Receiving my first copy of volume 1 of The L.M. Montgomery Reader prompts me to reflect on seeing a project evolve from proofs to book.
Last Friday afternoon, I received a padded envelope containing my first author’s copy of my new book, The L.M. Montgomery Reader, volume 1: A Life in Print, published by University of Toronto Press. Seeing the transformation from a PDF of proofs to a physical book always fills me with awe, especially with this book, since it took six years to reach the point where I could hold it in my hands.
Between August 2007 and July 2009, I held a postdoctoral fellowship (funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, otherwise known as SSHRC) at the University of Alberta while living in Waterloo, Ontario (it’s a long story). I called my project “Branding a Life: The Case of L.M. Montgomery™.” I planned write a book-length study about Montgomery’s body of work, including her unpublished final book, The Blythes Are Quoted. Although I did a lot of researching and writing during those two years, I also spent a fair bit of time travelling to libraries and archives in order to track down copies of Montgomery’s short stories, serials, poems, essays, and interviews. These included a good many that don’t appear in Lucy Maud Montgomery: A Preliminary Bibliography (1986).
Initially I decided to introduce all of this little-known material in the book, but then two things happened. First, Penguin Canada accepted The Blythes Are Quoted in March 2008. Second, I realized I had enough essays and interviews for a book of their own. And so, for a while, my list of active projects included a volume called How I Began: L.M. Montgomery’s Essays and Interviews 1910–1939.
I kept finding material that I found just as fascinating—early scholarship, entries in reference works, profiles, and book reviews. As a result, I started to think of ways to place all this work in the context of Montgomery’s publishing history within her lifetime and since her death. Soon, I shelved my idea for a book-length study, and the three-volume L.M. Montgomery Reader emerged. Like most big projects, this one has evolved considerably over time, but I’m very happy with the final shape of each of the three volumes. And I look forward to seeing the reactions of those who read it!
Speaking of the three volumes, volume 2, A Critical Heritage, will appear in May 2014! And who knows? Maybe at some point I can resume work on that book-length study!