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My Dear Mr. M: Letters to G.B. MacMillan from L.M. Montgomery

Editors: Francis W.P. Bolger and Elizabeth R. Epperly
Paratext: Introduction by Francis W.P. Bolger and Elizabeth R. Epperly
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Ryerson
Date: 1980
Pagination: xii + 212 pp.
Format: Jacketed hardcover
Trim: 6” x 9”
ISBN: 0-07-092399-X

My Dear Mr. M: Letters to G.B. MacMillan from L.M. Montgomery is a volume of selected letters from L.M. Montgomery to her longtime Scottish correspondent George Boyd MacMillan (to whom she had dedicated Emily of New Moon), written between 1903 and 1941. It was edited and introduced by Francis W.P. Bolger and Elizabeth R. Epperly and published in 1980 by McGraw-Hill Ryerson. A trade paperback edition, with a new preface by the editors, was published by Oxford University Press in 1992.

From the Dust Jacket

Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of the ever-popular Anne of Green Gables, was a keen letter-writer. Her letters to George Boyd MacMillan over their thirty-nine-year friendship show the full range of her interests, from domestic concerns, her cats and gardening, to her professional literary career as best-selling author.

She shares with MacMillan the joys and burdens of her life. She is proud of her two sons and is excited by new inventions such as motor cars and the talkies. At the same time, she is saddened by the encroachment of “progress” on her idyllic, rural Prince Edward Island. She agonizes over the campaigns of the two World Wars and never recovers completely from the death of her closest friend.

During her friendship with MacMillan, L.M. Montgomery changes from a confident and cheerful young woman to a disillusioned but courageous old woman. After her retirement to “Journey’s End” in Toronto, distraught by family problems and depressed by the Second World War, her health and spirits fail.

These letters will delight all readers of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s books. They reveal the character of one [of] our best-known authors; charming, witty, sometimes gloomy and morbid, she was above all stimulating.

Contents

Preface (v–vi) [1992 edition]

Acknowledgements (vi) [1980 edition]

Introduction (vii–x)

Acknowledgements (x) [1992 edition]

The Years Before the Correspondence (xi–xii)

The Island Years (Letters from 1903 to 1911) (1–62)

The Leaskdale Letters (Letters from 1912 to 1925) (63–122)

The Norval Letters (Letters from 1926 to 1935) (123–72)

“Journey’s End” (Letters from 1936 to 1941) (173–204)

Epilogue (205)

Index (206–12)

Reviews

Reviews by Valerie Compton, Lori A. Dunn, Jean Johnston, Susannah Joyce-Jones, Bess Kaplan, C. Dino Mini, and Muriel Whitaker.



Published on 4 November 2012; last updated on 23 February 2024. Please contact the site owner with additions, corrections, questions, and suggestions.