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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Book cover of L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1922–1925.

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Created June 1, 2018. Last updated August 23, 2024.
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L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature(s)

L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature(s) was published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in April 2018. This book of scholarship examines L.M. Montgomery's appreciation for nature and her depictions of nature in her writings. It was edited by Rita Bode and Jean Mitchell. The volume contains contributions by Catriona Sandilands, Jennifer H. Litster, Nancy Holmes, Rita Bode, Elizabeth Rollins Epperly, Jean Mitchell, Kate Sutherland, Tara K. Parmiter, Paul Keen, Laura M. Robinson, Lesley D. Clement, and Idette Noomé.

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

A critical study of L.M. Montgomery’s relationship to the material world and the revealing interconnections between nature and culture.

L.M. Montgomery’s writings are replete with enchanting yet subtle and fluid depictions of nature that convey her intense appreciation for the natural world. At a time of ecological crises, intensifying environmental anxiety, and burgeoning eco-critical perspectives, L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature(s) repositions the Canadian author’s relationship to nature in terms of current environmental criticism across several disciplines, introducing a fresh approach to her life and work.

Drawing on a wide range of Montgomery’s novels as well as her journals, this collection suggests that socio-ecological relationships encompass ideas of reciprocity, affiliation, autonomy, and the capacity for transformation in both the human and more-than-human worlds, and that these ideas are integral to Montgomery’s vision and her literary legacy. Framed by the twin themes of materiality and interrelationships, essays by scholars of literature, law, animal studies, anthropology, and ecology examine place, embodiment, and difference in Montgomery’s works and embrace the multiplicities embedded in the concept of nature.

Through innovative critical approaches, L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature(s) opens up conversations about humans’ interactions with nature and the material environment.

Reviews

“An emphasis on humanity’s interrelatedness with nature extends the significance of L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature(s) past Montgomery studies and Canadian literary and cultural studies to engage with the larger issues of how humans’ interactions with nature shape our daily lives and the future of the planet.” Mary Jeanette Moran, Illinois State University

“This collection is significant for its ability to offer unexpected, highly convincing engagements with L. M. Montgomery’s work and disciplines far beyond the scope of traditional literary studies. It provides new perspectives on Montgomery’s oeuvre, while also extending the definition of environmental study and eco-critical analysis in this field.” Sarah Galletly, James Cook University

"The linked themes of understanding and empathy toward the natural world supply a bridge between the literary and the ecological, between the writer and the places she knew. Matter of Nature(s) is a wonderful opportunity to place one of Canada’s most prolific and well-known authors in a wider environmental history." American Review of Canadian Studies

“[L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature(s)] successfully offers a broad spectrum of insights on the ways in which Montgomery’s fiction and nonfiction address the conceptof interconnectedness between the human and the nonhuman. Each chapter provides a concise and clear analysis that points readers to new perspectives, and the breadth of the collection overall highlights many new avenues of research that remain to be explored.” International Research for Children’s Literature

The book includes the following content and essays:

Introduction: L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature(s) by Rita Bode and Jean Mitchell

Part One: Nature’s Places

1. Fire, Fantasy, and Futurity: Queer Ecology Visits Silver Bush by Catriona Sandilands
2. The Scotsman, the Scribe, and the Spyglass: Going Back with L.M. Montgomery to Prince Edward Island by Jennifer H. Litster
3. Romantic Novelist as Naturalist: John Foster and the Bird Woman by Nancy Holmes
4. L.M. Montgomery’s “Indoors and Out”: Imagining an Organic Architecture by Rita Bode

Part Two: Nature’s Embodiments

5. Natural Bridge: L.M. Montgomery and the Architecture of Imaginative Landscapes by Elizabeth Rollins Epperly
6. L.M. Montgomery’s Neurasthenia: Embodied Nature and the Matter of Nerves by Jean Mitchell
7. The Education of Emily: Tempering a Force of Nature through Lessons in Law by Kate Sutherland
8. The Spirit of Inquiry: Nature Study and the Sense of Wonder in L.M. Montgomery’s Anne Books by Tara K. Parmiter

Part Three: Nature’s Otherness

9. “No London street Arabs for me”: The Unnatural Orphan in Anne of Green Gables by Paul Keen
10. Kindred Spirits: Kinship and the Nature of Nature in Anne’s House of Dreams and The Blue Castle by Laura M. Robinson
11. The Empathic Poetic Sensibility: Discerning and Embodying Nature’s Secrets by Lesley D. Clement
12. The Nature of the Beast: Pets and People in L.M. Montgomery’s Fiction by Idette Noomé


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Book cover of L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature(s) from McGill-Queen’s University Press.

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Created May 15, 2018. Last updated June 10, 2024.
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After Many Years: Twenty-One "Long Lost" Stories by L.M. Montgomery

After Many Years: Twenty-One "Long Lost" Stories by L.M. Montgomery selected and edited by Carolyn Strom Collins and Christy Woster was published in June 2017 by Nimbus Publishing. The book contains a collection of L.M. Montgomery's short stories that have not been in print since their original publication in periodicals from 1900 to 1939.


Here is the description of the book from Nimbus Publishing:

Although best known for creating the spirited Anne Shirley, L. M. Montgomery had a thriving writing career that included several novels and more than five hundred poems and stories.

This collection brings together rare pieces originally published between 1900 and 1939 that haven’t been in print since their initial periodicals. Collins and Woster have carefully curated a mixture of newly discovered stories that showcase all the charm you expect from Montgomery. With scholarly prefaces and notes for each piece, the book offers readers a rare glimpse into how Montgomery’s writing developed over the years.

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Book cover of After Many Years: Twenty-One "Long Lost" Stories by L.M. Montgomery from Nimbus Publishing.

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Created June 30, 2017. Last updated September 4, 2024.
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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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Book cover of L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1926–1929.

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Created May 30, 2017. Last updated August 23, 2024.
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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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Book cover of L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1918–1921.

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Created May 20, 2017. Last updated August 23, 2024.
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Anne of Green Gables Anime Doll by Takara Tomy

On July 31, 2016, Takara Tomy Toys is releasing a limited and exclusive Anne of Green Gables doll based on the 1979 anime series by Nippon Animation. The beautiful anime, also known as Akage no An, was directed by Isao Takahata as part of the World Masterpiece Theater series. The Anne of Green Gables doll was designed to celebrate 40 years of Nippon Animation. Read more about the Takara Tomy Toy release here.

The sweet Anne Shirley doll is part of the "Rikaraizu" series, which faithfully represents anime characters. The Anne of Green Gables doll is approximately 23 cm tall and has two outfits (shown below):


Anne's first outfit is the brown wincey dress she arrived at Green Gables wearing. The second outfit is the beautiful dress with puffed sleeves that Matthew Cuthbert gives Anne for Christmas. The doll can be posed on its own stand, and it comes with a hat, bag, shoes, and other accessories.

Created July 31, 2016. Last updated January 20, 2024.
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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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Book cover of L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1911–1917.

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Created July 25, 2016. Last updated August 22, 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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Book cover of Readying Rilla: L.M. Montgomery's Reworking of Rilla of Ingleside from Rock's Mill Press.

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Created March 15, 2016. Last updated June 9, 2024.
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