The Golden Road and the Brattle Book Shop, Part II

Sometimes I feel like L.M. Montgomery is following me around. Last summer, I spotted a postcard with an image of L.M. Montgomery's The Golden Road in the Brattle Book Shop in Boston, Massachusetts. Then, early this year, I saw an old edition of the book when my husband and I were out to dinner. I began feeling that these encounters weren't so random, so I decided to look for the book myself.

This summer, I was on a trip back to Boston, and I returned to the Brattle Book Shop.


I browsed through the books in the children's section, but I didn't see anything by L.M. Montgomery. Then I headed upstairs to the room filled with collectible books. After looking around for a while, I spotted a treasure—an old edition of The Golden Road sitting on a shelf labeled "Illustrated & Children's." After staring at it in astonishment, I took the book off the shelf and gently opened it up. Following a few moments of wonder, I headed downstairs to the cashier with the book in hand thinking I was meant to find it.


The woman at the register looked at the book, and then looked up at me and smiled.

"She's one of my favorites," she said.

"Mine too," I replied.


Happy 150th birthday, L.M. Montgomery. Your writings have touched so many. And I seem to run into your stories and the people who love them all the time.

Image credits:
Photographs by World of Anne Shirley.

Created November 30, 2024.
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The beauty of winter...

"The beauty of winter is that it makes you appreciate spring."
-L.M. Montgomery
Sara Stanley in The Story Girl

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Image credit:
Photograph by World of Anne Shirley.

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Created May 28, 2024.
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The Golden Road and the Brattle Book Shop

A few months back, I wrote about how I encountered an old copy of The Golden Road by L.M. Montgomery unexpectedly. Today, I was looking through old photos on my phone, and I realized I had another encounter with The Golden Road last summer.

At the time, I was exploring the Brattle Book Shop in Boston. It's one of the oldest book shops in the U.S., having been established in 1825, and it's one of my favorite places. While I was wandering through the store, I spotted a postcard-sized image of the 1913 cover of The Golden Road with art by George Gibbs. The picture was affixed to the side of a bookshelf. 

The Golden Road was first published in Boston by L.C. Page & Co in 1913. The Page Company was once located at 53 Beacon Street, just across the Boston Commons from the Brattle Book Shop. It's a short, less than 10-minute walk, between the publisher's office and the book shop. I imagine that first editions of L.M. Montgomery's novels were once sold in the Brattle Book Shop. I looked for an old copy of one of Montgomery's novels there, but had no luck finding one. Maybe next time.

Image credit:
Photograph by World of Anne Shirley.

Created May 23, 2024.
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Sweet as a May mist

"On that road we heard the song of morning stars; we drank in fragrances aerial and sweet as a May mist..."
-L.M. Montgomery
The Golden Road

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Photograph by World of Anne Shirley.

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Created May 1, 2024.
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The Golden Road Finds Me

Sometimes our lives intersect with people, with places, and with stories in unexplainable ways. These moments can feel like manifestations of serendipity, unexpected occurrences in life that bring us untold joy.

Earlier this week, my husband and I went out to dinner, and I experienced one of these unusual moments. We were walking down a beautiful staircase lined with books. I was admiring the design of the room and the old book covers. As I walked along, there was an old copy of The Golden Road by L.M. Montgomery directly in front of me. Although I was scanning the shelves, I wasn't looking to find any book or author in particular. But somehow this book found me.

I stopped and stared at the book's blue spine for a moment. As I pulled my phone out of my purse to snap a photo, I called my husband back and pointed to the book. He looked at the book in surprise and bewilderment, asking me, "How did you find it?" I didn't have an answer. I hadn't been looking. Montgomery just tends to find me at various moments, on sometimes significant days, and in improbable places around the world. I'm left in wonder at the reason.


Image credit:
Photograph by World of Anne Shirley.

Created February 9, 2024.
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a diamond winter day in February

"It was a diamond winter day in February—clear, cold, hard, brilliant."
-L.M. Montgomery
The Golden Road

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Photograph by World of Anne Shirley.

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Created February 1, 2024. Last updated April 19, 2024.
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In a Garden

"Nobody ever wants to know the time in a garden."
-L.M. Montgomery
The Story Girl

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Photograph by World of Anne Shirley.

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Created June 11, 2022. Last updated April 19, 2024.
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Road to Avonlea (1990-1996)

Road to Avonlea (1990–1996) is a television series produced by Sullivan Entertainment that aired for seven seasons on the CBC. The storylines in Road to Avonlea are based in part on L.M. Montgomery's novels The Story Girl and The Golden Road as well as her short story collections Chronicles of Avonlea and Further Chronicles of Avonlea.

Road to Avonlea takes place in the early 20th century in the fictional town of Avonlea, Prince Edward Island, the home of the Anne of Green Gables novels and Sullivan Entertainment’s Anne of Green Gables miniseries. The series begins when Sara Stanley is sent to live in Avonlea with her mother's family, the Kings, after her father is accused of embezzlement. Sara is a wealthy girl, who is used to life in big city Montreal. She must adjust to new experiences in a small village and her close-knit relatives.

Over the course of the series, its focus expanded from Sara to the rest of the King family and residents of Avonlea. Like other productions by Sullivan Entertainment, Road to Avonlea is humorous, romantic, and heart-warming. Its visually beautiful with a talented cast.

Road to Avonlea was a celebrated television series, winning 15 Gemini Awards and three Emmys. It aired in the United States on the Disney Channel with the title Avonlea. The series concluded after airing 91 episodes. Following the series finale, the Road to Avonlea cast reunited in a 1998 made-for-television film called Happy Christmas, Miss King (also known as An Avonlea Christmas). Set in 1914, the storyline was set during the first World War.

Image credit:
The Road to Avonlea photograph above features (from left to right) the characters Cecily King (Harmony Cramp), Olivia King (Mag Ruffman), Janet King (Lally Cadeau), Felicity King (Gema Zamprogna), Alec King (Cedric Smith), Sara Stanley (Sarah Polley), and Hetty King (Jackie Burroughs). © Sullivan Entertainment

External link:
Road of Avonlea: The Official Website

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Created November 23, 2002. Last updated March 12, 2022.
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The Golden Road

The Golden Road by L.M. Montgomery was published in 1913 as a sequel to The Story Girl. In this novel, Bev reminisces of his friends and of days gone by on a golden road of childhood.

In The Golden Road, Sara and the other children decide to publish their own magazine to entertain themselves, named Our Magazine. Each child contributes to a particular column, including fiction, fashion, personals, and etiquette. They have several adventures together, including visits to the town "witch," Peg Bowen. Along with sharing adventures, the children have many fights and squabbles. They experience mishaps during a visit from their aunt and attend two weddings. In addition, they learn the secret of the Awkward Man and witness Cecily's bravery to support the missionaries.

By the end of the novel, the characters have grown. Sara, Bev, and Felix must leave Carlisle, and things will never be the same. But Bev's memories remain strong. As Blair Stanley states, "Nothing is ever really lost to us as long as we remember it."

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Created May 29, 2002. Last updated February 2, 2022.
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The Story Girl

Published in 1911, The Story Girl was L.M. Montgomery's favorite novel. In it, she captures the delight of youth and the joy of storytelling. The novel may have been so dear to her heart because she used it as a showcase for her own childhood experiences and to retell her personal family folklore and stories.

The Story Girl tells the tale of a group of children in Carlisle, Prince Edward Island. The narrator of the story, Beverly King, looks back with his adult eyes on a summer he and his brother Felix spent away from Toronto on P.E.I. with their relatives while their father was away on business. Bev and Felix spend time with their cousins Dan, Felicity, and Cecily King, as well as Sara Ray, Peter Craig, and the novel's namesake, Sara Stanley⁠—the "Story Girl."

The children's minor adventures are interwoven with Sara's fearsome, mythological, humorous, and human tales that mesmerize her young audience. She is the main character, though, unlike Montgomery's other protagonists, she does not have a driving plot line. It is the narrator Bev, who directs our attention to Sara's talents and charms throughout the story.

The Story Girl is followed by its sequel The Golden Road.

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Created May 27, 2002. Last updated March 16, 2021.
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The Story Girl Series eTexts and Electronic Books

Where can I read The Story Girl and The Golden Road online?

Below are external links to read The Story Girl novels by L.M. Montgomery online. You can also download the ebooks as epub files, plain text files, or books for your Kindle.

The Story Girl Series

The Story Girl
Text | HTML | EPUB | Kindle

The Golden Road
Text | HTML | EPUB | Kindle


Image credit:
The Story Girl cover artwork by Elly MacKay from the 2018 Tundra Books edition of the novel.

Created May 1, 2000. Last updated September 7, 2022.
© worldofanneshirley.com

Anne3.com (Sullivan Entertainment) Forum Keeperships

I originally posted a Keeperships topic at the Anne3.com Forum hosted by Sullivan Entertainment on April 18, 2000. Later, the forum was known as the Avonlea Message Board and the Sullivan Entertainment Message Board. Sadly, the forum is gone now. I miss the days of conversation, friendship, and fun that took place there.

In returning to my old website, I thought I'd repost the keeperships here as an archive. I can't believe that the list is 250 keeperships long. Please note that this keeperships listing is no longer being updated.

Here are a few details on the keeperships list:

Keeperships are special treasures that we protect and care for, and we are called "keepers" of these items. All of our keeperships are from the Anne of Green Gables novels or Sullivan Entertainment Anne of Green Gables miniseries, Road to Avonlea, and other L.M. Montgomery novels and adaptations.

Some keeperships were created using screencaptures from friends at the Anne3.com Forum and from Avonlea Vignettes, Avonlea.hu, Lantern Hill, Anne of Green Gables, the Road to Avonlea Guide, and Megan Follows UK.


The Keeperships List

List Categories:
The Anne of Green Gables Series
The Blue Castle
The Emily of New Moon Series
Jane of Lantern Hill
Kilmeny of the Orchard
Magic for Marigold
The Pat of Silver Bush Series
Road to Avonlea
The Story Girl and The Golden Road
A Tangled Web
General/Other


The Anne Series














































































































































































































































































































































The Blue Castle














The Emily of New Moon Series






















Jane of Lantern Hill






Kilmeny of the Orchard




Magic for Marigold






The Pat of Silver Bush Series






The Story Girl and The Golden Road




Road to Avonlea


















































































































A Tangled Web




General/Other










Created April 18, 2000. Last updated keepership list and images August 8, 2010. Re-posted online December 1, 2021. Last updated intro text December 1, 2021.
© worldofanneshirley.com