A few weeks ago, I was thrilled when someone alerted me to the fact that L.M. Montgomery’s rediscovered final book, The Blythes Are Quoted, had been featured on a recent episode of Jeopardy!. It made my day, especially since neither the original 2009 edition or the 2018 Penguin Modern Classics Edition has been available outside Canada. The episode was posted to YouTube shortly after it aired, but unfortunately, it’s no longer available.
The website for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation posted earlier today a link to a CBC Radio segment that aired twenty-seven years ago today, on 14 August 1988, on the growing tension between Montgomery’s heirs and the makers of Anne-related commodities on Prince Edward Island—a tension that would lead to the creation of the Anne of Green Gables Licensing Authority (operated jointly by Montgomery’s heirs and by the Province of Prince Edward Island) in 1992.
The article claims that 14 August 1988 marked the eightieth anniversary of the publication of Anne of Green Gables, but this is incorrect: the book was published on 13 June 1908.
A lively article by Lindsey Palka on age discrepancies in the Anne books appeared this week on the website for The Toast.
Anne is usually described as the intelligent, cultured, beautiful wife of the doctor in Glen St. Mary, Prince Edward Island. But her mysterious origins may hold a key to the bizarre episodes of her time-traveling children.
The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889–1900, published earlier this year by Oxford University Press, has been included in this year’s The Globe 100, which includes “titles reviewers couldn’t put down, couldn’t stop talking about, and insist you stock up on, too.”
Here are some suggested sites for coverage of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s Royal Tour of Prince Edward Island:
Announcing new Facebook pages for The Blythes Are Quoted and Rilla of Ingleside! Get all the latest information about these new editions, chat with the editors and with fellow readers, and help spread the word!
The Blythes Are Quoted has been included in the Canadian fiction section of Quill & Quire‘s Fall Preview, compiled by Steven W. Beattie and included in the July-August 2009 issue, available now:
Benjamin Lefebvre edits The Blythes Are Quoted (Penguin Canada, $25 cl., Oct.), a posthumous novel from L.M. Montgomery that features the author’s usual themes: adultery, misogyny, revenge, and murder.
An article about the L.M. Montgomery Christmas in Norval, which will be celebrated on Saturday, 29 November, appears in the Georgetown Independent & Free Press. It’s going to be a great celebration!
Scott MacDonald’s article “The death of L.M. Montgomery” appears in the December 2008 issue of Quill & Quire (page 8), which also includes Budge Wilson’s Before Green Gables in its list of 15 Books of the Year.
Jack Zipes, who wrote the introduction to a recent Modern Library edition of Anne of Green Gables, and Jennifer Holm, a two-time Newbery Honor recipient, talk about the novel on American University Radio. To listen to the Diane Rehm Show for 23 July 2008 on WAMUA 88.5 FM, click here. Thanks to Yuka for bringing this to our attention.
This week’s issue of Newsweek features Ramin Setoodeh’s article “It’s Still Not Easy Being Green: Anne of Green Gables turns 100 this year but she’s the most modern girl in the bookstores.” It features interviews with Trinna Frever, Irene Gammel, and Kate Macdonald Butler, and more!
An article by Meghan O’Rourke, titled “Anne of 100 Candles,” appeared yesterday on the website for Slate Magazine. Here’s an extract:
Her temper and her gaffes provide fodder for those village members who dislike having a child of “uncertain parentage” around. Yet with time, Anne wins nearly everyone over, as her grace, curiosity, and haplessness catalyze the bloodless community. She enables adults to reconnect with the childish soul within.
Thanks to Carole Gerson, Michelle Levy, and Lisa Lightbourn-Lay for bringing this article to my attention.
I will be interviewed by Line Boily on her radio show Les arts et les autres on Monday, 2 June 2008, at 1:05 EST, on Radio-Canada 1 (French-language CBC). The topic is Anne of Green Gables and I will be commenting on its origins, its continued international popularity in the centenary year, and its success in adaptations such as movies, musicals, and tourist sites in Ontario and Prince Edward Island. Since I am presently in Vancouver attending Congress, I will be speaking to her from Studio C at CBC Vancouver.
Les arts et les autres is broadcast across Ontario; to find your local frequency, click here. You can also listen to it live through the Radio-Canada website. On the homepage for Ontario, click on “Écoutez en direct—Première chaine” and choose your nearest location.
Also, today I am participating at a one-day symposium on Anne of Green Gables at the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre at the University of British Columbia. In addition to co-chairing an ACCUTE panel on “Anne of Green Gables: New Directions at 100,” I will be one of seven participants in a roundtable called “Anne of Green Gables: A Literary Icon at 100: Canadian Scholars and Critics Reflect on Anne of Green Gables in the Centenary Year,” chaired by Irene Gammel:
This round table of leading Canadian critics and scholars takes stock of Canada’s most famous literary icon, L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables, at its centenary anniversary. What is behind the popularity of the novel? What is its global value and status? What is its future in Canada and the world? We also invite the public to submit questions to our panel of experts via email: Anne100@mlc.ryerson.ca.
My five-minute paper is titled “Confessions of a Male Montgomery Scholar” and will include a discussion of my Green Gables toenail clippers. I am also presenting a paper as part of the ACCUTE conference on the fiction of Joy Kogawa.
Je serai l’invité de Line Boily à l’émission de radio Les arts et les autres ce lundi, 2 juin 2008, à 13h05 (heure normale de l’est), à Radio-Canada (première chaine). L’entrevue porte sur le roman Anne . . . La Maison aux pignons verts : ses origines, sa popularité internationale continue pendant l’année de son centième anniversaire, et son succès dans les médias connexes, telles que le petit écran, la comédie musicale, et le site touristique en Ontario et à l’Île-du-Prince-Édouard. Étant donné que je suis présentement à Vancouver pour assister au Congrès des sciences humaines, je lui parlerai du Studio C à Radio-Canada Vancouver.
L’émission est diffusée à travers l’Ontario; vous trouverez votre fréquence locale ici. Vous pouvez également écouter à l’émission au site web de Radio-Canada. Une fois rendus à la page pour l’Ontario, choisissez la rubrique « Écoutez en direct » ainsi que votre région.
James Adams’s article on the Anne centenary appears in today’s Globe and Mail. Also, CBC Radio 1 will air a short piece on Anne of Green Gables at 6:00 PM Eastern, featuring interviews with Yuka Kajihara, Budge Wilson, and Irene Gammel.
Jason reminded me of these two YouTube videos that he noticed some time ago. Since they speak for themselves, I won’t speak for them. [Update: One of the videos is no longer online.]
Benjamin Lefebvre