Part 2 of an overview of L.M. Montgomery-related events and publications from 2008, summarizing details first released in seventy blog posts.
Contents
Preamble
100 Years of Anne
One Hundred Years of Anne: Lucy Maud Montgomery
A Ryerson Showcase: The Centenary of Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Green Gables: A Literary Icon at 100 (Exhibit)
Anne in the Archives
Anne of Green Gables: A Literary Icon at 100 (Round Table)
Anne of Green Gables: New Directions at 100
Reflecting on Anne of Green Gables
L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, and the Idea of “Classic”
Toronto Public Library: Lectures and Exhibit
Green Gables to Globalization: Crossover, Canada and Children’s Books
From Canada to the World: The Cultural Influence of Lucy Maud Montgomery
15th Annual Montgomery Christmas
Return to Prince Edward Island: Anne of Green Gables at 100
Beyond Green Gables
Centenary Events in Japan
Image Credit
Preamble
In part 2 of the Year in Review summary for 2008, I offer a comprehensive list of events held around the world to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the publication of Anne of Green Gables in 1908. Much of the information offered here, as in part 1, first appeared on this website in the form of seventy blog posts.
100 Years of Anne
Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto), 12 February 2008
The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto hosted a celebration for the “100 Years of Anne” publishing milestone from Penguin Canada on Tuesday, 12 February 2008.
Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables was published in 1908. This special evening features Budge Wilson, award-winning author of Before Green Gables, and Dr. Elizabeth Epperly, one of the world’s foremost scholars of L.M. Montgomery and editor of Imagining Anne: The Island Scrapbooks of L.M. Montgomery. Kate Macdonald, Montgomery’s granddaughter will be in attendance. The evening will be introduced by the Right Honourable Adrienne Clarkson. Book signing follows.
One Hundred Years of Anne: Lucy Maud Montgomery
Sylvia Hotel (Vancouver), 31 March 2008
Carole Gerson (Simon Fraser University) gave a talk entitled “One Hundred Years of Anne: Lucy Maud Montgomery.”
A Ryerson Showcase: The Centenary of Anne of Green Gables
Ryerson University (Toronto), Heaslip House, 7 April 2008
Organized by ASC 800 students at Ryerson University, this one-day event invited “proposals for 15-minute papers and creative pieces related to any aspect of this classic novel,” as stated in the call for proposals.
The range of topics is open and papers focusing on the novel’s interpretation, its composition, or its cultural significance, are all equally welcomed. Creative pieces can take the form of an imagined story, a performance, an installation, fashion design, or digital media: please provide low resolution samples where appropriate. Ryerson Press was the first Canadian publisher of Anne of Green Gables in 1942, and we are proud to host this event at Ryerson University on April 7, 2008.
The conference included a welcome message from Kate Macdonald Butler as well as presentations by Irene Gammel, Ann F. Howey, Helen Hoy, Benjamin Lefebvre, Elizabeth MacLeod, Leslie McGrath, Jason Nolan, Margaret Steffler, Judy Stoffman, Hildi Froese Tiessen, and Paul Tiessen. It also included contributions by several Ryerson students, including an installation of Anne merchandise (by Laura Brown), a construction of Anne’s puffed sleeves dress (by Katelyn van Massenhoven), research findings about Anne cover artist Hilton Hassell (by Mandy Wilson), and a creative performance by Jessica Frey as Anne Shirley.
Jason Nolan posted several photos from the event.
Anne of Green Gables: A Literary Icon at 100 (Exhibit)
Spadina Museum: Historic House and Gardens (Toronto), 1 May 2008
The “Anne of Green Gables: A Literary Icon at 100” exhibit curated by Irene Gammel was open to the public at Spadina Museum: Historic House and Gardens (285 Spadina Road) from February until September. The opening reception for the exhibit coincided with the book launch for Gammel’s Looking for Anne on 1 May 2008. Key Porter Books launched its own website devoted to Looking for Anne (no longer available online). It included a downloadable extract from the book, an interview with the author, little-known facts, and reviews.
Anne in the Archives
Alumni-in-Action Annual Spring Luncheon, University of Guelph, 21 May 2008
On 21 May, Mary Henley Rubio gave a lecture entitled “Anne in the Archives” at the annual spring luncheon of Alumni-in-Action at the University of Guelph’s arboretum. As the press release stated concerning the centenary of Anne of Green Gables, “We have great reason to celebrate at the University of Guelph. The McLaughlin Library is home to the largest archival collection of L.M. Montgomery personal archival material in the world.”
Anne of Green Gables: A Literary Icon at 100 (Round Table)
University of British Columbia Library (Vancouver), Irving Barber Learning Centre, 31 May 2008
Leading and Emerging Scholars Reflect on Anne of Green Gables in the Centenary Year
This round table of scholars is dedicated to taking stock of Canada’s most famous literary icon at its centenary anniversary, L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. What is behind the popularity of the novel? What is its current global value and status? What is its future in Canada and the world? Each speaker has five minutes to make a brief statement, which can be personal and scholarly, before we open to general discussion and audience question and answer.
Chaired by Irene Gammel (Ryerson University), this panel included contributions by Deirdre Baker (University of Toronto), Cecily Devereux (University of Alberta), Janice Fiamengo (University of Ottawa), Irene Gammel (Ryerson University), Carole Gerson (Simon Fraser University), Benjamin Lefebvre (University of Alberta), Mavis Reimer (University of Winnipeg), and Margaret Steffler (Trent University).
Anne of Green Gables: New Directions at 100
ACCUTE conference panel, UBC, 31 May 2008
Organizers and Chairs: by Irene Gammel (Ryerson University) and Benjamin Lefebvre (University of Alberta)
Alexander MacLeod (Saint Mary’s University), “On the Road from Bright River: Shifting Social Space in Anne of Green Gables”
Jason Nolan (Ryerson University), “Anne of the Undead: Changeling Child and the Uncanny in Avonlea”
Alison Matthews David and Kimberly Wahl (Ryerson University), “Taste and Transformation: Negotiating Codes of Fashion in Avonlea”
Reflecting on Anne of Green Gables
Library and Archives Canada, 4 June 2008–1 March 2009
Curated by June Creelman and Irene Gammel
Reflecting on Anne of Green Gables, an exhibit curated by June Creelman and Irene Gammel, opened on 4 June 2008 at Library and Archives Canada (395 Wellington St., Ottawa), with plans to remain open until 1 March 2009. A Reuters article covering the exhibit offered more details.
L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, and the Idea of “Classic”
Delta Prince Edward Hotel, Charlottetown, 24–29 June 2008
Co-chaired by Elizabeth Rollins Epperly, Mary Henley Rubio, and Elizabeth Hillman Waterston
This conference, the eighth biennial conference hosted by the L.M. Montgomery Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island, was held at Charlottetown’s Delta Prince Edward Hotel from 24 to 29 June 2008. The five-day conference featured presentations by scholars from Canada, the United States, Japan, Finland, South Africa, Turkey, Australia, Sweden, Italy, and Iran.
Special components included a reception at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in honour of Epperly’s exhibition Imagining Anne: Celebrating the Creation and Centenary of L.M. Montgomery’s Classic, “Anne of Green Gables”; a pre-conference workshop by Trinna S. Frever entitled “Anne at Hogwarts: Creative and Personal Responses to Classic Literature in the Classroom”; a screening of Jack Hutton and Linda Jackson-Hutton’s recreation of the 1919 silent film adaptation of Anne of Green Gables; performances of The Nine Lives of L.M. Montgomery at King’s Playhouse and of Anne of Green Gables: The Musical at the Confederation Centre of the Arts; and an L.M. Montgomery heritage tour.
Toronto Public Library: Lectures and Exhibit
September–December 2008
On 25 September, Mary Henley Rubio delivered the second annual Sybille Pantazzi memorial lecture at the Lillian H. Smith branch. Her lecture, entitled “In Search of My Subject: Writing the Biography of L.M. Montgomery,” anticipated the publication of Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings, by Doubleday Canada, in late October.
On 23 October, Deirdre Baker delivered the twenty-first Helen E. Stubbs memorial lecture at the Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books. Her lecture, entitled “L.M. Montgomery at Her Finest and Funniest: How Montgomery Has Kept Us Laughing for a Hundred Years,” examined Montgomery’s humour to “show how its influence lives on and enlivens contemporary Canadian children’s books.”
The Toronto Public Library’s exhibit, “Anne of Green Gables: Celebrating 100 Years in Print,” was open between 13 September and 5 December. It ranged “from formative books enjoyed by Montgomery in her lonely childhood through her own writings, and will include contemporary books that show the enduring influence of Anne.”
On 20 November, the Toronto Public Library hosted “All About Anne and Lucy Maud Montgomery.” This literary lunch featured Irene Gammel and Elizabeth Rollins Epperly.
Green Gables to Globalization: Crossover, Canada and Children’s Books
iBbY Ireland, Church of Ireland College of Education, Dublin, 18 October 2008
The main theme of the conference will examine ways in which children’s literature transcend boundaries of all kinds, focusing in particular on crossover fiction and a sense of belonging in books from Canada, a post-colonial, multiethnic society.
Irene Gammel (Ryerson University), “Looking for Anne of Green Gables: A Literary Icon at 100”
From Canada to the World: The Cultural Influence of Lucy Maud Montgomery
University of Guelph, 23–25 October 2008
This symposium focused on the University of Guelph’s extensive archival collection of Montgomery materials and its plan to launch a collections website (no longer online).
The initial notice from Helen Salmon of the University of Guelph Library read as follows:
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.
The press release, which I shared on 6 October, reads as follows:
It’s been 100 years since Anne Shirley first peeked out of the pages of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. An immediate success, the book would become one of the most-read and best-loved stories in the world. A century later, the University of Guelph is hosting a conference that will celebrate Montgomery’s life and her influence on Canada and the world.
Running Oct. 23 to 25, “From Canada to the World: The Cultural Influence of Lucy Maud Montgomery” will bring some of this country’s foremost Montgomery scholars and biographers to campus. The conference will feature a unique combination of lectures, performances, films, music, tours and exhibitions.
“L.M. Montgomery has enchanted millions of readers around the world, but she also had a tremendous effect on other writers and helped shape Canadian culture,” said Sue Bennett, director of University and community relations and one of the conference organizers.
“The themes Montgomery wrote about so adeptly and vividly were often drawn from her own experiences,” added Bennett. “She led a very complex life, and here at U of G, we’ve been lucky enough to glimpse some of her experiences through our L.M. Montgomery Collection. So it’s very fitting that we are hosting this important event.”
U of G has the largest collection of Montgomery memorabilia in Canada, including her handwritten journals, scrapbooks, handiwork, photo albums, legal and business papers, letters and the Order of the British Empire medal she received in 1935. It also contains original typescripts of some of her works, including Rilla of Ingleside. Montgomery wrote 22 novels during her lifetime and kept extensive journals from the time she was 14.
Guelph has also long been the academic home to two of the most pre-eminent Montgomery experts in the world—retired English professors Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston. In the 1980s, they were asked by Montgomery’s son, Dr. Stuart Macdonald, to edit his mother’s personal journals. The works were published in five volumes of The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery.
Rubio has also written a biography about Montgomery, The Gift of Wings, which will be in bookstores next month. On Oct. 25, she will read from the biography and talk about the process of writing it.
Waterston will also speak, discussing Rilla of Ingleside as one of the few women’s war novels about the First World War. She also has a new book about Montgomery coming out this fall, Magic Island. Each chapter discusses a different Montgomery book, and Waterston draws parallels between Montgomery’s internal “island”—her personal life, her professional career—and the characters in her novels.
Other Saturday speakers include chief librarian and CIO Mike Ridley, who will explain the importance of the Montgomery collection to the University. In addition, Helen Salmon, associate chief librarian, and Lorne Bruce, head of archives and special collections, will talk about the collection and launch the L.M. Montgomery research centre website, which includes digitized images of the collection that make it visible and easily accessible.
Saturday will also feature a luncheon based on recipes from Montgomery’s personal cookbook. Food writer Liz Driver will discuss the cookbook as an artifact.
That evening, U of G chancellor Pamela Wallin will give a keynote address to conference participants.
Other conference highlights include a film screening and panel discussion at The Bookshelf Oct. 23 at 7 p.m.
The film screening and panel discussion, entitled “Takes on Maud,” centred on two short films by Atlantis Films: I Know a Secret (based on a short story by Montgomery) and Boys and Girls (based on a short story by Alice Munro and featuring Megan Follows in the lead role). Panelists included Elizabeth Waterston, professor emerita of English at the University of Guelph; Paul Salmon of the School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph, and “film historian Benjamin Lefebvre of the University of Alberta,” according to the conference website.
15th Annual Montgomery Christmas
Norval, Ontario, 29 November 2008
This event consisted a day of activities, including a visit to church bazaars at Norval Presbyterian Church, Norval United Church, and St. Paul’s Anglican Church; an event with Mary Rubio at the L.M. Montgomery Museum at Crawford’s Village Bakeshop; a re-creation of the 1919 Anne of Green Gables film, with Linda Jackson-Hutton and Jack Hutton, at St. Paul’s Parish Hall; and papers by Benjamin Lefebvre, Irene Gammel, and Edith Smith at the Norval Presbyterian Church.
Return to Prince Edward Island: Anne of Green Gables at 100
MLA Convention (San Francisco), 29 December 2008
Chair: Michele Ann Abate (Hollins University)
Kathleen A. Miller (University of Delaware, Newark), “The Creation of the Family in Anne of Green Gables: Making Twenty-First Century Readers at Home in the Victorian”
Val Czerny (Florida Atlantic University), “A Return to the Wild; or, Long-Lasting, Mystical ‘Lunacy’ in Anne of Green Gables”
Fiona Paton (State University of New York, New Paltz), “The Problem Novel Then and Now: Using Anne of Green Gables in the Contemporary Young-Adult Literature Class”
Irene Gammel (Ryerson University), “From Formula Fiction to Girls’ Classic: Anne of Green Gables, Fashion Magazines, and Sunday School Writing”
Beyond Green Gables
NeMLA, Boston, 27 February 2009
Chair: Rita Bode (Trent University)
Kate Scarth (Memorial University), “Taking the Country to the City: Redefining ‘Home’ in L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of the Island”
Christiana R. Salah (University of Connecticut), “Bonds of Sea and Land: The Prehensile Places of L.M. Montgomery’s Fiction”
Trisha Tucker (University of Southern California), “L.M. Montgomery and the Curious Child”
Anne Ramirez (Neumann College), “Anne Shirley and Ellen Montgomery: Imagining a Wider World”
Centenary Events in Japan
On 8 June, this website published the following information, provided by Yuka Kajihara: “Whether you are aware or not, there are numerous of Anne-related events happening in Japan! Recently I was asked to provide a resource on this matter by a journalist from Canwest News Service and I made a brief list.”
Hanako Muraoka
Because the first translator of Anne of Green Gables was Hanako Muraoka (1893–1968), there is no way to talk about Anne without her.
Muraoka once worked for Tokyo publisher Kyobunkan, established by Methodist missionaries from the USA in 1885. This is the place Muraoka first met Canadian missionary Miss Loretta L. Shaw. In 1939, before leaving Japan due to the WWII, Shaw gave a copy of Anne of Green Gables to Muraoka as a keepsake. Kyobunkan is now having special events to celebrate Hanako’s work and Anne’s 100th anniversary.
Nowadays, the name of Hanako Muraoka (poet, translator, children’s writer, radio personality) is popular only because of her translation of the Anne series.
The International Institute for Children’s Literature in Osaka, Japan will hold an exhibition entitled “Hanako Muraoka and Akage no An” between May and July.
Anne’s Cradle, a biography of Hanako Muraoka written by her granddaughter Eri Muraoka, will appear in June 2008.
A newly revised edition of Akage no An (translated by Hanako Muraoka and revised by Mie Muraoka, another grand-daughter of Hanako’s) will be published by Shinchosha. In this edition, Mie added the portions that Hanako had omitted to translate for some unknown reason.
“Akage no An and the Work of Hanako Muraoka,” Nalnia Hall, Kyobunkan, Tokyo (21 June to 16 July). This exhibition focuses on Muraoka’s work and displays books translated by her, including those by L.M. Montgomery, Louisa May Alcott, and Eleanor Porter, alongside photographs of PEI taken by well known photographer Kazutoshi Yoshimura.
Eri Muraoka Gallery Talk at Narnia Hall, Kyobunkan, Tokyo (June 29). Eri’s talk is entitled (loosely translated) “The Very First Akage no An: A Promise to Miss Shaw, Editor of Kyobunkan.”
Other Events
The nationwide exhibition entitled “Anne of Green Gables: L.M. Montgomery’s Beloved PEI” starts in June and runs till June 2009. The display includes Magog (from Robert Montgomery), a few pages of the manuscript, LMM’s crazy quilt, and more.
In June, Shinchosha published a Japanese translation of Budge Wilson’s Before Green Gables, entitled Hello Anne.
Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) broadcast a special program called “Welcome to the Anne’s World” in January. This one show was rebroadcast 2 more times due to popular demand. It includes a letter by [Montgomery’s granddaughter] Luella [Veijalainen] and some photographs of Luella with the letter that Jason took. One of Luella’s pictures is of lover’s lane given to her by LMM and the other is a picture of Luella as a baby being held by LMM. Some of you might find it funny that we actually took these photos in a sushi bar in Yorkville. Luella’s favourite place.
NHK also broadcast a three-month long (from April to June) English conversation program “The Journey to Akage no An.” I heard that the textbook of this program has sold more than 130,000 copies so far! Anne is not only a gateway to learn PEI but also to learn English to Japanese audience. The staff visited PEI last summer.
There are many other Anne-related things happening in Japan: smaller production size of musicals, another exhibitions of Anne and many other publications. A scholarly book on Anne to which I contributed will be published soon. A short biography of L.M. Montgomery for juvenile readers by Miki Okuda appeared in March. And Nippon Animation sells a boxed set of DVD entitled “Akage no An: The DVD Memorial Box.”
Image Credit
Photograph, by Benjamin Lefebvre, of a bag of Anne of Green Gables chips that appeared on the front cover of issue 34, no. 2 (fall 2008) of Canadian Children’s Literature / Littérature canadienne pour la jeunesse. The following notice appeared inside the issue:
The bilingual bag of “Anne of Green Gables Chips/Croustilles” was purchased outside Moncton, NB, in August 2001. Prepared by Small Fry Snack Foods (Atlantic) of Summerside, PEI. The bag claims that “our new ‘Anne of Green Gables’ chips will appeal to those looking for an old-fashioned potato chip sliced extra thin and crunchy for a more distinctive potato taste,” and that “Anne would be proud of these great tasting potato chips due to the careful personal attention and Island love that has gone into making them.” Ingredients: specially selected P.E.I. potatoes, hydrogenated vegetable oil (Canola oil), and salt. The bag burst open when a paperweight fell on it in 2007. $.79.
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