Booked: A Traveler's Guide to Literary Locations Around the World

My husband and I were roaming in a bookstore recently, and he was looking through a travel book of literary locations. He came over to show it to me because the book featured Prince Edward Island and Anne of Green Gables, and he knew I'd love to see it. The book is titled Booked: A Traveler's Guide to Literary Locations Around the World, and it's by Richard Kreitner. I love to read and explore, so I thought the concept was really fun.



Booked was published in 2019 by Black Dog & Leventhal, which is part of the Hachette Book Group. Here's the book's description from the publisher's website:

A practical, armchair travel guide that explores eighty of the most iconic literary locations from all over the globe that you can actually visit.

A must-have for every fan of literature, Booked inspires readers to follow in their favorite characters footsteps by visiting the real-life locations portrayed in beloved novels including the Monroeville, Alabama courthouse in To Kill a Mockingbird, Chatsworth House, the inspiration for Pemberley in Pride and Prejudice, and the Kyoto Bridge from Memoirs of a Geisha. The full-color photographs throughout reveal the settings readers have imagined again and again in their favorite books.

Organized by regions all around the world, author Richard Kreitner explains the importance of each literary landmark including the connection to the author and novel, cultural significance, historical information, and little-known facts about the location. He also includes travel advice like addresses and must-see spots.

Booked features special sections on cities that inspired countless literary works like a round of locations in Brooklyn from Betty Smith’s iconic A Tree Grows in Brooklyn to Jonathan Lethem’s Motherless Brooklyn and a look at the New Orleans of Tennessee Williams and Anne Rice.

Locations include:
Central Park, NYC (The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger)
Forks, Washington (Twilight, Stephanie Meyer)
Prince Edward Island, Canada (Anne of Green Gables, Lucy Maud Montgomery)
Kingston Penitentiary, Ontario (Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood)
Holcomb, Kansas (In Cold Blood, Truman Capote)
London, England (White Teeth, Zadie Smith)
Paris, France (Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo)
Segovia, Spain, (For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway)
Kyoto, Japan (Memoirs of a Geisha, Arthur Golden)

Image credits:
Photograph of a page on Anne of Green Gables in Booked by Richard Kreitner taken by World of Anne Shirley and cover image of Booked by Black Dog & Leventhal.

Purchase Booked: A Traveler's Guide to Literary Locations Around the World:



Created May 20, 2024.
© worldofanneshirley.com

Becoming Green Gables

Becoming Green Gables: The Diary of Myrtle Webb and Her Famous Farmhouse is a book by Alan MacEachern that will be published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in June 2024. Myrtle and Ernest Webb owned the farm that their cousin L.M. Montgomery based "Green Gables" upon. According to The Green Gables Diary website: "In spring 1924, Myrtle Webb began keeping a diary about her life on an ordinary farm in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island. Ordinary but for one thing: it was growing famous as the inspiration for Anne of Green Gables, written by her cousin L.M. Montgomery."

MacEachern's book tells "The story of the family whose home inspired Anne of Green Gables and how that literary connection enriched - and upended - their lives." His book examines the history of Green Gables and how the popularity of L.M. Montgomery's novel affected the Webb family and tourism to Prince Edward Island.

A digital exhibition that will accompany the book called "The Green Gables Diary" will launch this spring at: https://greengablesdiary.ca/

Here's the description of the book from McGill-Queen’s University Press:

In 1909 Myrtle and Ernest Webb took possession of an ordinary farm in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island. Ordinary but for one thing: it was already becoming known as inspiration for Anne of Green Gables, the novel written by Myrtle’s cousin Lucy Maud Montgomery and published to international acclaim a year earlier. The Webbs welcomed visitors to “Green Gables” and soon took in summer boarders, making their home the heart of PEI’s tourist trade. In the 1930s the farm was made the centrepiece of a new national park - and still the family lived there for another decade, caretakers of their own home. During these years Myrtle kept a diary. When she first picked up the pencil in 1924, she was a forty-year-old homemaker running a household of eight. By the time she set the pencil down in 1954, she was a seventy-year-old widow, no longer resident in what was now the most famous house in Canada. Becoming Green Gables tells the story of Myrtle Webb and her family, and the making of Green Gables. Alan MacEachern reproduces a selection of the diary’s daily entries, using them as springboards to examine topics ranging from the adoption of modern conveniences to the home front hosting of soldiers in wartime and visits from “Aunt Maud” herself. While the foundation of Becoming Green Gables is the Webbs’ own story, it is also a history of their famous home, their community, the nation, and the world in which they lived.

Reviews

“Humorous in some places and a tearjerker in others, Becoming Green Gables captures an untold story about the famed Green Gables and home-grown tourism prior to the founding of the national park.” Catharine Anne Wilson, author of Being Neighbours: Cooperative Work and Rural Culture, 1830-1960

“Becoming Green Gables provides an appreciation of the complex grassroots history of one of Canada’s most beloved historical sites.” Melanie J. Fishbane, author of Maud: A Novel Inspired by the Life of L.M. Montgomery

I am looking forward to reading this book and the launch of the digital exhibit.

Image credit:
Book cover of Becoming Green Gables: The Diary of Myrtle Webb and Her Famous Farmhouse by Alan MacEachern from McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Official website:
The Green Gables Diary

Purchase and read Becoming Green Gables:


Created May 14, 2024.
© worldofanneshirley.com

The Cavendish Post Office

The Cavendish Post Office (aka the Green Gables Post Office) is a modern post office featuring a historical exhibit about the postal service and L.M. Montgomery called, “Yours sincerely, L.M. Montgomery.” Located in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island, close to the site of L.M. Montgomery’s Cavendish Home and Green Gables, the exhibit at the post office enlightens visitors about how the postal service played an important role in L.M. Montgomery’s life and early career as a writer.



L.M. Montgomery was raised by Alexander and Lucy Woolner Macneill, her maternal grandparents, in Cavendish. The Macneill family ran the Cavendish Post Office for generations from when it first opened in 1833 until it closed in 1913. As she grew up, L.M. Montgomery helped her grandparents run the post office from the kitchen of their homestead. The post office played an important role in rural Cavendish and was a gathering place for the community to share news.



After her grandfather’s death in 1898, L.M. Montgomery left her teaching post in Lower Bedeque and returned home to Cavendish to live with her grandmother. She helped her grandmother, working at the post office as its assistant postmaster.



Having a post office in her home was fortunate for L.M. Montgomery. As a young writer who struggled to obtain paper, L.M. Montgomery wrote poems and stories on the backs of red postal letter bills. Living in the post office benefited L.M. Montgomery in another way. It allowed her to submit her stories and poems to publishers in secret. No one had to know if she received a rejection letter, and she could privately correspond with editors.



In 1905, L.M. Montgomery began writing Anne of Green Gables while sitting at the end of the table in the Macneill kitchen. After completing the book, L.M. Montgomery submitted it to several publishers, and the story was rejected repeatedly. L.M. Montgomery then stored the manuscript in a hatbox. In 1907, she decided to try submitting Anne of Green Gables for publication again, and she packaged and mailed her manuscript to L.C. Page Company, a publisher based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Fortunately for all of us, Page accepted the manuscript, and Anne of Green Gables was published in 1908.



Much of the original Macneill homestead is gone now, but the original kitchen structure has recently been returned to the Macneill property.

In the 1970s, the government planned for a new post office to pay tribute to Prince Edward Island during its centennial anniversary of joining Canada in 1873. The post office was designed to honor L.M. Montgomery and Anne of Green Gables with a special museum exhibit. A building resembling the original Macneill homestead was relocated from Rocky Point on the other side of Prince Edward Island to a site near the original Macneill homestead in Cavendish. The building was restored and decorated with authentic decorations and postal artifacts. The exhibit was designed and produced by the Canadian Museum of History in collaboration with Canada Post.



As a side note, the post office is located next door to the Cavendish United Church, which was the Presbyterian Church in L.M. Montgomery's day. Montgomery and her family attended this church.

The Cavendish Post Office is a wonderful place to visit because it played a key role in L.M. Montgomery’s life and the origin of Anne of Green Gables. It's open in the spring through the fall from May through October. If you mail a letter or postcard from this post office, it will be stamped with a special Anne of Green Gables, Cavendish PE postage mark.


Official Websites:
Yours Sincerely, Lucy Maud Montgomery Exhibition
Cavendish Post Office, Cavendish Beach, Prince Edward Island

Location:
The Cavendish Post Office
8555 Cavendish Rd, Cavendish, PE C0A 1M0, Canada.

Image credits:
Photographs by World of Anne Shirley.

References:
Epperly, Elizabeth R. Writing in the Kitchen: An Animation. The Anne of Green Gables Manuscript. Retrieved from: https://annemanuscript.ca/stories/macneill-kitchen-animation-writing-the-opening-pages-of-the-manuscript-3/

Hamilton, Kathleen and Frei, Sibyl. Finding Anne on Prince Edward Island. Ragweed Press. 1998.

Yours Sincerely, Lucy Maud Montgomery. Canadian Museum of History. Retrieved from: https://www.historymuseum.ca/exhibitions/lucymaudmontgomery/

Created July 17, 2007. Last updated July 17, 2024.
© worldofanneshirley.com

Dalvay-by-the-Sea

Dalvay-by-the-Sea is a National Historic Site on the north shore of Prince Edward Island, Canada in Prince Edward Island National Park.

Dalvay-by-the-Sea was built by Alexander MacDonald, a wealthy industrialist from Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. MacDonald fell in love with the region after he and his family vacationed on Prince Edward Island in 1895. After visiting the island, he bought 120 acres of land on the north shore and built a summer home there. MacDonald named his house “Dalvay-by-the-Sea” after his childhood home in Scotland. The building is a beautiful example of Queen Anne Revival architecture, featuring dormers, bay windows, and gables, and it overlooks the ocean and Dalvay Lake.

After MacDonald’s death, Dalvay-by-the-Sea changed hands several times. The property is now owned by Parks Canada. Dalvay is a seasonal hotel and restaurant, which is open from May until the end of October and managed by D.P. Murphy Group of Companies. You can book a stay at the hotel in a room or cottage or stop by for a meal. You may also make reservations for high tea on specific dates throughout the summer and fall.

For fans of Sullivan Entertainment’s Anne of Green Gables miniseries, Dalvay-by-the-Sea is recognizable as the White Sands Hotel. Anne Shirley, played by Megan Follows, recited “The Highwayman” there, impressing her friends and family from Avonlea and the wider population of Prince Edward Island. At the beginning of the sequel, Anne of Avonlea, Anne is busy writing on the dunes with Dalvay-by-the-Sea in the background when her manuscript is blown away by the wind, and she chases the loose pages. In addition, Dalvay-by-the-Sea was featured prominently as the White Sands Hotel in Sullivan Entertainment’s Road to Avonlea television series. Felix King worked at the hotel, and Hetty King became the hotel’s co-proprietor.

Dalvay-by-the-Sea is a beautiful place, and so is the view from the grounds. I spent some time enjoying the landscape from an Adirondack chair in the front yard of the hotel.



It’s a short walk from the hotel to Dalvay Beach, which is a striking and peaceful place.



The drive along the north shore near the hotel is remarkably pretty with lush grasses and dunes.



During my visit to Prince Edward Island, I didn’t have a chance to stay at Dalvay-by-the-Sea or dine there, and I never saw the interior. I hope to visit it again one day and stay there.


Official Website:
Dalvay by the Sea

Location:
Dalvay-by-the-Sea
16 Cottage Crescent, Dalvay, PE, C0A 1P0, Canada.

Image credits:
Photographs by World of Anne Shirley.

References:
Read More about Dalvay’s History. Dalvay by the Sea. Retrieved from: https://www.dalvaybythesea.com/history

Dalvay-by-the-Sea National Historic Site. Parks Canada. Retrieved from: https://parks.canada.ca/lhn-nhs/pe/dalvay

Introducing The "Real" White Sands Hotel - Dalvay By The Sea. Anne of Green Gables. Sullivan Entertainment. Retrieved from: https://www.anneofgreengables.com/blog/introducing-the-real-white-sands-hotel-dalvay-by-the-sea

Pacheco, Adriana. 10 Anne of Green Gables Famous Filming Locations. Anne of Green Gables. Sullivan Entertainment. Retrieved from: https://www.anneofgreengables.com/blog/10-anne-of-green-gables-famous-filming-locations

Created July 17, 2007. Last updated July 12, 2024.
© worldofanneshirley.com