Strictly, this is not a novel.
Mary Poppins served the Banks family as nanny in three stints, featured in the books 1-3.
"The adventures in this book should be understood to have happened during any of the three visits of Mary Poppins ...". --Untitled Author's Note, page [xiii]
The text ends with the two lines "Chelsea, London" and "March 1952". --viewed in the 1st US ed.
That edition was reviewed briefly in the 1952-06-15 issue of Kirkus Reviews (above), posted online without the usual report of a publication date.
- First American edition per Library of Congress
- Copyright 1952 per copyright page that is almost empty
- First page of front material under heading "Uniform with this volume" lists Mary Poppins books 1-3
- Untitled Author's Note follows p xii: "The adventures in this book should be understood to have happened during any of the three visits of Mary Poppins ..."; that is, books 1-3.
- Text ends with the two lines "Chelsea, London" and "March 1952"
- "Illustrations" lists the Frontispiece and 36 others with titles and "Also Tailpieces": a two-page artistic map of Cherry Tree Lane and the Park printed identically on the front and back endpapers, black ink on red paper. There are numerous small untitled and unlisted drawings.
- The copy examined has a blue cover, no dustjacket. Front shows the title in two lines above and below a small portrait of Mary Poppins evidently by Shepard. The "i" in "Poppins" is a solid 5-pointed star both there and on the spine, where an outline 6-pointed star separates the title and the author's name.
- Price from review by P.L. Travers NY Herald Tribune 1952-11-16 F1 (weekly NYHT Book Review, p. 1)
- Kirkus Reviews, contemporary but undated online, review is very brief and gives no book publication date
