The Diary of Charles Macneill, Farmer, 1892–1896 contains the full text of a farm diary written by L.M. Montgomery’s distant relative Charles Macneill between 1892 and 1898 and transcribed by Montgomery into her handwritten journal in 1925. Featuring Montgomery’s original commentary on the diary (excerpted from L.M. Montgomery’s Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1922–1925) as well as a preface by Jen Rubio, the book was published by Rock’s Mills Press as a trade paperback in May 2018.
From the Back Cover
Anne of Green Gables author L.M. Montgomery does a surprising thing in her handwritten journal of 1925: she transcribes the entire diary of PEI farmer Charles Macneill into her own work.
In an earlier journal entry dated August 4, 1923, Montgomery recounts how on a visit to PEI that year, a friend and cousin presented her with a unique document:
Alec produced a “diary” his father had kept for several years and we read it together. I don’t think I ever read anything quite so delicious in my life. Charles Macneill was an odd sort of a man, whom as a child I always loved because he was so kind to children. . . . He inherited from his mother—his father was not one of “our” Macneills but his mother was—a queer streak of the Macneill literary knack. . . .
Montgomery is fascinated by this “artless” yet compelling diary. Published now for the first time is the full diary that she found so compelling, an atmospheric depiction of the rural Island setting found in her novels. Macneill’s diary, kept between 1892 and 1896, transports us to a time before wireless communication and industrial agriculture, where people were their own farmers, doctors, and veterinarians. As Montgomery copied out Macneill’s words, she wrote that the “sights and sounds of that old north shore farm” came back like the “voices of ghosts.” Also included in this edition is Montgomery’s commentary on the diary, where she situates her younger self in the diary’s world.
Her commentary is an exploration of her own unique “mind’s eye,” an exceptional ability to recall this past world with an almost overwhelming intensity.
Contents
Preface / Jen Rubio (vii–viii)
The Diary of Charles Macneill (1–82)
L.M. Montgomery’s Commentary on Charles Macneill’s Diary (83–104)
Index (105)
Metadata
Paratexts: Preface by Jen Rubio
Country: Canada
Publisher: Rock’s Mills Press (n.p.)
Date: 2018
Format: Trade paperback
Trim: 6 x 9”
Pagination: viii + 105 pp.
ISBN: 978-1-7724-4139-0