our queer elders
p. l. travers
“you can ask me anything you like about my work, but I'll never talk about myself.”
—travers to a biographer
p. l. travers (1899-1996) was an author best known for her mary poppins series. australian-born, she moved to england at 24. fiercely private, she would fabricate and change stories about her childhood in interviews and once stated she identified most with the writer “anonymous.” not suprisingly, p. l. travers is a pen name.
soon after moving to england, p. l. travers became a follower of the philosopher/mystic/spiritual teacher/occultist george gurdjieff. gurdjieff taught a group of mostly lesbian writers who called themselves “the rope,” members of which have been linked romantically to p. l. travers. while writing the mary poppins books, p. l. travers had a decade-long roommate, madge burnand. the two became roommates in london, and later moved to a small thatched cottage in sussex. biographers described their relationship as “intense” (been there).
fun fact: p. l. travers did not particularly like the disney adaptations of the mary poppins stories. at the hollywood premiere, she found walt disney and told him, “the first thing that has to go is the animation sequence.”
p. l. travers at 25 as titania in a production of midsummer night’s dream. what a babe!
about the song
p. l. travers and madge burnand
given the “intensity” of the relationship between p. l. travers and her “roommate” madge burnand (rumor has it they would pose nude for each other’s photography), I have no doubt their relationship had an impact on the mary poppins series.
mary poppins is fantastical, ridiculous, and mystical. “west wind” uses imagery straight from the first book, imagining what it might be like to fall in love with your “roommate” while dreaming up the novel.
west wind
we'll laugh til we float to the ceiling
and won't come down till half past nine
you'll bake the stars from gingerbread
I'll paste them gently in the sky
I'd rather no one know me
though I like to be seen by you
and when the west wind blows me home
I'd like it to be to you
the mystics point in all directions
but I'll follow the stairs cut into the night
with a spoonful of stardust and connection
we can transcend together tonight
I'd rather no one know me
though I like to be seen by you
and when the west wind blows me home
I'd like it to be to you
we feed the birds at saint paul's cathedral
we stay out way past closing time
under a full moon I can see you
we're one with beast and stone and sky
I'd rather no one know me
though I like to be seen by you
and when the west wind blows me home
I'd like it to be to you
yeah wherever the wind blows
I hope it blows me to you
k.a.castagno 2022
recommended reading
mary poppins, she wrote: the life of p. l. travers by valerie lawson. published 2013.
queer places: madge burnand, compiled by elisa rolle.
traver’s obituary by margalit fox, published in the new york times in april 1996.
linking p. l. travers to gurdjieff and the women of the rope by lina slavova in the blog the mary poppins effect. published february 2019.