The L.M. Montgomery Reader: Volume One: A Life in Print
© 2020
Now available in paperback, The L.M. Montgomery Reader assembles rediscovered primary material on one of Canada’s most enduringly popular authors, spanning the entirety of her high-profile career and the years since her death.
The first volume, A Life in Print, focuses specifically on Montgomery’s role as a public celebrity and author of the resoundingly successful Anne of Green Gables (1908). The selections give a strong impression of Montgomery as a writer and cultural critic as she discusses a range of topics with wit, wisdom, and humour, including the natural landscape of Prince Edward Island, her wide readership, anxieties about modernity, and the continued relevance of "old ideals." These essays and interviews, joined by a number of additional pieces that discuss her work’s literary and cultural value in relation to an emerging canon of Canadian literature, make up nearly one hundred selections in all.
Each volume in The L.M. Montgomery Reader is accompanied by an extensive introduction and detailed commentary by leading Montgomery scholar Benjamin Lefebvre that traces the interplay between the author and the critic, as well as between the private and the public Montgomery.
Product Details
- World Rights
- Page Count: 464 pages
- Dimensions: 6.0in x 1.3in x 9.0in
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Reviews
"Lefebvre’s archival research is thorough and often brilliant, making the Reader an invaluable trove not only for Montgomery scholars but also for those working with the reception history of Canadian writers, especially women before Laurence, Munro, and Atwood. For Montgomery completists, the Reader is irresistible. For those engaged in Montgomery studies or Canadian literature more generally, it is invaluable."
Anne Furlong
University of Toronto Quarterly vol 84:03:2015“While Lefebvre’s The L.M. Montgomery Reader is a vital resource of primary sources from and secondary assessments of one of Canada’s most popular twentieth-century authors, it is his insightful and knowledgeable analysis that shapes and gives meaning to the collection. The depth of his knowledge results in a work that is as comprehensible as it is comprehensive.”
Andre Narbonne
American Review of Canadian Studies"With this volume, Lefebvre broadens our understanding of Montgomery's reception and reputation both within Canada and internationally, unearthing previously obscure content and commentary and making it accessible to a far wider audience. This reader will thus prove a valuable resource to both existing and future scholars of Montgomery's work and life, as well as those fans keen for a little more insight into the ever-elusive figure of L.M. Montgomery."
Sarah Galletly
British Journal of Canadian Studies"Lefebvre has uncovered a cache of new, important material in an already impressive and crowded field of Montgomery scholarship … His sensitive editing of the material brings the public side of Montgomery into better focus as she fields endless questions about how she became a writer, how Anne came to be and whether or not she was a real girl and what the author thought of young women in her day. [This book will] deepen our knowledge and understanding of this beloved Canadian icon."
Laurie Glenn Norris
Telegraph-Journal (Saint John, NB)"This comprehensive volume (with its two companions) forms a treasure trove of previously unavailable material; it will be of interest to scholars of Canadian and world literature and possibly to true admirers of Anne of Green Gables and its author."
Barbara L. Talcroft
Children's Literature LLC"No one knows more than Benjamin Lefebvre about publications by and about L.M. Montgomery, and it’s wonderful to have so many previously inaccessible materials now made available. This volume represents a serious advance in state-of-the-art research for Montgomery specialists, and offers a major contribution to our knowledge of Canadian literature and culture for the first half of the twentieth century. Enriched with fulsome annotations and contextualizing information, it will be appreciated by both scholars and Montgomery fans."
Carole Gerson, Department of English, Simon Fraser University"Rich, broad, and extremely well organized, this volume changes the way we understand Montgomery as a writer in a way no previous publication has done. It is an enormously valuable resource for scholars, students, and interested readers of Montgomery’s writing."
Cecily Devereux, Department of English and Film Studies, University of Alberta -
Author Information
Benjamin Lefebvre, editor of The L.M. Montgomery Library, is director of L.M. Montgomery Online. His publications include an edition of Montgomery’s rediscovered final book, The Blythes Are Quoted, and the three-volume critical anthology The L.M. Montgomery Reader, which won the 2016 PROSE Award for Literature from the Association of American Publishers. -
Table of contents
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction: A Life in Print
BENJAMIN LEFEBVREA Note on the Text
1. [Such a Delightful Little Person] (1908) 2. Author Tells How He Wrote His Story (1908) 3. Origin of Popular Book (1908) 4. The Author of Anne of Avonlea (1909) 5. Miss Montgomery, the Author of the “Anne” Books (1909)
A. WYLIE MAHON 6. A Trio of Women Writers (1909)
DONALD B. SINCLAIR 7. Canadian Writers on Canadian Literature – A Symposium (1910) 8. Says Woman’s Place Is Home (1910) 9. Want to Know How to Write Books? Well Here’s a Real Recipe (1910)
PHOEBE DWIGHT 10. Miss Montgomery’s Visit to Boston (1910) 11. Four Questions Answered (1910)
LUCY MAUD MONTGOMERY 12. Miss L.M. Montgomery, Author of Anne of Green Gables (1910) 13. How I Began to Write (1911)
L.M. MONTGOMERY 14. [Seasons in the Woods] (1911)
L.M. MONTGOMERY 15. With Our Next-Door Neighbors: Prince Edward Island (1911)
THOMAS F. ANDERSON 16. [The Marriage of L.M. Montgomery] (1911) 17. A Canadian Novelist of Note Interviewed (1911) 18. Interviews with Authors (1911)
ANNE E. NIAS 19. The Old Minister in The Story Girl (1912)
A. WYLIE MAHON 20. L.M. Montgomery: Story Writer (1913)
MARJORY MACMURCHY 21. L.M. Montgomery at Women’s Canadian Club (1913) 22. L.M. Montgomery of the Island (1914)
MARJORY MACMURCHY 23. What Twelve Canadian Women Hope to See as the Outcome of the War (1915) 24. The Way to Make a Book (1915)
L.M. MONTGOMERY 25. How I Began (1915)
L.M. MONTGOMERY 26. [This Hideous War] (1915) 27. What Are the Greatest Books in the English Language? (1916) 28. My Favorite Bookshelf (1917)
L.M. MONTGOMERY 29. The Author of Anne (1919)
ETHEL CHAPMAN 30. The Gay Days of Old (1919)
L.M. MONTGOMERY 31. Introduction to Further Chronicles of Avonlea, by L.M. Montgomery (1920)
NATHAN HASKELL DOLE 32. One Little Girl Who Wrote to L.M. Montgomery and Received a Reply (1920) 33. A Sextette of Canadian Women Writers (1920)
OWEN MCGILLICUDDY 34. Blank Verse? “Very Blank,” Said Father (1921)
L.M. MONTGOMERY 35. “I Dwell among My Own People” (1921)
L.M. MONTGOMERY 36. Bits from My Mailbag (1922)
L.M. MONTGOMERY 37. From Fiction Writers on Fiction Writing: Advice, Opinions and a Statement of Their Own Working Methods by More Than One Hundred Authors (1923) 38. Novel Writing Notes (1923)
L.M. MONTGOMERY 39. Proud That Canadian Literature Is Clean (1924) 40. Canadian Public Cold to Its Own Literature (1924) 41. Thinks Modern Flapper Will Be Strict Mother (1924) 42. Symposium on Canadian Fiction in Which Canadian Authors Express Their Preferences (1924) 43. Something about L.M. Montgomery (1925) 44. L.M. Montgomery’s Rilla of Ingleside: A Reader’s Journal (1925)
ALTAIR 45. Famous Author and Simple Mother (1925)
NORMA PHILLIPS MUIR 46. The Day before Yesterday (1927)
L.M. MONTGOMERY MACDONALD 47. Who’s Who in Canadian Literature: L.M. Montgomery (1927)
V.B. RHODENIZER 48. About Canadian Writers: L.M. Montgomery, the Charming Author of “Anne” (1927)
KATHERINE HALE 49. On Being of the Tribe of Joseph (1927)
AUSTIN BOTHWELL 50. Minister’s Wife and Authoress (1928)
C.L. COWAN 51. An Autobiographical Sketch (1929)
L.M. MONTGOMERY 52. Modern Girl Defined by Noted Writer (1929) 53. L.M. Montgomery’s Ideas (1930) 54. The ’Teen-Age Girl (1931)
L.M. MONTGOMERY 55. Anne of Green Gables at Home (1931)
A.V. BROWN 56. An Open Letter from a Minister’s Wife (1931)
L.M. MONTGOMERY 57. Life Has Been Interesting (1933)
MRS. L.M. MACDONALD (L.M. MONTGOMERY) 58. The Importance of Beauty in Everything (1933)
L.M. MONTGOMERY 5.9 From Courageous Women (1934)
L.M. MONTGOMERY 60. Author to Get No Profit as Green Gables Filmed (1934) 61. Film Preview of Noted Novel Honors Canadian Woman Writer (1934) 62. Is This My Anne (1935)
L.M. MONTGOMERY 63. Foreword to Up Came the Moon, by Jessie Findlay Brown (1936)
L.M. MONTGOMERY 64. Come Back with Me to Prince Edward Island (1936)
L.M. MONTGOMERY 65. Memories of Childhood Days (1936)
L.M. MONTGOMERY 66. The Mother of the Anne Series – Lucy M. Montgomery (1937)
EVA-LIS WUORIO, TRANSLATED BY VAPPU KANNAS 67. The Book and the Film (1937) 68. For and about Girls (1937)
L.M. MONTGOMERY 69. Prince Edward Island (1939)
L.M. MONTGOMERY, OBE 70. Beloved Writer Addresses Several Aurora Gatherings (1940) 71. Noted Author Dies Suddenly at Home Here (1942) 72. Lucy Maud Montgomery (1942) 73. L.M. Montgomery’s “Anne” (1942) 74. Body of Island’s Beloved Authoress Home for Burial (1942) 75. Island Writer Laid to Rest at Cavendish (1942) 76. The Creator of “Anne” (1942) 77. [L.M. Montgomery’s Last Poem] (1942) 78. L.M. Montgomery / Mrs. (Rev.) Ewen Macdonald (1942) 79. L.M. Montgomery as a Letter-Writer (1942)
E. WEBER 80. L.M. Montgomery’s “Anne” (1944)
E. WEBER Epilogue: Anne of Green Gables – The Story of the Photoplay (1920) ARABELLA BOONE
Sources Bibliography Index
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Prizes
PROSE Award for Literature awarded by Association of American Publishers - Winner in 2016 -
Subjects and Courses
