Heartiest congratulations to Melanie J. Fishbane, whose YA novel Maud: A Novel Inspired by the Life of L.M. Montgomery has been shortlisted for a 2018 Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature, under its Children’s/Young Adult category!
For more on this announcement, see the website for the Koffler Centre of the Arts. The winners of the 2018 Vine Awards will be announced on 11 October 2018, shortly after the publication of the paperback edition of Maud on 2 October 2018.
Heartiest congratulations to David Fox, who played John Blythe in Sullivan Entertainment’s miniseries Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel and Clive Pettibone in the episodic series Road to Avonlea, and to Elizabeth Hillman Waterston, whose numerous contributions to L.M. Montgomery scholarship include seven volumes of Montgomery’s journals, for their recent appointments as Members of the Order of Canada!
Here are some of the ways in which L.M. Montgomery and her work made news throughout July:
Given that today is the first day of L.M. Montgomery and War, the 11th biennial conference hosted by the L.M. Montgomery Institute of the University of Prince Edward Island (an event that I am co-chairing with Andrea McKenzie), it seemed like the best time to launch this site, a new, expanded incarnation of the L.M. Montgomery Research Group that appeared in 2007.
This site continues to offer users resources pertaining to L.M. Montgomery’s life, work, and legacy, including editions of her books, scholarship, and textual transformations in the form of extensions, adaptations, and translations. My plan is to add more items from my personal collection, particularly more recent editions of Montgomery’s books, and eventually I will invite fellow Montgomery collectors to contribute details about books and other items from their own collections. Given the vast amount of materials out there, and the fact that interest in Montgomery’s life and work continues to grow, this website will never be “done,” but rather will continue to expand over time. If you find a dead link or an error, please let me know. You can also find the site on Facebook and follow it on Twitter.
I’ve been looking forward to the conference, part of a series of biennial conferences that started in 1994 (and that I’ve attended since 1996). Two years ago, at the conference on L.M. Montgomery and Cultural Memory, four of my friends contributed blog posts about the conference, each covering the events of a single day. I’m hoping to replicate that this year, and you can also follow along on Twitter with the hashtag #lmmi14.
I have been on the Island since last Friday, and have enjoyed getting reacquainted with familiar friends and places as well as experiencing this year’s production of the musical Anne and Gilbert. I’ve been coming here so long that, in a way, it feels a bit like I’ve come home.
In honour of the seventieth anniversary of Montgomery’s death and in an effort to reach more Montgomery readers, I’ve started a Facebook page and a Twitter account for the L.M. Montgomery Research Group. Please join the discussion!
Congratulations to Dr. Elizabeth Hillman Waterston, author of Magic Island: The Fictions of L.M. Montgomery (2008) and co-editor of The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery (1985–2004), who earlier this year was named to the Order of Ontario! For more details, see the University of Guelph’s press release and the website for the Province of Ontario.
The L.M. Montgomery Institute (LMMI), University of Prince Edward Island, invites scholars active in research related to the work and life of L.M. Montgomery to submit an application for the L.M. Montgomery Visiting Scholar-Program (1 July 2011–30 June 2012). The scholar will undertake or complete a scholarly project that advances our understanding and knowledge of Montgomery and her work. Innovative research projects about Montgomery are of special interest. The scholar will also be invited to contribute to the LMMI biennial conference in 2012 and will be invited to make a presentation at the conference. For the duration of the term, the scholar may represent LMMI at selected events and participate in the LMMI Committee (by teleconference if necessary). While the scholar will visit the LMMI, it is recognized that she or he may wish to undertake much of the project outside of Prince Edward Island. This position may be held in conjunction with other positions in other provinces or countries. The position offers: research assistance, a stipend of $4,500.00, a travel budget of $4,000.00 and the use of the LMMI office and research room.
The competition is open to university-affiliated and independent scholars. In your letter of application please explain why you are interested in this position, and detail in three to four pages the project you plan to undertake as well as the anticipated outcome and the contribution to Montgomery scholarship. Two names of referees (with their contact information) and a CV should also be submitted.
To request further information or to send your application contact:
L.M. Montgomery Visiting Scholar Program
2009-2010 Committee
L.M. Montgomery Institute
University of Prince Edward Island
550 University Ave.
Charlottetown
Prince Edward Island
C1A 4P3
E-Mail:LMMI@upei.ca
Telephone 902- 566-0460
Deadline for submission: 16 May, 2011
The following press release appeared on 24 June 2010:
Dr. Benjamin Lefebvre, of Waterloo, Ontario and one of the world’s leading experts on Lucy Maud Montgomery, was reappointed as Visiting Scholar for the institute bearing the famed PEI writer’s name, the L.M. Montgomery Institute (LMMI).
Mark Leggott, Institute chair and University Librarian, announced the year-long appointment during his welcoming remarks at the 2010 L.M. Montgomery Conference taking place at UPEI, June 24–27.
“We are pleased to have Dr. Lefebvre return as our Visiting Scholar and accept this further term. His past year’s work with LMMI’s governing committee in facilitating and expanding scholarship about L.M. Montgomery and her contemporaries has been excellent. We look forward to seeing what exciting initiatives the next year will bring.”
Lefebvre will continue working with the Institute on projects that will benefit Montgomery’s international community of readers, including coediting a collection of essays with UPEI’s Dr. Jean Mitchell, a past Visiting Scholar. The collection will be based on papers presented at the 2010 conference, titled ‘L.M. Montgomery and the Matter of Nature,’ which begins today.
“I am thrilled to be invited to return, as it gives me further opportunities to support the mandate of the LMMI and to be energized by the dedication of its committee members,” Lefebvre says.
He adds, “It is extremely rewarding to witness first-hand the community of Montgomery scholars and readers that have built up over time. I am so pleased with the high quality of work and the range of topics pursued at this conference by participants from all over the world.”
The conference features speakers and panellists from the United States, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Japan, China, Australia, Taiwan, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and South Africa and explores Montgomery’s writing and thoughts on nature through a number of presentations and papers.
The biannual event also provides a captive audience for the release of another one of Lefebvre’s projects, Anne’s World: A New Century of Anne of Green Gables. Edited by Lefebvre and Dr. Irene Gammel, this collection of original essays offers “fresh and timely approaches to issues of culture, identity, health, and globalization as they apply to Montgomery’s famous character, and to today’s readers.” Anne’s World was published by University of Toronto Press this month, June 2010.
Lefebvre has previously published internationally on Montgomery’s fiction and life-writing, and on film, television, and tourism adaptations of her work. His edition of Montgomery’s rediscovered final book, The Blythes Are Quoted, was published by Viking Canada in October 2009.
Lefebvre’s term as Visiting Scholar runs from July 2010 to June 2011. For more information on LMMI and the 2010 L.M. Montgomery Conference, visit www.lmmontgomery.ca.
An article titled “A new job for Anne of Green Gables: selling beef to Japan” appeared in Tuesday’s Globe and Mail:
Enterprising farmers on Prince Edward Island are hoping to crack Japan’s stiffly competitive Wagyu beef market by using the lure of Anne Shirley, a revered figure to generations of Japanese women—the ones who decide what is served at weddings.
Read the rest of the article here.
A CBC News article reports that a martyred Anne of Green Gables appears in Diana Thorneycroft’s collection of photographs entitled “Canadiana Martyrdom”:
Artist Diana Thorneycroft uses Canadian icons to show how religion and torture have come together over the centuries, and her exhibit includes a photograph of a mutilated Anne of Green Gables doll.
[. . .]
The image is based on a 17th-century painting by the Spanish painter Francisco de Zurbaran depicting St. Agatha, who was tortured when she refused to marry a pagan prince in the third century.
Congratulations to Vanessa Brown of London, Ontario, who won the second prize in Canada’s First National Book Collecting Contest for best book collectors under the age of thirty, sponsored by the Bibliographical Society of Canada (BSC), the Antiquarian Booksellers of Association of Canada (ABAC), and the Alcuin Society. Vanessa won for her collection, “The L.M. Montgomery Collection in the Forest City.” She was recently interviewed by Mark Medley on the National Post book blog, “The Afterword.”
I remember the first time I bought a book about Lucy Maud Montgomery that wasn’t by her but about her. I was at a shop here in town called Portobello Road, which is no longer there. It was a great shop. There was a publisher’s proof of a biography by Harry Bruce. It was exciting to read about her, to find out there was so much more to learn. Then, of course, I bought the journals. And the obsession grew.
World-renowned filmmaker Allan King, whose extensive filmography includes thirteen episodes of Road to Avonlea (1990-1996), died yesterday in Toronto at the age of 79. More details can be found on his obituary at the Globe and Mail. See also Lee Ferguson’s article “King of Compassion” on CBC.ca.
Please note the following opportunity at the L.M. Montgomery Institute, University of Prince Edward Island:
The L.M. Montgomery Institute (LMMI), University of Prince Edward Island, invites scholars active in research related to the work and life of L.M. Montgomery to submit an application for the L.M. Montgomery Visiting Scholar-Program (1 July 2009- 30 June 2010).
The scholar will undertake or complete a scholarly project that advances our understanding and knowledge of Montgomery and her work. Innovative projects which serve to disseminate and extend knowledge about Montgomery are of special interest. The scholar will also be invited to contribute to planning and organizing the LMMI biennial conference in 2010 and will be invited to make a presentation at the conference. For the duration of the term, the scholar will represent LMMI at selective events and participate in the LMMI Committee (by tele-conference). While the scholar will visit LMMI, it is recognized that the visiting scholar may wish to undertake much of the project outside of Prince Edward Island. (It is understood that this position may be held in conjunction with other positions in other provinces or countries). The position offers: research assistance, a stipend of $4,800.00, a travel budget of $4,000.00 and the use of the LMMI office and research room.
Consideration will be given to university-affiliated and independent scholars who have a current research project. In your letter please explain why you are interested in this position and detail in no more than three to four pages the particular project you plan to undertake. Two names of referees (with their contact information) and a CV are also required for the application.
To request further information or to send your application contact:
L.M. Montgomery Visiting Scholar Program
2009-2010 Committee
L.M. Montgomery Institute
University of Prince Edward Island
550 University Ave.
Charlottetown
Prince Edward Island
C1A 4P3
E-Mail:LMMI@upei.ca
Telephone 902- 566-0460Deadline for submission: 5 March, 2009
The following article by Sandra Martin appears in today’s Globe and Mail, concerning Mollie Gillen, author of The Wheel of Things: The Life of L.M. Montgomery, who died in Toronto on 3 January 2009, at the age of 100:
Mollie Gillen was a war bride and aspiring writer who went on to become the author of The Wheel of Things, an early biography of Lucy Maud Montgomery.
An Australian by birth, she immigrated to Canada from England after the Second World War and began her writing career as an information officer in Ottawa. After moving to Toronto, she worked for many years as an editor and staff writer at Chatelaine.
Her books also include The Masseys: Founding Family; The Prince and His Lady; The Assassination of the Prime Minister; The Search for John Small; and The Founders of Australia: A Biographical Dictionary of the First Fleet.
Mollie Gillen was born Mollie Woolnough, on Nov. 1, 1908, in Sydney, Australia. She died on Jan. 3, 2009, in Scarborough General Hospital in Toronto. She was 100. She is survived by her daughter, Barbara Gillen. She also leaves a sister, and her extended family.
Please click here for the full article. A full obituary should appear soon.
I just the following article on the CBC.ca website:
Writers challenged to update Wind in the Willows on its 100th birthday
The 100th anniversary of Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows will be celebrated with a competition to write a modern version of the children’s classic.
The River & Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, in Britain has launched a writing competition that challenges authors to put a modern take on Grahame’s themes.
“Kenneth Grahame knew all about the power of the river on the imagination, and on our real lives,” museum representative Paul Mainds told BBC.
“This competition gives authors the opportunity to re-animate these themes and make them more relevant for today’s young readers, especially in light of the environmental issues that now affect our rivers and the wildlife that lives in and around them.”
Writers are challenged to pen a “river-related” short story “for our times.”
The museum, on the river Thames, has a permanent exhibition dedicated to Wind in the Willows.
Grahame’s tale of the adventures of Toad, Mole, Ratty and Badger was published Oct. 8, 1908, four months after he left his job at the Bank of England. . . .
The news of this competition made me wonder about Anne of Green Gables, which was published less than four months before Wind in the Willows. If there were a competition to write a modern version of this novel, how would it be done? What would need to be updated, changed, altered, or reemphasized?
An article on the front page of this morning’s Globe and Mail–“Is this Lucy Maud’s suicide note?”-reproduces the following scrap of paper found on Montgomery’s bedside the afternoon she died:
This copy is unfinished and never will be. It is in a terrible state because I made it when I had begun to suffer my terrible breakdown of 1940. It must end here. If any publishers wish to publish extracts from it under the terms of my will they must stop here. The tenth volume can never be copied and must not be made public during my lifetime. Parts of it are too terrible and would hurt people. I have lost my mind by spells and I do not dare think what I may do in those spells. May God forgive me and I hope everyone else will forgive me even if they cannot understand. My position is too awful to endure and nobody realizes it. What an end to a life in which I tried always to do my best.
It is accompanied by a follow-up article by James Adams, “Lucy Maud suffered ‘unbearable psychological pain,'” which includes extracts from an e-mail interview with Mary Henley Rubio, whose biography of Montgomery, Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings, will be published next month by Doubleday Canada.
Thanks to Joshua Ginter of the Centre for Research in Young People’s Texts and Cultures, University of Winnipeg, for bringing this article to my attention.
An article titled “The Heartbreaking Truth about Anne’s Creator,” written by Kate Macdonald Butler (Montgomery’s granddaughter), appears in today’s Globe and Mail (pp. F1, F6):
Despite her great success, it is known that she suffered from depression, that she was isolated, sad and filled with worry and dread for much of her life. But our family has never spoken publicly about the extent of her illness.
What has never been revealed is that L.M. Montgomery took her own life at the age of 67 through a drug overdose.
UPDATE: The full text of the article has been archived here.
From CBC.ca:
The New London home where Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables, was born was broken into on Monday night.
The incident was part of a string of break and enters in the area that night.
The board that runs the museum and bookstore says none of the displays were damaged, and money isn’t kept in the facility overnight.
Montgomery was born in 1874 in a small white and green house, which sits at the corner of Route 6 and 20. A replica of the writer’s wedding dress and scrapbooks containing stories and poems are displayed at the museum.
Today I received notices of three separate L.M. Montgomery events and exhibits and a video.
From Mary Beth Cavert (Minnesota): A link to a page devoted to details and photos of the L.M. Montgomery Literary Society’s first Anne event;
From Rita Bode (Trent University): A notice that Robarts Library of the University of Toronto has launched its own exhibit titled “Picture of Green Gables Farm,” which runs from 21 April to 21 May 2008 on the first floor of the Robarts Library. Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the publication of Anne of Green Gables, the collection includes a number of editions, translations, adaptations, other books by the author, and items related to Prince Edward Island.
From Helen Salmon (University of Guelph library): Between 23 and 26 October 2008, the University of Guelph will host “The Cultural Influence of Lucy Maud Montgomery,” a symposium that will focus on Guelph’s extensive archival collection of Montgomery materials:
The university has undertaken an extensive digitization project to make its extensive collection of Montgomery memorabilia—including her private journals, scrapbooks, handiwork, photographs, and other records—more accessible to Montgomery scholars and fans everywhere. The symposium will offer the very first opportunity to explore the newly launched collections website, examine the archival collections first-hand, view an L.M. Montgomery exhibit at the University’s art gallery, and listen to speakers who will explore her impact on readers, writers, and women in the 20th century. Join with Canada’s foremost Montgomery scholars, biographers, enthusiasts, and fans to recognize her world-wide legacy and explore the mystery of her creativity. This four day weekend event will include coach tours to view several of L.M. Montgomery’s residences in Ontario, the opening of an art exhibit, film viewings, panel discussions, and scholarly presentations which will highlight author’s contributions to literary and popular culture.
An article on the CBC website reports that the L.M. Montgomery Institute is experiencing financial difficulties. [Update: This news article is no longer online.]
Benjamin Lefebvre