Editor: Rea Wilmshurst
Paratext: Introduction by Rea Wilmshurst
Country: Canada
Publisher: McClelland and Stewart (Toronto)
Date: 1989
Pagination: 302 pp.
Format: Jacketed hardcover
Trim: 5.5” x 8.75”
ISBN: 0-7710-6158-7
Along the Shore: Tales by the Sea is the second of eight collections of L.M. Montgomery’s rediscovered short stories edited by Rea Wilmshurst. It contains sixteen short stories that were originally published in periodicals between 1897 and 1930. The book was preceded by Akin to Anne: Tales of Other Orphans (1988) and followed by 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 1989, with a mass-market paperback appearing in February 1990.
From the Back Cover
Along the Shore: Tales by the Sea is the second charming collection of L.M. Montgomery’s rediscovered stories to be reprinted from Rea Wilmshurst’s collection. A companion to Akin to Anne: Tales of Other Orphans, this book offers a wide-ranging selection of Montgomery’s tales that exemplify her story-telling art. Linked by the presence of the sea, these sixteen tales are eloquent statements of Montgomery’s love for the “wonderful purple shores and sweeps of shimmering blue water” of her native Prince Edward Island; children’s adventures, poignant romances, humorous and tragic stories combine to form a memorable volume.
Montgomery spent half her life away from her beloved Island, but when she died her body was returned to the Cavendish cemetery, to lie within sight and sound of the sea she loved so well. These stories live as vivid reminders of that love.
From the Dust Jacket
When L.M. Montgomery married Reverend Ewan Macdonald in 1911 and moved to Ontario from Prince Edward Island, she left behind the part of her life that furnished material for her immense body of work. Her letters to her Scottish pen-friend, G.B. MacMillan, demonstrate the love she had for her home province and her longing for the sea. After one of her visits to the Island, she wrote: “I shall never forget my first glimpse of the sea again. . . . I was not prepared for the flood of emotion that swept over me.”
The sea is the backdrop to this beguiling collection of stories by Canada’s most beloved author. The creator of Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon wrote literally hundreds of stories—many of which had been “lost” since their original publication. Editor Rea Wilmshurst unearthed many of these rare, delightful tales in Prince Edward Island, and has compiled them in a unique series, never before available to the reading public. Along the Shore, the second volume in the series, collects sixteen of Montgomery’s finest stories, each set by the sea that she so dearly loved. The book is a welcome companion to Akin to Anne, the first volume in this enchanting series.
Contents
Introduction / Rea Wilmshurst (7–13)
The Magical Bond of the Sea (15–32)
The Life-Book of Uncle Jesse (33–47)
Mackereling out in the Gulf (49–64)
Fair Exchange and No Robbery (65–76)
Natty of Blue Point (77–86)
The Light on the Big Dipper (87–97)
An Adventure on Island Rock (99–107)
How Don Was Saved (109–19)
A Soul That Was Not at Home (121–37)
Four Winds (139–88)
A Sandshore Wooing (189–203)
The Unhappiness of Miss Farquhar (205–18)
A Strayed Allegiance (219–40)
The Waking of Helen (241–53)
Young Si (255–74)
A House Divided against Itself (275–95)
Editorial Note (297–98)
Acknowledgements (299)
Other Books by L.M. Montgomery (301–2)
Reviews
Reviews by Cecelia Frey, Susan Inman, Michael O. Nowlan, Dorothy Perkyns, and Marilyn Powell.