Edited by Hildi Froese Tiessen and Paul Gerard Tiessen
Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2006
Ephraim Weber (1870–1956) was a struggling young writer when he began corresponding with L.M. Montgomery (1874–1942) in 1902, six years before she published her first novel. Weber’s initial letter was that of an admirer. Montgomery responded warmly, and the two quickly began a correspondence that became an intellectual mainstay for both of them over the following forty years. After Green Gables is a collection of letters sent by Montgomery to Weber between 1916 and 1941. This was the period of Montgomery’s greatest literary success, but privately she was deeply troubled by her unhappy marriage.
The letters reveal an intense dynamic between Montgomery and Weber, and cover, among other subjects, their strong differences of opinion on matters such as pacifism and war and their joint rejection of the effects of literary modernism. Drawing on Weber’s voluminous correspondence with other Canadian figures – particularly journalist Wilfrid Eggleston – editors Hildi Froese Tiessen and Paul Gerard Tiessen skilfully illuminate Weber’s interaction with Montgomery, especially in matters concerning literature and culture, religion and politics, and education and entertainment. The editors provide various readings of Weber, based on his aspirations as a writer, his active participation in the Canadian culture of his day (including his friendships with hometown schoolmate William Lyon Mackenzie King and community leader Leslie Staebler), and his heritage as a Mennonite.
Montgomery’s letters to a man committed to writing and to his country’s cultural development reveal her intellectual preoccupations and her personal hardships.
Contents
Acknowledgments (ix–xii)
Permissions (xiii)
Abbreviations (xiv–xv)
Photographs (xvi–xviii)
Introduction (3–52)
A Note on the Text (53–5)
The Letters (57–263)
Works Cited (265–8)
Index (269–88)
Related Items
Tiessen, Hildi Froese. “The Story of a Novel: How We Found Ephraim Weber’s ‘Three Mennonite Maids.’” Journal of Mennonite Studies 26 (2008): 159–80.
Reviews
Reviews by Irene Gammel, Virginia Gillham, Benjamin Lefebvre, Maureen Moran, and E. Holly Pike.
