L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1930-1933

L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1930–1933 edited by Jen Rubio was published by Rock's Mill Press in 2019. The unabridged editions of L.M. Montgomery's journals paint a fuller, darker picture of her inner thoughts and moods, her passions, and her literary ambitions. In this seventh volume of L.M. Montgomery's complete journals, Montgomery gives a compelling account of painful difficulties, mysterious secrets, and deep disappointments.


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

L.M. Montgomery’s journals speak of simple pleasures and deep joy, dogged worries and profound disappointments. The story of her life from 1930 to 1933 is as gripping as the earlier volumes published by Rock’s Mills Press. This volume is different from earlier ones in a surprising way, however: “It has happened. It is too cruel and hideous and unexpected to write about. I have spent two days in hell. I cannot see how I am to go on living. . . . And I have had to keep up a face to the world when something in my soul was bleeding to death” (February 5, 1933). The truth of this “cruel and hideous” event is, for a time, too diffcult to commit to her journals; it casts a shadow of shame on Montgomery’s life for months. When she finally explains, it is page-turning material that gives a fascinating look into the hidden side of life in Ontario almost a century ago. Montgomery also recounts other difficult situations facing her in those years, including attempts to help a slippery young man facing embezzlement charges and a younger woman’s obsessive crush on her. Over 100 of Montgomery’s own photographs are included, many never before published. This edition also includes an introduction, extensive notes, and an index of photography, all original to this edition.

2019
Paperback, 386 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1-77244-175-8

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L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1922-1925

L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1922–1925 edited by Jen Rubio was published by Rock's Mill Press in 2018. The unabridged editions of L.M. Montgomery's journals paint a fuller, darker picture of her inner thoughts and moods, her passions, and her literary ambitions. In this fifth volume of L.M. Montgomery's complete journals, Montgomery describes her last four years living in Leaskdale, Ontario.


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

L.M. Montgomery's last four years in Leaskdale were marked by a series of unpredictable, and often unmanageable, events. Her account of these events, as they often twisted in increasingly unexpected directions, makes for spellbinding reading. From 1919, Montgomery's life had been troubled by her husband's recurring bouts of mental illness. During the years recounted here, his mood disturbances became profound: "I dare not remain here alone with him if he continues like this," she writes at one particularly low point. Other events added more complications to an already entangled life. A spurious lawsuit brought by a local farmer (claiming an enlarged prostate gland had been caused by a car collision) divided the community; Montgomery's description of the trial, before and after, is riveting. Communities across Ontario were also deeply divided by Church Union, which came to a head in 1925. Her occasional eyebrow-raising comments about members of other denominations remind us that she shared many of the biases of her time. Published now for the first time is the complete record of her life from 1922 to 1925, including the hundreds of photographs that she inserted in the handwritten journals.

Paperback, 468 pp., ISBN-13: 978-1-77244-132-1

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L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1926-1929

L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1926–1929 edited by Jen Rubio was published by Rock's Mill Press in 2017. The unabridged editions of L.M. Montgomery's journals paint a fuller, darker picture of her inner thoughts and moods, her passions, and her literary ambitions. In this sixth volume of L.M. Montgomery's complete journals, Montgomery describes her move to Norval, Ontario and her thoughts on her own life and writing style in a changing world.


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

L.M. Montgomery's relocation in 1926 to Norval, Ontario, a village of striking natural beauty located on the Credit River, furnished her life with a bright new texture. She had lived 15 years in the small farming community of Leaskdale, Ontario, where she experienced her full share of life's highs and lows. Although Montgomery remained busy in Norval, working almost incessantly as an author, mother, and minister's wife, she found that her new home had its own special, and often very pleasing, flavour. Her connection to the "spirit of place" enabled her to record moments of peace and reflection in the "Garden of the Wild Gods," as she described it -- as well as the occasional "bark at the moon." Aware that the world was changing and that her own style of writing was not always sufficiently "edgy," Montgomery's commentary on the transformation of the world around her is infused with characteristic wit and insight ("The mills of the gods grind slowly but they do pulverize," she notes wryly in a journal entry of May 3, 1929). As a social history of a rapidly changing Canada, Montgomery's journals -- presented here complete and unexpurgated for the first time -- offer fascinating insights. Her thoughts on her own life are also illuminating. This new edition includes more than 200 of Montgomery's own photographs, many never before published. Editor Jen Rubio has provided hundreds of annotations, all original to this edition, as well as a new introduction to the volume.

Paperback, 344 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1-77244-080-5

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L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1918-1921

L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1918–1921 edited by Jen Rubio was published by Rock's Mill Press in 2017. The unabridged editions of L.M. Montgomery's journals paint a fuller, darker picture of her inner thoughts and moods, her passions, and her literary ambitions. This fourth volume of L.M. Montgomery's complete journals features an introduction by Elizabeth Rollins Epperly.


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

"This is the journal of a consummate story teller. War, death, madness, fury, despair, sheer grit, laughter, love, and exquisitely realized beauty and joy: all are rendered through the eye and 'I' of an artist for whom her journal was not so much a place as an act of engaging—a companioning of and questioning of herself. I suggest that this volume, covering 1918 to 1921, is one of the most important works in Montgomery’s entire writing career. Here we see her personal world shattered, and we see her consciously remaking it." ---From the Introduction by Elizabeth Rollins Epperly

"Have you heard the news?" L.M. Montgomery records asking her husband Ewan as he arrived home on October 6, 1918, “hoping like a child that he hadn’t, so that I would be the first to tell him." World War I would soon end with an armistice. Montgomery’s words reflect the relief felt across the world as the war drew to a close. Her own life, however, did not relax as she might have hoped; rather, a series of unexpected events were about to unfold. Elizabeth Rollins Epperly observes in her introduction that Montgomery’s journals are filled with moments of joy "suspended in a larger, often darker, story." Here we read about Montgomery’s experiences with death, the spirit world, and insanity, among others. Her husband’s mental illness often makes for hair-raising reading. Available here for the first time is the complete record of Montgomery’s life, a spellbinding account of the small and the large, the tragic and the humorous. Over 180 of Montgomery’s own photographs are included, many never before published. In addition to Professor Epperly’s fascinating introduction, this edition contains more than 400 notes providing a wealth of historical and literary background.

Paperback, 396 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1-77244-066-9

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L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1911-1917

L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1911–1917 edited by Jen Rubio was published by Rock's Mill Press in 2016. The unabridged editions of L.M. Montgomery's journals paint a fuller, darker picture of her inner thoughts and moods, her passions, and her literary ambitions. With a preface by Jonathan F. Vance, this third volume of L.M. Montgomery's complete journals describes Montgomery's early married years and the birth of her sons. Montgomery records her thoughts on the Great War, which deeply affected her and informed her storytelling in Rilla of Ingleside (1921).


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

The years following L.M. Montgomery’s departure from Prince Edward Island were among the most eventful of her life. She travelled in England and Scotland on her honeymoon; she began her new role of minister’s wife in Leaskdale, Ontario; she gave birth three times; and, in August 1914, she watched Canada go to war. The original publication of Montgomery’s journals in 1987 contained only a selection of her entries. Published now for the first time ever is the full record from 1911 to 1917, a wonderful account of the small and the large, the tragic and the funny. She delights in the birth of her first son. A second baby, however, is stillborn on the eve of war. By the time her third is born, war has become a disquieting reality, with local boys dying overseas. This edition includes all of Montgomery’s original photographs, many of which have never been published. The hundreds of annotations, completely new and exclusive to this edition, incorporate the most up-to-date historical thinking. A new preface by historian Jonathan F. Vance is lively and insightful. Montgomery's record of global war and politics is fascinating; she would draw on it later in writing her novel Rilla of Ingleside, available in an annotated edition from Rock's Mills Press. Another Rock's Mills Press title, Readying Rilla: L.M. Montgomery Reworks Her Manuscript, reveals how Montgomery crafted and revised her work.

Paperback, 368 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1-77244-022-5

Reviews

"Initiated in 2012, with Rubio and Waterston editing the first two volumes, the production of Montgomery’s Complete Journals now continues under the expert direction of Jen Rubio. (Mary’s daughter)."
-Carole Gerson, Literary Review of Canada (full review)

"Jen Rubio, the editor of L. M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years 1911–1917, leaves no stone unturned in identifying places, people, world events, and, most especially in this volume, the battles of the Great War, the variety of recruiting efforts, and aspects of daily life on the home front during those turbulent years."
-Barbara Carman Garner, Children's Literature Association Quarterly

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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 is 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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The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1900-1911

The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1900-1911 edited by Mary Henley Rubio and Elizabeth Hillman Waterston was published by the Oxford University Press in 2013. The unabridged editions of L.M. Montgomery's journals paint a fuller, darker picture of her inner thoughts and moods, her passions, and her literary ambitions. This second volume of L.M. Montgomery's complete journals covers her first major literary success in writing Anne of Green Gables in 1908, followed by Anne of Avonlea, Kilmeny of the Orchard, and The Story Girl.


Here is the description of the volume from the Oxford University Press:

L.M. Montgomery (1874-1942) had begun keeping a private journal before she turned fifteen. From 1918 onward, she had carefully copied out her entries. She intended this detailed life record to be published posthumously. Montgomery's long-hidden version of her early life emerged as the bestselling Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volumes I-V, first published in 1985. Twenty-five years ago, it seemed prudent to offer a tightly organized book with a strong central narrative, but this decision meant setting aside many entries on her personal tastes, her effusions over landscape, and her increasing bouts of depression.

L.M. Montgomery's record of her life is published now for the first time without abridgement. The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The P.E.I. Years, 1889-1900 was published in early 2012 to much acclaim. This second book, covering the years 1901 to 1911, continues to provide a more comprehensive portrait of Montgomery's life in PEI than has ever been available before.

This publication covers Montgomery's early adult years, including her work as a newspaper editor in Halifax, Nova Scotia; her publishing career taking flight; the death of her grandmother; and her forthcoming marriage to a local clergyman. It also documents her own reflections on writing, her increasingly problematic mood swings and feelings of isolation, and her changing relationship with the world around her, particularly that of Prince Edward Island.

Available for the first time in paperback, this new edition recreates the format Montgomery herself devised. Over 300 of her photographs, newspaper clippings, postcards, and professional portraits are reproduced, all with Montgomery's original placement and captions.

Review

"The lure of L.M. Montgomery is twofold, the book’s editors suggest, and as pages turn a study emerges of a young Maud Montgomery both exuberant and high-spirited and, at intervals, baffled, gloomy and burdened with despair. It is to her journals that she confides what she later called the “accumulation of woes” she felt shadowed her life, as well as the inspiration she found in nature and in books."
-Nancy Schiefer, The London Free Press (full review)

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Created July 29, 2013. Last updated August 22, 2024.
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The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900

The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889–1900 edited by Mary Henley Rubio and Elizabeth Hillman Waterston was published by the Oxford University Press in 2012. The unabridged editions of L.M. Montgomery's journals paint a fuller, darker picture of her inner thoughts and moods, her passions, and her literary ambitions.


Here is the description of the volume from the Oxford University Press:

The first edition of The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery was published in the 1980s, with fifty percent of the material removed to save space, as well as to reflect a quaint, marketable vision of small-town Canada. The editors were instructed to excise anything that was not upbeat or did not "move the story along." The resulting account of Montgomery's youthful life in Prince Edward Island depicts a fun-loving, simple country girl. The unabridged journal, however, reveals something quite different.

We now know that Montgomery was anything but simple. She was often anxious, bitter, dark, and political, although always able to see herself and her surroundings with a deep ironic - and often comical - twist. The unabridged version shows her using writing as a means of managing her own mood swings, as well as her increasing dependency on journal keeping, and her ambition as a writer. She was also exceedingly interested in men. We see here a more developed portrait of what she herself described as a "very uncomfortable blend" between "the passionate Montgomery blood and the Puritan Macneill conscience." Full details describe the impassioned events during which she describes becoming a "new creature," "born of sorrow ... and hopeless longing."

In addition, this unedited account is a striking visual record, containing 226 of her own photographs placed as she placed them in her journals, as well as newspaper clippings, postcards, and professional portraits, all with her own original captions. New notes and a new introduction give key context to the history, the people, and the culture in the text. A new preface by Michael Bliss draws some unexpected connections.

The full PEI journals tells a fascinating tale of a young woman coming of age in a bygone rural Canada, a tale far thornier and far more compelling than the first selected edition could disclose.

Review

"There have been selected versions of Montgomery’s early personal records but this edition provides a stronger sense of the writer’s dark moods as a young adult, her frequent feelings of loneliness and the proto-feminism that underlies her literary ambitions. Most vividly it expresses Montgomery’s feistiness, a trait that characterizes her most famous character, Anne."
-Jennifer Hunter, Toronto Star (full review)

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The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume V: 1935-1942

The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume V: 1935–1942 edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston was published by the Oxford University Press in October 2004. L.M. Montgomery wrote extensive journals throughout her life, which provide personal insight to the talented author. Volume V covers the final years of L.M. Montgomery's life. During this period, Montgomery and her husband moved to Toronto, Ontario, where she immersed herself in the life of the city. Despite these pleasures, Montgomery and her husband both have depression and take barbiturates. She worries over her children and is disappointed in her sons' choices and scholastic performance. Toward the end of her life, L.M. Montgomery's depression grows until she stops writing, and her life spirals to a tragic end.


Here is the description of the volume from the Oxford University Press:

The final volume of the immensely successful The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery covers the years 1935 to 1942, the year of Montgomery's death. No longer dwelling in a farm community or a small rural village, Lucy Maud Montgomery explored life in downtown Toronto. Here she experienced the cultural riches the city had to offer while finding friendship and neighbourliness in the suburb of Swansea. The journal chronicles her hopes and satisfaction with her new home and neighbourhood, but also her struggles with her own and her husband's recurring bouts of depression, her worries about her sons' academic performance, and her thoughts on the world events during these years.

The final volume in the series offers an intimate eyewitness account of life in a growing city, a friendly neighbourhood, a changing world, and of a troubling family dynamic from 1935 to 1942, all recorded with Lucy Maud Montgomery's sharp eye and characteristic wit.

Review

"It is not often that a Maritime folk tale turns into Ontario Gothic. But that is what happens to L. M. Montgomery's life as we follow it through her journals."
-Maragaret Anne Doody, The Globe and Mail (full review)

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The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume IV: 1929-1935

The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume IV: 1929–1935 edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston was published by the Oxford University Press in 1998. L.M. Montgomery wrote extensive journals throughout her life, which provide personal insight to the talented author. Volume IV begins when Montgomery is 54 years old. These years of her life are full of personal and professional challenges, including financial and health concerns, as well as moments of happiness.


Here is the description of the volume from the Oxford University Press:

The fourth volume of the immensely successful The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery covers the years from 1929 to 1935, a tumultuous period in the writer's life. By 1929, Montgomery was 54 years old and known world-wide as the author of Anne of Green Gables and many other books, yet this was also a time of numerous setbacks. The stock market crash, a drop in royalties from her many books, the need to provide her two sons with a university education, her husband's modest church salary in arrears, and the fact that many loans she made to friends and family were not repaid, placed Montgomery in the position where she had to type her own manuscripts for the first time since 1910. She also had to face personal crises as her sons' university results were extremely disappointing, her husband suffered a total nervous breakdown, she had concerns over her own mental state, there was further controversy in her husband's parish -- Norval Presbyterian Church -- and Montgomery became the unwilling object of a young woman's declaration of passionate love. Yet this was not a period of joy as well--the volume opens with joyful travels to Prince Edward Island and western Canada and ends with her looking forward with great excitement to a new life in Toronto.

Reviews (see additional reviews)

"The journals, with their vivid account of both daily routines and more significant life events, are written with all the passion, wit and insight into human nature that have made Montgomery's 'books for young people' immortal to her readers."
-Toronto Sun

"Montgomery's interweaving of joy and grief makes her a felt presence on the page....Very few books in recent years have given me the depth of pleasure I've found in these first four volumes of Lucy Maud Montgomery's journals."
-Carol Shields, The Globe and Mail

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The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume III: 1921-1929

The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume III: 1921–1929 edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston was published by Oxford University Press in 1992. L.M. Montgomery wrote extensive journals throughout her life, which provide personal insight to the talented author. Volume III covers her years as a successful author, balancing her professional obligations and aspirations with family and personal concerns.


Here is the description of the volume from the Oxford University Press:

In the 1920s, L.M. Montgomery is in mature mid-life, and her personal and professional lives are becoming even more complex. Montgomery juggles the demands of motherhood, parish obligations, indifferent household help, grief at the loss of older friends and family, and appeals by her P.E.I. clan for advice and assistance. There are also triumphs and trials more closely related to her position as a best-selling author: growing fame, the successful launch of her new heroines 'Emily' and 'Marigold', the struggle to allocate time for correspondence with publishers and fans -- and actually to write.

We trace the happy conclusion of her lawsuits against an unscrupulous publisher, and the disappointing outcome of the tempest-in-a-teapot suit arising from a minor automobile accident. There are more personal worries: the Rev. Ewan Macdonald's envy of his wife's publishing and social success; the dark shadow cast by his recurrent attacks of religious melancholia; her concern lest their sons show similar tendencies. This volume of her journals shows Montgomery to be a complex, sensitive, successful and surprisingly contemporary writer.

Reviews (see additional reviews)

"These are journals so enlightening, so full of wisdom, humor, philosophy and tragedy that they are worth a winter's reading and reflection."
-Ottawa Citizen

"Like the first two, it makes for compulsive reading as a document at once personal and brilliantly illuminative of a decade of our social history."
-Literary Review of Canada

"The book, however, is irresistible to anyone who has read Montgomery's fiction....In it, Montgomery comes to life in a way that is only possible in the pages of a journal."
-Toronto Star

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The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume II: 1910-1921

The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume II: 1910-1921 edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston was published by the Oxford University Press in 1987. L.M. Montgomery wrote extensive journals throughout her life, which provide personal insight to the talented author. Volume II covers the years after Anne of Green Gables was published to wide acclaim. L.M. Montgomery gets married, and she and her husband travel to Scotland and England on their honeymoon. She leaves Prince Edward Island, and she and her husband settle in Ontario.


Here is the description of the volume from the Oxford University Press:

This volume of Lucy Maud Montgomery's journals records a time of great change and upheaval both in Montgomery's life and in society. When she wrote the first entry in this volume she had recently become a world-famous author, having published Anne of Green Gables in 1908. Here we become privy to her response to the death of her grandmother, her marriage and honeymoon trip to Scotland and England, and her departure from Prince Edward Island to the new restrictions of her life as the wife of a Presbyterian minister in an Ontario village.

Montgomery reveals the intensities of friendships, the minutiae of homemaking, and the joys of motherhood along with the traumas of a disturbed marriage. By turns tart and sentimental, sharp-sighted and anxiety-ridden, L.M. Montgomery provides a compelling record of her remarkable life against a background -- both social and literary -- of a tumultuous period in Canadian history.

Reviews (see additional reviews)

"The journals, with their vivid account of both daily routines and more significant life events, are written with all the passion, wit and insight into human nature that have made Montgomery's 'books for young people' immortal to readers of all ages."
-Toronto Sun

"These journals are an important contribution, not just to literary and social history, but to the body of Canadian literature."
-Books in Canada

"...one can but commend the editors and their publisher for making such a splendid volume available to us..."
-Atlantic Provinces Book Review

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