L.M. Montgomery and War

In 2017, L.M. Montgomery and War was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press. This book of scholarship examines how war influenced L.M. Montgomery's life and work. It was edited by Andrea McKenzie and Jane Ledwell. The volume contains contributions by Jonathan F. Vance, Irene Gammel, E. Holly Pike, Susan Fisher, Laura M. Robinson, Sarah Glassford, Maureen O. Gallagher, Caroline E. Jones, Andrea McKenzie, and Elizabeth Epperly.

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

War marked L.M. Montgomery’s personal life and writing. As an eleven-year-old, she experienced the suspense of waiting months for news about her father, who fought during the North-West Resistance of 1885. During the First World War, she actively led women’s war efforts in her community, while suffering anguish at the horrors taking place overseas. Through her novels, Montgomery engages directly with the global conflicts of her time, from the North-West Resistance to the Second World War. Given the influence of her wartime writing on Canada’s cultural memories, L.M. Montgomery and War restores Montgomery to her rightful place as a major war writer.

Reassessing Montgomery’s position in the canon of war literature, contributors to this volume explore three central themes in their essays: her writing in the context of contemporaneous Canadian novelists, artists, and poets; questions about her conceptions of gender identity, war work, and nationalism across enemy lines; and the themes of hurt and healing in her interwar works.

Drawing on new perspectives from war studies, literary studies, historical studies, gender studies, and visual art, L.M. Montgomery and War explores new ways to consider the iconic Canadian writer and her work.

Reviews

“L.M. Montgomery and War is a delight to read. The use of biography, journals, and historical context is admirable. The writing is clear and engaging, always with an eye towards the general readership that Montgomery engages, and the range of issues evoked by a focus on war in Montgomery’s work is truly amazing and illuminating.” Holly Blackford, Rutgers University

“Andrea McKenzie and Jane Ledwell’s edited collection has much to offer anyone interested in how readers remember female authors who do not abide by the cultural scripts defining the topics appropriate to them.” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly

The book includes the following essays:

Part One: The Canons of War

1. “Some Great Crisis of Storm and Stress”: L.M. Montgomery, Canadian Literature, and the Great War by Jonathan F. Vance
2. Mapping Patriotic Memory: L.M. Montgomery, Mary Riter Hamilton, and the Great War by Irene Gammel
3. Education for War: Anne of Green Gables and Rilla of Ingleside by E. Holly Pike
4. “Watchman, What of the Night?”: L.M. Montgomery’s Poems of War by Susan Fisher

Part Two: Gendering War

5. L.M. Montgomery’s Great War: The Home as Battleground in Rilla of Ingleside by Laura M. Robinson
6. “I Must Do Something to Help at Home”: Rilla of Ingleside in the Context of Real Women’s War Work by Sarah Glassford
7. Across Enemy Lines: Gender and Nationalism in Else Ury’s and L.M. Montgomery’s Great War Novels by Maureen O. Gallagher

Part Three: Healing or Hurt?
The Aftermath

8. The Shadows of War: Interstitial Grief in L.M. Montgomery’s Final Novels by Caroline E. Jones
9. Women at War? One Hundred Years of Visualizing Rilla by Andrea McKenzie
10. Emily’s Quest: L.M. Montgomery’s Green Alternative to Despair and War? By Elizabeth Epperly


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Anne around the World: L.M. Montgomery and Her Classic

Anne around the World: L.M. Montgomery and Her Classic was published in May 2013 by McGill-Queen’s University Press. This book of scholarship examines the broad and lasting international appeal of L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables. It was edited by Jane Ledwell and Jean Mitchell. The volume contains contributions Yoshiko Akamatsu, Doreley Carolina Coll, Brooke Collins-Gearing, Margaret Doody, Elizabeth R. Epperly, Barbara Carman Garner, Caroline E. Jones, Paul Keen, Jane Ledwell, Jennie MacDonald, Susan Meyer, Jean Mitchell, Mary Henley Rubio, Gholamreza Sami, Wendy Shilton, Cynthia Sugars, Tanfer Emin Tunc, Åsa Warnqvist, Elizabeth Hillman Waterston, and Budge Wilson.

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

What makes Anne of Green Gables an international, time-honoured classic? International audiences have described reading L.M. Montgomery's most celebrated novel as an experience in enchantment. Balancing criticism and celebration, Jane Ledwell and Jean Mitchell bring together essays that consider the sources of the wonder that Montgomery's work inspires.

The popular appeal of Montgomery's classic is undeniable, but the reasons for its worldwide resonance are less obvious. From a range of perspectives, the contributors to Anne around the World focus on the numerous themes the novel raises, showcasing why it has charmed readers across the globe - from Iran to Australia, and from Sweden to Japan. Essays consider issues of class, race, and colonial history, discuss Anne's place in children's literature, her passion for writing, and the ways in which L.M. Montgomery and her red-haired protagonist are celebrated by legions of fans.

Featuring contributions from many international writers, Anne around the World traces the meaning and influence of a story that spread far from its place of origin on a small Canadian island to distant and culturally diverse places.

Contributors include Yoshiko Akamatsu (Notre Dame Seishin University, Japan), Doreley Carolina Coll (University of Prince Edward Island), Brooke Collins-Gearing (School of Humanities and Social Science, New South Wales), Margaret Doody (Notre Dame University), Elizabeth R. Epperly (emeritus, University of Prince Edward Island), Barbara Carman Garner (Carleton University), Caroline E. Jones (Texas State University-San Marcos), Paul Keen (Carleton University), Jane Ledwell, Jennie MacDonald (PhD, University of Denver), Susan Meyer (Wellesley College), Jean Mitchell, Mary Henley Rubio (emeritus, University of Guelph), Gholamreza Sami (Sussex University), Wendy Shilton (University of Prince Edward Island), Cynthia Sugars (University of Ottawa), Tanfer Emin Tunc (Hacettepe University, Turkey), Åsa Warnqvist (Stockholm University, Sweden), Elizabeth Hillman Waterston (emeritus, University of Guelph), and Budge Wilson (author).

Reviews

"Anne around the World is a notable and memorable collection of essays which should become an important reference text in the academic field and an attractive read for general readers around the world who have an interest in L.M. Montgomery." Joy Alexander, School of English, Queen's University, Belfast

The book includes the following essays:

Situating Montgomery and Her Classic

Anne of Green Gables - and Afterward by Elizabeth Hillman Waterston
Lasting Images of Anne of Green Gables by Elizabeth R. Epperly
Uncertainties Surrounding the Death of L.M. Montgomery by Mary Henley Rubio
A Century of Critical Reflection on Anne of Green Gables by Barbara Carman Garner

The Terrain of the Classic: Allusions and Intertexts

L.M. Montgomery and the Significance of “Classics,” Ancient and Modern by Margaret Doody
“So- so- commonplace”: Romancing the Local in Anne of Green Gables and Aurora Leigh by Paul Keen
“Matthew’s school of critics”: Learning to Read Anne of Green Gables by Cynthia Sugars
Anne of Green Gables as Centre and Circumference by Wendy Shilton

Provoking the Classic: Class, Colonialism, and Christianity

“Nice Folks”: L.M. Montgomery’s Classic and Subversive Inscriptions and Transgressions of Class by Caroline E. Jones
Civilizing Anne: Missionaries of the South Seas, Cavendish Evangelicalism, and the Crafting of Anne of Green Gables by Jean Mitchell
Narrating the “Classic” on Stolen Ground: Anne of Green Gables by Brooke Collins-Gearing

Anne and After: The Local and Global Circulation of the Classic Text

Teaching and Reading Anne of Green Gables in Iran, the Land of Omar Khayyam by Gholamreza Samigorganroodi
Reading Anne of Green Gables in Montevideo by Doreley Carolina Coll
Teaching Anne and Antonia in Turkey: Feminist Girlhood in L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables and Willa Cather’s My Antonia by Tanfer Emin Tunc
The Continuous Popularity of Red-haired Anne in Japan: An Interview with Yoshiko Akamatsu by Yoshiko Akamatsu
“I experienced a light that became a part of me”: Reading Anne of Green Gables in Sweden by Åsa Warnqvist

Paratext and Aftertexts: Further Words on Anne

“I just love pretty clothes”: Considering the Sartorial in Anne of Green Gables by Jennie MacDonald
Writing after Anne: L.M. Montgomery’s Influence on Canadian Children’s Literature by Susan Meyer
Writing Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson


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Created May 18, 2024.
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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.

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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

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Created May 14, 2024.
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L.M. Montgomery and Gender

L.M. Montgomery and Gender was published in November 2021 by McGill-Queen’s University Press. This book of scholarship examines how L.M. Montgomery challenged gender constructions and gender roles in her writing. It was edited by Laura M. Robinson and E. Holly Pike. The volume contains contributions by Kazuko Sakuma, Lesley D. Clement, Ashley N. Reese, Bonnie J. Tulloch, Mavis Reimer, Rebecca J. Thompson, E. Holly Pike, Wanda Campbell, Vappu Kannas, Catherine Clark, Carole Gerson, Christina Hitchcock, Kiera Ball, Heather Ladd, Erin Spring, Jane Urquhart, Tara K. Parmiter, and Elizabeth Rollins Epperly.

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

The celebrated author of Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon receives much-deserved additional consideration in L.M. Montgomery and Gender. Nineteen contributors take a variety of critical and theoretical positions, from historical analyses of the White Feather campaign and discussions of adoption to medical discourses of death and disease, explorations of Montgomery’s use of humour, and the author’s rewriting of masculinist traditions.

The essays span Montgomery’s writing, exploring her famous Anne and Emily books as well as her short fiction, her comic journal composed with her friend Nora Lefurgey, and less-studied novels such as Magic for Marigold and The Blue Castle. Dividing the chapters into five sections - on masculinities and femininities, domestic space, humour, intertexts, and being in time - L.M. Montgomery and Gender addresses the degree to which Montgomery’s work engages and exposes, reflects and challenges the gender roles around her, underscoring how her writing has shaped future representations of gender.

Of interest to historians, feminists, gender scholars, scholars of literature, and Montgomery enthusiasts, this wide-ranging collection builds on the depth of current scholarship in its approach to the complexity of gender in the works of one of Canada’s best-loved authors.

Review

"A book-length study on this author's rich and complex relationship with gender norms and expectations, and her myriad depictions of gender, is overdue. Because modern understanding of gender identity and contemporary awareness of gender issues are increasingly prominent in cultural discussions, this book, with its many perspectives on gender in Montgomery's work, is extraordinarily timely." Caroline Jones, Austin Community College

The book includes the following content and essays:

INTRODUCTION

“You Don’t Want Me Because I’m Not a Boy”: L.M. Montgomery and Gender by E. Holly Pike and Laura M. Robinson

MASCULINITIES AND FEMININITIES

1. The White Feather: Gender and War in L.M. Montgomery’s Rilla of Ingleside by Kazuko Sakuma
2. From “Uncanny Beauty” to “Uncanny Disease”: Destabilizing Gender through the Deaths of Ruby Gillis and Walter Blythe and the Life of Anne Shirley by Lesley D. Clement
3. Barney of the Island: Nature and Gender in Montgomery’s The Blue Castle by Ashley N. Reese

DOMESTIC SPACE

4. The Robinsonade versus the Annescapade: Exploring the “Adventure” in Anne of Green Gables by Bonnie J. Tulloch
5. Soliciting Home: The Cultural Function of Orphans in Early Twentieth-Century Canada by Mavis Reimer
6. “That House Belongs to Me”: The Appropriation of Patriarchal Space in L.M. Montgomery’s Emily Trilogy by Rebecca J. Thompson

HUMOUR

7. Cross-Dressing: Twins, Language, and Gender in L.M. Montgomery’s Short Fiction by E. Holly Pike
8. “I’m Noted for That”: Comic Subversion and Gender in L.M. Montgomery’s “The Quarantine at Alexander Abraham’s” and “Aunt Philippa and the Men” by Wanda Campbell
9. “Nora and I Got Through the Evening”: Gender Roles and Romance in the Diary of L.M. Montgomery and Nora Lefurgey by Vappu Kannas

INTERTEXTS

10. The Blue Castle: Sex and the Revisionist Fairy Tale by Catherine Clark
11. L.M. Montgomery, E. Pauline Johnson, and the Figure of the “Half-Breed Girl” by Carole Gerson
12. Orgies of Lovemaking: L.M. Montgomery’s Feminine Version of the Augustinian Community by Christina Hitchcock and Kiera Ball
13. Feminizing Thomson’s The Seasons: Identity, Gender, and Seasonal Aesthetics in L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables by Heather Ladd and Erin Spring

BEING IN TIME

14. Her Reader by Jane Urquhart
15. Like a Childless Mother: L.M. Montgomery and the Anguish of Mother’s Loss by Tara K. Parmiter
16. Magic for Marigold: Engendering Questions about What Lasts by Elizabeth Rollins Epperly


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Book cover of L.M. Montgomery and Gender from McGill-Queen’s University Press.

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Created November 25, 2021. Last updated June 11, 2024.
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Readying Rilla: L.M. Montgomery's Reworking of Rilla of Ingleside

Readying Rilla: L.M. Montgomery's Reworking of Rilla of Ingleside edited by Elizabeth Waterston and Kate Waterston was published by Rock's Mill Press on February 25, 2016. The book includes a full transcription of Montgomery's 518-page handwritten original manuscript of the novel as well as the additional 71 pages of “notes” Montgomery composed while writing the story. L.M. Montgomery's handwritten pages were transcribed by Kate Waterston. The book also includes annotations of the text. Examining the manuscript and the finished novel provides insight into L.M. Montgomery's creative process as a writer.

Here is the description of the book from Rock's Mill Press:

L.M. Montgomery began writing Rilla of Ingleside shortly after the end of World War I. Her story of the war was not about soldiers fighting and dying on Flanders Fields, but about Canadians struggling to “keep the home fires burning.” It is a novel that today remains at once both deeply moving and, on occasion, very funny. As she wrote the novel over a period of two years, Montgomery accumulated 518 handwritten pages. Alongside this stack was another 71 pages, titled “Notes.” These notes---literary second thoughts, as it were---added textual flavour, improving the novel’s realism, emotional depth, and humour. Montgomery’s handwritten manuscript of Rilla was acquired by the University of Guelph Archival & Special Collections in 1999. This manuscript has been painstakingly rendered in a readable format by Kate Waterston and is now published as Readying Rilla, with an introduction by Montgomery expert Elizabeth Waterston.

This edition is a surprisingly engrossing read, but offers a different experience than the finished novel provides. Here we sense Montgomery’s own thought processes, and witness the way she carefully refined her novel. The world has changed much since 1921: now books are mostly composed on computer, leaving behind little record of the writer’s creative journey to a final published work. But editing is a key process in creating any great work of fiction, and here is one of the most detailed records of creativity available.

L.M. MONTGOMERY, OBE (1874–1942) wrote 20 books in her lifetime, including Anne of Green Gables (1908), Rilla of Ingleside (1921) and Emily of New Moon (1923). She also kept a series of journals from the age of fifteen to the end of her life..

Reviews

“I love L.M. Montgomery's novel Rilla of Ingleside, and this gives a whole new way of seeing and appreciating it. As always, Elizabeth Waterston's prose is beautiful, and her introduction makes the reader want to dive right in to see what pattern can be intuited from the kinds of changes [Montgomery] made on the manuscript. Altogether a fascinating read. -- Elizabeth R. Epperly, author of The Fragrance of Sweet-Grass: L.M. Montgomery's Heroines and the Pursuit of Romance

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Created March 15, 2016. Last updated June 9, 2024.
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L.M. Montgomery's Rainbow Valleys: The Ontario Years, 1911-1942

L.M. Montgomery's Rainbow Valleys: The Ontario Years, 1911-1942 was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in October 2015. This volume of scholarship examines L.M. Montgomery's life and work during her decades living in Ontario, Canada. The book was edited by Rita Bode and Lesley D. Clement. There are contributions by Elizabeth Waterston, Mary Beth Cavert, Margaret Steffler, Laura M. Robinson, Caroline E. Jones, William V. Thompson, Melanie J. Fishbane, Katherine Cameron, Emily Woster, Natalie Forest, E. Holly Pike, Linda Rodenburg, Kate Sutherland, Lesley D. Clement, and Kate Macdonald Butler.

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

Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942) and Anne of Green Gables will always be associated with Prince Edward Island, Montgomery's childhood home and the setting of her most famous novels. Yet, after marrying Rev. Ewan Macdonald in 1911, she lived in Ontario for three decades. There she became a mother of two sons, fulfilled the duties of a minister's wife, advocated for copyright protection and recognition of Canadian literature, wrote prolifically, and reached a global readership that has never waned.

Engaging with discussions on both her life and her fiction, L.M. Montgomery's Rainbow Valleys explores the joys, sorrows, and literature that emerged from her transformative years in Ontario. While this time brought Montgomery much pleasure and acclaim, it was also challenged and complicated by a sense of displacement and the need to self-fashion and self-dramatize as she struggled to align her private self with her public persona. Written by scholars from various fields and including a contribution by Montgomery's granddaughter, this volume covers topics such as war, religion, women's lives, friendships, loss, and grief, focusing on a range of related themes to explore Montgomery's varied states of mind.

An in-depth study of one of Canada's most internationally acclaimed authors, L.M. Montgomery's Rainbow Valleys shows how she recreated herself as an Ontario writer and adapted to the rapidly changing world of the twentieth century.

Contributors include Elizabeth Waterston (Guelph), Mary Beth Cavert (Independent), Margaret Steffler (Trent), Laura M. Robinson (Royal Military College), Caroline E. Jones (Austin Community College), William V. Thompson (Grant MacEwan University), Melanie J. Fishbane (Humber College), Katherine Cameron (Concordia University College), Emily Woster (Minnesota-Duluth), Natalie Forest (York), E. Holly Pike (Memorial-Grenfell), Linda Rodenburg (Lakehead-Orillia), Kate Sutherland (York), Lesley D. Clement (Lakehead-Orillia), Kate Macdonald Butler (Heirs of L.M. Montgomery Inc.).

Reviews

“With its interest in placing Montgomery’s work in new cultural and historical contexts, L.M. Montgomery’s Rainbow Valleys expands our understanding of this canonical Canadian author. Although there is no disputing that PEI had an enduring impact on Montgomery's literary sensibility, Ontario played its part too, as the essays in this collection abundantly reveal.” Janice Fiamengo, University of Ottawa

“Coherent and well-structured, L.M. Montgomery’s Rainbow Valleys breaks new ground with its singular focus on the Ontario years. It will unquestionably command the attention of an academic audience, but is also accessible to the general reader who has an interest in Montgomery or in Canadian culture.” Joy Alexander, Queen’s University, Belfast

“L.M. Montgomery’s Rainbow Valleys is important because it resists Montgomery’s own obsessive returns to Prince Edward Island, as well as those of her readers and critics. The collection remains grounded in her Ontario experience, demonstrating its influence on all the writing she did in the second half of her life.” The Times Literary Supplement

The book includes the following content and essays:

Introduction by Rita Bode and Lesley D. Clement

Prologue

1. Leaskdale: L.M. Montgomery’s Rainbow Valley by Elizabeth Waterston

A New Home in Leaskdale: War and Religion

2. “To the Memory of”: Leaskdale and Loss in the Great War by Mary Beth Cavert
3. “Being a Christian” and a Presbyterian in Leaskdale by Margaret Steffler

The Changing World of Women: Mother, Daughter, Friend

4. “A Gift for Friendship”: Revolutionary Friendship in Anne of the Island and The Blue Castle by Laura M. Robinson
5. The New Mother at Home: Montgomery’s Literary Explorations of Motherhood by Caroline E. Jones

Shadows in Rainbow Valley: Loss and Grief

6. The Shadow on the House of Dreams: Montgomery’s Re-Visioning of Anne by William V. Thompson
7. “My Pen Shall Heal, Not Hurt”: Writing as Therapy in Rilla of Ingleside and The Blythes Are Quoted by Melanie J. Fishbane

Interlude

L.M.M. by Katherine Cameron

A Sense of Place: Reading and Writing

8. Old Years and Old Books: Montgomery’s Ontario Reading and Self-Fashioning by Emily Woster
9. (Re)Locating Montgomery: Prince Edward Island Romance to Southern Ontario Gothic by Natalie Forest

Travels to Muskoka: Commodification and Tourism

10. Propriety and the Proprietary: The Commodification of Health and Nature in The Blue Castle by E. Holly Pike
11. Bala and The Blue Castle: The “Spirit of Muskoka” and the Tourist Gaze by Linda Rodenburg

Life in Toronto: Professional and Cultural Links

12. Advocating for Authors and Battling Critics in Toronto: Montgomery and the Canadian Authors Association by Kate Sutherland
13. Toronto’s Cultural Scene: Tonic or Toxin for a Sagged Soul? by Lesley D. Clement

Epilogue

14. Dear Grandmother Maud on the Road to Heaven by Kate Macdonald Butler

Appendix

Montgomery’s Ontario Legacies: A Community Presence in the Twenty-First Century by Rita Bode and Lesley D. Clement with the assistance of Kristina Eldridge and Chloe Verner


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Created October 20, 2015. Last updated June 7, 2024.
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L.M. Montgomery: The Norval Years, 1926-1935

L.M. Montgomery: The Norval Years, 1926-1935 by Deborah Quaile was published by Wordbird Press on June 15, 2006. The book includes illustrations by Jennifer Osborn. It is organized in the form of a scrapbook and follows Montgomery's years living and working in Norval, Ontario, Canada, including photographs, journal entries, and local newspaper and magazine articles.

Here's the description of the book from Wordbird Press:

The professional life and home life of Lucy Maud Montgomery Macdonald (author of Anne of Green Gables) were inextricably intertwined. This scrapbook-style history follows Maud’s village life in Norval, Ontario, Canada, where she lived from 1926 to 1935, through photographs, memorabilia, literary quotations, and local journalism. In long-unread issues of newspapers and magazines, and in personal archives, author Deborah Quaile has uncovered hints of Maud that haven’t been seen in decades. The story follows Norval and local history, while at the same time recreating the life of Canada’s favourite author, from her everyday appearance at church socials, to speaking engagements in far-flung cities where standing ovations were cordial recognitions of her other existence.

L.M. Montgomery: The Norval Years, 1926-1935 reconstructs the reality in which the writer revolved, presenting new material that has not been seen by the current generations of Montgomery scholars and fans. Knowing her fondness for scrapbooking through archives in Ontario and Prince Edward Island, perhaps these are the pages L.M. Montgomery would have loved to create.

The book includes the following contents:

Introduction: The Allure of L.M. Montgomery
Foreword
From Prince Edward Island to the World
Norval History
Maud's Home and Gardens
Friends and Family
Norval and Union Presbyterian Churches
Local Beauty
Life in the Village
Devotions and Duties
Maud's Days
L.M. Montgomery's Accomplishments
Leaving Norval
Remembering Maud: Montgomery in Modern Norval
Epilogue
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index

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Book cover of L.M. Montgomery: The Norval Years, 1926-1935 from Wordbird Press.


Created June 7, 2006. Last updated June 23, 2024.
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