The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery was a two-volume edition of L.M. Montgomery’s journal entries dated 1889 to 1911. Edited by Mary Henley Rubio and Elizabeth Hillman Waterston, who also provided an introduction and notes to each volume, these two volumes were published by Oxford University Press in 2012 and 2013.
These two volumes supplement The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery (1985–2004), a five-volume set also edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston, who at the time had been required to abridge Montgomery’s journal text by as much as fifty per cent. They have been followed by L.M. Montgomery’s Complete Journals (2016–), under the editorship of Jen Rubio.
In chronological order: The PEI Years, 1889–1900 (2012) | The PEI Years, 1901–1911 (2013)
The PEI Years, 1889–1900 (2012)
The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889–1900 is an unabridged and annotated edition of L.M. Montgomery’s journal entries dated 21 September 1889 to 22 December 1900, when Montgomery was between the ages of fourteen and twenty-six and living in Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, and Nova Scotia. Featuring a foreword by Michael Bliss as well as an introduction and notes by the volume editors, the book was published as a jacketed hardcover by Oxford University Press in June 2012, with a trade paperback edition appearing in July 2017.
Citation: Montgomery, L.M. The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889–1900. Edited by Mary Henley Rubio and Elizabeth Hillman Waterston. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Format Details: Jacketed hardcover, 6” × 9”, xi + 484 pp., ISBN 978-0-19-900210-8
Publisher’s Listing: https://www.oupcanada.com/catalog/9780199029648.html
From the Back Cover
The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, first published by Oxford in 1985, contained half of the journals’ full contents. To save space and present an easily digestible, fast-moving narrative, passages describing Lucy Maud Montgomery’s darker, more reflective moods and her religious and philosophical speculations were cut. This unabridged edition of her early years on Prince Edward Island, however, reveals a different story.
Montgomery was a complex and profound personality. She was often anxious, bitter, and gloomy, although able to see herself and her surroundings from a deeply ironic—and often comical—viewpoint. Her unabridged journals demonstrate her ambition and determination to achieve literary success. They also reveal how she used writing to manage her turbulent moods, and how an increasing dependence on her journal helped shape her emotional landscape.
This new edition recreates the format Montgomery herself devised. Some 250 of her photographs, newspaper clippings, postcards, and professional portraits are reproduced, all with Montgomery’s original placement and captions. Michael Bliss’s new preface draws some surprising parallels with other great journal writers of Montgomery’s time, while the editors’ new introduction and notes provide indispensable insights into what the journals reveal, as well as what they hide.
From the Dust Jacket
L.M. Montgomery (1874–1942) had begun keeping a private journal before she turned fifteen. From 1918 onward, she had carefully copied out her entries and enriched them by inserting evocative pictures. She intended this detailed life record to be published posthumously. Montgomery’s long-hidden version of her early life was first published in 1985 as the bestselling Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume I: 1889–1910. At that time it seemed prudent to offer a tightly organized book with a strong central narrative. This decision meant setting aside many entries on her personal tastes, her effusions over landscape, and her increasing bouts of depression. The unabridged journals reveal for the first time new sides of L.M. Montgomery: a teenage girl becoming complexly aware of her sexuality; a young writer developing as an artist; and a woman suffering from incipient instability.
Contents
Acknowledgments (v)
Publisher’s Note (vi)
Foreword / Michael Bliss (vi–viii)
Introduction / Mary Henley Rubio and Elizabeth Hillman Waterston (ix–xi)
Journal Volume I (1–362)
1889 (2–14)
1890 (15–57)
1891 (58–109)
1892 (110–46)
1893 (147–84)
1894 (185–254)
1895 (255–301)
1896 (302–44)
1897 (345–62)
Journal Volume II (363–469)
1897 (363–83)
1898 (384–430)
1899 (431–46)
1900 (447–69)
Illustrations (470–72)
Index (473–84)
Reviews
Globe and Mail (Toronto), 21 July 2012, R16 (Benjamin Lefebvre, “Lucy Maud of Macneill Farm”). https://benjaminlefebvre.com/lucy-maud-of-macneill-farm/.
Winnipeg Free Press, 28 July 2012, J7 (Julie Kentner, “Unabridged Journals Glimpse into Montgomery’s Early Life”).
London (ON) Free Press, 13 October 2012, F2 (Nancy Schiefer, “Journals Bursting with Life”).
Canadian Woman Studies / Les Cahiers de la femme 30, no. 1 (2013): 146–47 (Cheryl van Daalen-Smith). https://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/view/37434.
The Dalhousie Review 93, no. 2 (Summer 2013): 316–19 (Claire Campbell).
Modern Language Review 110, no. 1 (January 2015): 249–50 (Mary McDonald-Rissanen). https://doi.org/10.5699/modelangrevi.110.1.0249.
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The PEI Years, 1901–1911 (2013)
The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1901–1911 is an unabridged and annotated edition of L.M. Montgomery’s journal entries dated 5 January 1901 to 2 July 1911, when Montgomery was between the ages of twenty-six and thirty-six and living in Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia. Features an introduction and notes by the volume editors, the book was published as a jacketed hardcover by Oxford University Press in February 2013, with a trade paperback edition appearing in August 2017.
Citation: Montgomery, L.M. The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1901–1911. Edited by Mary Henley Rubio and Elizabeth Hillman Waterston. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Format Details: Jacketed hardcover, 6” × 9”, viii + 434 pp., ISBN 978-0-19-900211-5
Publisher’s Listing: https://www.oupcanada.com/catalog/9780199029655.html
From the Back Cover
The second book of L.M. Montgomery’s unabridged journals picks up at the start of a new century, painting a more intimate portrait of Montgomery’s early adult life than has ever been available before. This continuation of Montgomery’s life story covers her final years on Prince Edward Island, including her work as a newspaper editor in Halifax, Nova Scotia; the death of her grandmother; her marriage to a local clergyman; and the publication of Anne of Green Gables—the book that would propel her into a lifetime of literary fame.
From the Dust Jacket
L.M. Montgomery (1874–1942) began keeping a detailed record of her life at age fifteen. First published in 1985, The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume I: 1889–1910 removed half of her original material to maintain a tightly organized, fast-paced narrative. Now appearing for the first time in their entirety, Montgomery’s complete journals reveal a complex, fascinating, and often conflicted personality. Her own photographs, newspaper clippings, and postcards provide a rich, vivid visual narrative—all with Montgomery’s original placement and captions. The journals document her reflections on writing, her increasingly problematic mood swings and feelings of isolation, and her changing relationship with the world around her, particularly that of Prince Edward Island.
Contents
Acknowledgements (v)
Introduction / Mary Henley Rubio and Elizabeth Hillman Waterston (vii–viii)
Journal, Volume II: January 5, 1901–February 7, 1910 (1–283)
1901 (2–40)
1902 (41–63)
1903 (64–90)
1904 (91–115)
1905 (116–44)
1906 (145–64)
1907 (165–79)
1908 (180–208)
1909 (209–46)
1910 (247–335)
Journal, Volume III: February 11, 1910–March 12, 1916 (285–420)
1911 (336–420)
Illustrations (421–24)
Index (425–34)
Reviews
Canadian Literature 217 (Summer 2013): 183–84 (Emily Aoife Somers, “A Diary’s Promise, Extended”). https://canlit.ca/article/a-diarys-promise-extended/.
Atlantic Books Today (Halifax), Fall 2013, 33 (Sarah Emsley).
Herizons 27, no. 2 (Fall 2013): 41 (Evelyn C. White).
Times Literary Supplement (London), 18 October 2013, 21 (Faye Hammill. “Something Wild and Sweet and Unutterable”).
Women’s Writing 22, no. 4 (2015): 525–27 (Benjamin Lefebvre). https://doi.org/10.1080/09699082.2014.972056.
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This page published on 27 February 2024; last updated on 1 March 2024.