Happy birthday Mary Poppins!

Did you know that August 2009 is a double birthday for the world's best known literary nanny? Mary Poppins first appeared in book form in August 1934 and was released as the hugely popular Disney film in August 1964, so she's 75 and 45 simultaneously.

Mary Poppins was written by expatriate Australian P.L. Travers (born Helen Lyndon Goff). She grew up in Queensland and New South Wales, but moved to London in her twenties and spent the rest of her life outside of Australia. Travers wrote 8 Poppins books, plus several more featuring the character, as well as essays, poems and short stories. Her literary papers are held in the Mitchell Library, Sydney, and reveal a woman who spent her life searching for meaning - religious and spiritual - but seemed ultimately to be disappointed and slightly bitter.

A display of Poppins material at the State Library of New South Wales highlights the relationship between Travers and the Disney Company during the making of the film, and inlcudes original correspondence between Travers, Disney and Julie Andrews, as well as coloured prints of the Poppins drawings by Mary Shepard and original copies of the Poppins books owned by Travers.

On display in the Nelson Meers Heritage Gallery at the State Library of NSW until November 2009.

Bronte poem variant bindings

I'm trying to sort out the variant bindings on the Brontes' Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. According to all the info I've been able to find, below is the probable order of the bindings (the images below are from Parrish: Victorian Lady Novelists (Burt Franklin NY, 1933 -repr. 1969). The info is based on this, and note 25, Binding Variants in the Brontes' Poems, pp. 219-221 Book Collector (Autumn 1953)

Image from Parrish

These geometric designs are likely the original bindings used by Aylott and Jones (the company the Brontes paid to publish their book in 1846.) Only 2 or 3 copies sold.

After the success of Jane Eyre published by Smith Elder in 1848, Smith Elder acquired the remainder of the Poems stock from Aylott for reissue. It is possible that any copies with the geometric design as above plus inserted Smith Elder title pages date from this Jane Eyre period.

In the 1850s, after Charlotte's death, her biography by Elizabeth Gaskell appeared and sales of the Poems took off. The next two bindings may date from this period:

Image from Parrish

Interestingly, the one on the right appears to be relatively uncommon and is only known with an Aylott title page. The one on the left is the most common version.

Here at the State Library of NSW in Sydney, we have two copies in the Mitchell collection, as pictured below. It's the light green decorative binding on the right which I'm most interested in.

Mitchell Library copies

What I would like to know is, if you have a copy of Poems, which binding do you have and what do you know about it, if anything - particular which publisher title page appears with which binding??