L.M. Montgomery’s Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1930–1933 is an unabridged and annotated edition of L.M. Montgomery’s journals that she kept from ages fifty-five to fifty-nine, while living in Norval, Ontario. Featuring an introduction and annotations by Jen Rubio, the book was published by Rock’s Mills Press as a trade paperback in July 2019. It is the seventh volume of Montgomery’s unabridged journals, preceded by The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889–1900 (2012) and The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1901–1911 (2013), edited by Mary Henley Rubio and Elizabeth Hillman Waterston, as well as L.M. Montgomery’s Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1911–1917 (2016), L.M. Montgomery’s Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1918–1921 (2017), L.M. Montgomery’s Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1926–1929 (2017), and L.M. Montgomery’s Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1922–1925 (2018), edited by Jen Rubio. This book supplements The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume 4: 1929–1935 (1998), also edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston, who at the time were directed to abridge Montgomery’s journal text.
From the Back Cover
L.M. Montgomery’s journals speak of simple pleasures and deep joy, dogged worries and profound disappointments. The story of her life from 1930 to 1933 is as gripping as the earlier volumes published by Rock’s Mills Press.
This volume is different from earlier ones in a surprising way, however: “It has happened. It is too cruel and hideous and unexpected to write about. I have spent two days in hell. I cannot see how I am to go on living. . . . And I have had to keep up a face to the world when something in my soul was bleeding to death” (February 5, 1933).
The truth of this “cruel and hideous” event is, for a time, too difficult to commit to her journals; it casts a shadow of shame on Montgomery’s life for months. When she finally explains, it is page-turning material that gives a fascinating look into the hidden side of life in Ontario almost a century ago.
Montgomery also recounts other difficult situations facing her in those years, including attempts to help a slippery young man facing embezzlement charges and a younger woman’s obsessive crush on her. Over 100 of Montgomery’s own photographs are included, many never before published. This edition also includes an introduction, extensive notes, and an index of photography, all original to this edition.
L.M. Montgomery’s Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1930–1933 is the fifth volume in the Ontario Years series to be published by Rock’s Mills Press under the editorship of Jen Rubio. Previous volumes cover the years 1911 to 1917, 1918 to 1921, 1922 to 1925, and 1926 to 1929.
Contents
Introduction: The Chapter L.M. Montgomery Could Not Write / Jen Rubio (vii–xiii)
1930 (1–103)
1931 (104–209)
1932 (210–294)
1933 (295–356)
Acknowledgements (357)
Index (359–65)
Index of Photography (366–71)
Metadata
Paratexts: Introduction and notes by Jen Rubio
Country: Canada
Publisher: Rock’s Mills Press (n.p.)
Date: 2019
Format: Trade paperback
Trim: 6 x 9”
Pagination: xiv + 371 pp.
ISBN: 978-1-7724-4175-8