Just watched this last night. Was drawn in when I noticed the Gurdjieff book in one of the first scenes, which actually set me up to view the movie with more scrutiny. Even after watching the movie all the way through, it felt as if the truth of the story, much like the story of Mary Poppins, was given a happier, more amenable ending than that which actually occurred. According to Wiki, she washed her hands of Disney productions, following the release of Mary Poppins: "Enraged at what she considered shabby treatment at Disney's hands, Travers would never again agree to another Poppins/Disney adaptation, though Disney made several attempts to persuade her to change her mind." However, the ending of the movie would suggest, otherwise.
Searching for her other works led to some interesting facts about her other literary works, including a pamphlet on George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff (1973) http://www.amazon.com/George-Ivanovitch-Gurdjieff-P-Travers/dp/0919608086 as well as an interesting book titled
What the Bee Knows: Reflections on Myth, Symbol, and Story (1994) Apparently, Travers edited the philosophical magazine "Parabola" for many years, and this book is a collection of her contributions and editorials.
http://www.amazon.com/What-Bee-Knows-Reflections-Symbol/dp/0140194665/ref=la_B000APNNWW_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1417974870&sr=1-12
with the following description:
A collection of essays, stories and reminiscences, many of which were first published in the US magazine "Parabola". The essays are often reflections on the themes of myth and folklore: The Heroic Quest, The Black Sheep, The Foolish Young Son, drawing on a lifelong immersion in world mythology. Ranging from Hindu creation stories through Celtic legend and the "Dreamtime" of the Australian Aborigines to Central European tales of wicked fairies and miller's daughters, the author sets out her faith in the poetic truth of these fables. Interspersed are memories of her Australian childhood, of the friendships she formed as a young woman in Ireland with AE and Yeats and of her stay on an American Indian reservation where she was driven about by a surly cowboy.
An interesting interview with Travers can be found in The Paris Review - The Art of Fiction, No 63 can be found here:
http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/3099/the-art-of-fiction-no-63-p-l-travers
A quote from this interview that struck me to be at odds with Disney's vision/version of Mary Poppins( as portrayed in Saving Mr. Banks) is this:
With regard to your question about her altering, I do not think that people who read her would want her to be altered. And what I liked so much about that—I felt it was the highest praise—was that the boy should say, “Well, she’s so ordinary.” But that’s what she is. And it is only through the ordinary that the extraordinary can make itself perceived.
What the movie has provided for me is the exposure of an author I would definitely like to read more of.
