67&ndash;69}}

The troupe travelled to New Zealand, where Travers met and fell in love with a journalist for  ''[[The Sun (New Zealand newspaper)|The Sun]]''. The journalist took one of Travers' poems to his editor and it was published in the ''Sun.'' Even after she left New Zealand Travers continued to submit works to the ''Sun'', eventually having her own column called "Pamela Passes: the ''Sun's'' Sydney Letter". Travers also had work accepted and published by publications including the ''Shakespeare Quarterly, Vision'', and ''The Green Room''. She was told to not make a career out of journalism and turned to poetry. ''The Triad'' published "Mother Song", one of her poems, in March 1922, under the name "Pamela Young Travers". ''[[The Bulletin (Australian periodical)|The Bulletin]]'' published Travers' poem, "Keening", on 20 March 1923, and she became a frequent contributor. In May 1923 she found employment at the ''Triad'', where she was given the discretion to fill at least four pages of a women's section{{Em dash}}titled "A Woman Hits Back"{{Em dash}}every issue. Travers wrote poetry, journalism, and prose for her section; Lawson notes that "erotic verse and [[coquetry]]" figured prominently.{{Sfn|Lawson|2006 |p=|pp=69&ndash;75}} She published a book of poetry, ''Bitter Sweet''.{{Sfn|Lawson|2006 |p=|pp=81}}

=== In England ===

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On 9 February 1924, Travers left Australia for England, settling in London.{{Sfn|Lawson|2006 |p=80|pp=}} She only revisited Australia once, in the 1960s. For four years she wrote poetry for the ''[[Irish Statesman]]'',<ref name=":0" /> beginning while in Ireland in 1925 when Travers met the poet [[George William Russell]] (who wrote under the name "Æ") who, as editor of the ''Statesman'', accepted some of her poems for publication. Through Russell, whose kindness towards younger writers was legendary, Travers met [[W. B. Yeats]], [[Oliver St. John Gogarty]] and other [[List of poets|Irish poets]] who fostered her interest in and knowledge of world [[mythology]].{{sfn|Lawson|2005|p=185}}

After visiting [[Fontainebleau]] in France, Travers met [[George Ivanovich Gurdjieff]], an [[occultist]], of whom she became a "disciple". Around the same time she was taught by [[Carl Gustav Jung]] in Switzerland.<ref name=":0" /> In 1931, she moved with her friend Madge Burnand from their rented flat in London to a [[Cottage#Thatched cottages in England|thatched cottage]] in Sussex.<ref name="picardie" /> There, in the winter of 1933, she began to write ''Mary Poppins''.<ref name="picardie" /> During the 1930s, Travers reviewed drama for ''[[The New English Weekly]]'' and published the book ''Moscow Excursion'' (1934). ''Mary Poppins'' was published that year with great success. Many sequels followed.<ref name=":0" />

During the Second World War, Travers worked for the [[British Ministry of Information]], spending five years in the US, publishing ''I Go by Sea, I Go by Land'' in 1941.<ref name=":0" /> At the invitation of her friend [[John Collier (sociologist)|John Collier]], the [[Commissioner of Indian Affairs|US Commissioner of Indian Affairs]], Travers spent two summers living among the [[Navajo people|Navajo]], [[Hopi]] and [[Puebloan peoples|Pueblo]] peoples, studying their mythology and folklore.{{Sfn|Burness|Griswold|1982}}<ref name="witchell"> {{cite news|last=Witchell|first=Alex|date=22 September 1994|title=At Home With: P. L. Travers; Where Starlings Greet the Stars|newspaper=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/09/22/garden/at-home-with-p-l-travers-where-starlings-greet-the-stars.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm|access-date=21 November 2013}}</ref> Travers moved back to England at the end of the war, where she continued writing.<ref name=":0" /> She moved into 50 Smith Street, [[Chelsea, London|Chelsea]], London, which is commemorated with an English Heritage [[blue plaque]]. She returned to the US in 1965 and became [[Writer in residence|writer-in-residence]] at [[Radcliffe College]] from 1965 to 1966 and at [[Smith College]] in 1966 and lecturing at [[Scripps College]] in 1970.<ref name=":0" />{{sfn|Lawson|2006|p=290}} She published various works and edited ''[[Parabola: the Magazine of Myth and Tradition]]'' from 1976 to her death.<ref name=":0" />