Editor: Rea Wilmshurst
Paratext: Introduction by Rea Wilmshurst
Country: Canada
Publisher: McClelland and Stewart (Toronto)
Date: 1988
Pagination: 256 pp.
Format: Jacketed hardcover
Trim: 5.5” x 8.75”
ISBN: 0-7710-6156-0
Akin to Anne: Tales of Other Orphans is the first of eight collections of L.M. Montgomery’s rediscovered short stories edited and introduced by Rea Wilmshurst. It contains nineteen short stories that were originally published in periodicals between 1900 and 1933. The book was followed by Along the Shore: Tales by the Sea (1989), Among the Shadows: Tales from the Darker Side (1990), After Many Days: Tales of Time Passed (1991), Against the Odds: Tales of Achievement (1993), At the Altar: Matrimonial Tales (1994), Across the Miles: Tales of Correspondence (1995), and Christmas with Anne and Other Holiday Stories (1995). It was published as a jacketed hardcover by McClelland and Stewart in May 1988, with a mass-market paperback appearing in March 1989.
From the Back Cover
Canada’s L.M. Montgomery is beloved by readers from Japan to Poland as the creator of the irresistible Anne of Green Gables. In this exciting collection of rediscovered tales—none of which has been available since its original publication—L.M. Montgomery has brought to life a multitude of characters who share not only Anne’s initial loneliness and vulnerability but also her spunkiness and charm. Their stories are told in Montgomery’s own inimitable, heart-warming style.
This important new collection reclaims at last a long-last part of our rich literary heritage. Never before have these charming and poignant tales of orphans been assembled within one cover. Admirers of Montgomery will treasure this anthology; it reflects her personal experience of loneliness and lovelessness, and her bittersweet memories of adversity overcome.
Akin to Anne is the first in a series of rediscovered stories to be collected in book form which will be published by McClelland & Stewart.
From the Dust Jacket
Motherless herself, and her father on the distant prairies, Lucy Maud Montgomery sympathized with orphans and children brought up by unloving relatives, and made them characters in many of her stories and novels; the best known, of course, is Anne. In these tales, death and remarriage, with consequent loss of contact between half-sisters and brothers, lead to many “lost-and-found” relatives.
Of the nineteen stories in this collection, only seven are about children. There are school girls alone in the world, middle-aged men and women with no one to care for, and older men and women whose lives are empty of love and family. In keeping with her longing for a happier life for herself, Montgomery finds warm and loving homes for all her lonely characters.
Contents
Introduction / Rea Wilmshurst (6–12)
Charlotte’s Quest (13–31)
Marcella’s Reward (33–44)
An Invitation Given on Impulse (45–53)
Freda’s Adopted Grave (55–62)
Ted’s Afternoon Off (63–71)
The Girl Who Drove the Cows (73–82)
Why Not Ask Miss Price? (83–91)
Jane Lavinia (93–103)
The Running Away of Chester (105–42)
Millicent’s Double (143–53)
Penelope’s Party Waist (155–64)
The Little Black Doll (165–75)
The Fraser Scholarship (177–85)
Her Own People (187–97)
Miss Sally’s Company (199–210)
The Story of an Invitation (211–17)
The Softening of Miss Cynthia (219–28)
Margaret’s Patient (229–36)
Charlotte’s Ladies (237–50)
Editorial Note (251–52)
Acknowledgements (253)
Other Books by L.M. Montgomery (255–56)
Reviews
Reviews by Adele Ashby, Leslie MacLean, Eileen Manion, Hugh D. McKellar, Janet Mitchell, Patricia Morley, Helen Porter, Bonnie Ryan-Fisher, Joan Thomas, and Elizabeth Wright.