[lit-ideas] In memoriam Helen Lyndon Goff
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 26 Dec 2013 10:26:55 -0500 (EST)
"Helen Goff?", asked Walt Disney, as inspecting the bill from the Beverly
Hills Hotel, where she was staying.
Disney's secretary: "That's her real name".
"Shouldn't the correct be,
'Let's go AND fly a kite?' I guess I am supposed to
overlook that, right?"
---- Helen Goff, as taped by the Disney Studios.
(recreated in "Saving Mr. Banks" -- now playing).
The British monarchy has an interesting practice.
Helen Lyndon Goff's resting place: St Mary the Virgin's Church, Twickenham,
England.
Children: Camillus Travers Hone (adopted son), born in Ireland, died in
London, 2011.
P. L. Travers (Pamela Lyndon Travers) became OBE.
She was née Helen Lyndon Goff, but the British monarchy would have none of
that nonsense when attaching the person to an OBE.
When the New York Times published Helen Lyndon Goff's obituary, it got
some facts wrong. They claimed her father had been a sugar plantation manager.
He wasn't.
Oddly, Goff would recall that her father was Irish.
Yet, he was London-born, albeit with Irish connections. I find all that
pretty fascinating.
From Wikipedia:
"Helen Lyndon Goff (she was known within her family as Lyndon) was born in
Maryborough, Queensland, Australia, the daughter of an unsuccessful bank
manager (later demoted to bank clerk) named Travers Robert Goff, who was of
Irish background but born in Deptford, south London, England."
From Helen Goff's biography:
About Helen Goff's claiming her father was Irish. From Googlebooks
http://books.google.com/books?id=8tQyAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA14&dq=Helen+Lyndon+Goff&h
l=it&sa=X&ei=N0i8Uo2MC
KzIsASUloG4Cg&ved=0CEkQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=Helen%20Lyndon%20Goff&f=false
"[Helen Goff's] confusion was
understandable considering [her
father Travers] Goff's reluctance
to reveal his origins, even to his
wife. She told the doctor
who signed [her husband's]
death certificate that [her husband]
was born in County Wexford,
Ireland."
Cheers
Speranza
---
REFERENCES:
Goff, Helen Lyndon
-- Mary Poppins, London: Gerald Howe, 1934. Illustrated.
Mary Poppins Comes Back, London: L. Dickson & Thompson Ltd., 1935
I Go By Sea, I Go By Land, London: Peter Davies, 1941
Aunt Sass, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1941
Ah Wong, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1943
Mary Poppins Opens the Door, London: Peter Davies, 1944
Johnny Delaney, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1944
Mary Poppins in the Park, London: Peter Davies, 1952
Gingerbread Shop (1952)
Mr. Wigg's Birthday Party (1952)
The Magic Compass (1953)
Mary Poppins From A-Z, London: Collins, 1963
The Fox at the Manger, London: Collins, 1963
Friend Monkey, London: Collins, 1972
Mary Poppins in the Kitchen, New York & London: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich,
1975
Two Pairs of Shoes, New York: Viking Press, 1980
Mary Poppins in Cherry Tree Lane, London: Collins, 1982
Mary Poppins and the House Next Door, New York: Delacorte Press, 1989
Stories from Mary Poppins (1952)
Moscow Excursion, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1934
About the Sleeping Beauty, London: Collins, 1975
What the Bee Knows: Reflections on Myth, Symbol and Story (1989)
-- Brody, Paul (2013). The Real Life Mary Poppins: The Life and Times of P.
L. Travers. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (published 20
February 2013). ISBN 1482075032.
Demers, Patricia (1991). P.L. Travers. Twayne Publishers. ISBN 0805770054.
Dooling Draper, Ellen; Koralek, Jenny, eds. (1999). A Lively Oracle: a
Centennial Celebration of P. L. Travers, Creator of Mary Poppins. New York:
Larson Publications.
Lawson, Valerie (1999). Out of the Sky She Came: The Life of P.L. Travers,
Creator of Mary Poppins. ISBN 0-7336-1072-2.
Lawson, Valerie (2005). Mary Poppins She Wrote. Aurum Press. ISBN
1-84513-126-6.
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