In 1908, after the death of his mother, Travers returned to London to keep his father company. He endured his work at the family firm for three more years until, in 1911, he met the publisher John Lane of the Bodley Head, who offered him a job as a publisher's reader. Lane's firm had been in existence for a little over twenty years and had an "avant garde" reputation; among Lane's first publications were "The Yellow Book" and Wilde's "Salome". Travers worked for Lane for three years, during which he accompanied his employer on business trips to the US and Canada.