L.M. Montgomery Research Group

Orca Books has just published a new picture book titled The Summer of the Marco Polo, based on an event that Montgomery describes in her journals and that also was the subject of two of her earliest publications: an essay, “The wreck of the ‘Marco-Polo,” published in Montreal Witness in February 1891; and a poem, “The Wreck of the ‘Marco-Polo’–1883,” published in the Daily Patriot in 1892.

The Summer of the Marco Polo, written by Lynn Manuel and illustrated by Kasia Charko, tells the story from young Maud’s perspective. The official website description follows. Read more about it here.

In the summer of 1883 a famous clipper ship ran aground off the coast of Prince Edward Island near the home of a young girl named Lucy Maud Montgomery. Lucy Maud, who became one of Canada’s most beloved writers, wrote about the grand adventure in her journals and reflected on it years later in her notebooks. The town of Cavendish was transformed by the presence of the crew, and the ship’s captain stayed with Lucy Maud and her strait-laced grandparents. Lynn Manuel has taken Lucy Maud’s memories and shaped them into a story that will transfix and enchant readers.

Lynn Manuel is a full-time writer and the author of more than a dozen books, including Lucy Maud and the Cavendish Cat and Camels Always Do. She majored in history at university and now finds some of her story ideas in the study of the past. When asked what information she would like to share about herself, Lynn says, “I am a grandmother. And I’ve seen Paris.” Lynn lives in White Rock, British Columbia.

Working in watercolor and colored pencil, Kasia Charko has created detailed inviting paintings that bring to life Prince Edward Island, a very special ship and the ocean’s many moods. Coincidentally, a number of years ago she received a visit from several of L.M. Montgomery’s great-grandchildren. Kasia lives in Alton Village, Caledon, Ontario, a short distance from Norval, where Montgomery lived for many years.

Here are some photos I took while Yuka and I went on an LM Montgomery walking tour of Swansea.
L.M. Montgomery - a photoset on Flickr

Shirley Lum, our guide, did a wonderful job of contextualizing what LMM said about the area with local history. If you’re ever in Toronto and want the tour, do check out her web site (A Taste of the World - Toronto Walking Tours).

A Taste of the World - Toronto Walking Tours
SWANSEA & L.M. MONTGOMERY
Dates: Thurs. March 15, 22, 2007
Time: 3:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Meet: Runnymede Station, Runnymede St. exit

IP Across Borders has a presentation this monday that might interest some:
Monday, March 12: 12:10-2:00 in FLA
“Anne of Green Gables in Japan: Merchandising a Cultural Icon”
Andrea Slane (Centre for Innovation Law & Policy)
Lee Webster (Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP)

Elizabeth Rollins Epperly’s new book Through Lover’s Lane: L.M. Montgomery’s Photography and Visual Imagination, has been released by University of Toronto Press. To read a synopsis of her book, click here. The contents are as follows:

Acknowledgments (ix-xi)
Permissions (xiii)
Abbreviations (xv)

Introduction: Seeing Patterns (3-10)
1. Montgomery’s Visual Imagination (11-38)
2. Montgomery’s Photography (39-62)
3. Picturing a Life: Selected Photographs (63-85)
4. Picturing Home: Image as Threshold (86-102)
5. Anne’s Green Arches (103-24)
6. Emily’s ‘Memory Pictures’ (125-44)
7. ‘My Castle in Spain’: The Blue Castle and the Architecture of Images (145-64)
8. Afterimage: Around the ‘Bend in the Road’ (165-78)

Appendix: ‘Cynthia’s’ 1902 Article on Photography (179-82)
Notes (183-91)
Works Cited (193-201)
Illustration Credits (203)
Index (205-17)

The back cover also includes the following comments:

‘No one is better suited than Elizabeth Epperly to undertake a study of L.M. Montgomery’s photographs. Through Lover’s Lane represents the first solid study of Montgomery’s fiction in relation to both her autobiographical writing and photographs. It is a readily comprehensible study and the images are gorgeous.’ —Cecily Devereux, Department of English, University of Alberta

‘Elizabeth Epperly has written an effective analysis of L.M. Montgomery’s visual imagination and “way of seeing”—a central and surprisingly little-studied aspect of this popular author’s verbal (and visual) art. Through Lover’s Lane is a well-written, engaging work that also makes available a beautiful series of Montgomery’s photographs.’ —Janice Fiamengo, Department of English, University of Ottawa

A new animated series based on Emily of New Moon is coming to Japanese television! The official website can be found here.

Update from Yuka:

I looked at the web site of Emily animation. It will be on the
national TV station NHK’s educational channel. They have total 26
episodes; 25 min each (starting 7:25 am).

April 7 (Sat) Wind girl
April 14 (Sat) Pride of the Murrays
April 21 (Sat) A queer/strange child Ilse
April 28 (Sat) Sketche(s) of the four (Emily, Ilse, Teddy, Perry)

I found the following site giving you a bit more information on the
animation:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/anime.php?id=7475

Responding to the question of whether it will be dubbed into English, Yuka adds:

Last year, four of the animation staff came to visit me at the
Osborne. They said that they are planning to sell the broadcast right
to foreign countries. Japanese animations are quite popular in south
eastern countries and European countries too. So it must happen
sooner or later. But I didn’t find out when.

Professor Akamatsu, has been much more active consulting on the
project, so perhaps she will know when it gets translated before I
do. But nothing’s clear at the moment.

It’s worth noting that the 1979 animated series Akage no An has never (at least to my knowledge) been dubbed into English, although I do remember seeing a few episodes in French while growing up in Québec in the 1980s.

Yuka writes:

Hello everyone,

I’m shocked to learn that Canadian feminist icon Doris Anderson
passed away on the 2nd at St. Michael’s hospital in Toronto. She was
an influential editor for Chatelaine magazine from 1957 to 77.

I met & talked with her only once at her house at Mollie Gillen’s
90th birthday party in 1998. (You can read my article “In Celebration
of Mollie Gillen’s 90th Birthday” at http://yukazine.com/lmm/e/
Mollie.ATC26.98.99.html)

Mollie often told me that because Doris asked her to write an article
on LMM, Mollie started to read LMM’s books and that eventually Mollie
located the now famous bunch of letters written by LMM to Mr
Macmillan in Scotland.

“When she (Anderson) took it (Chatelaine) over, it had a circulation
of 480,000. Within a decade it was being read by 1.8 million
women–’One of every three in Canada’ as she claims.” (Rebel
daughter’s anger simmers by Allan Fotheringham. The Calgary Sunday
Sun, Sept. 29, 1996)

So, Mollie’s article on LMM appeared in such a popular magazine and
received high praise from the readers. Based on the short article,
Mollie developed a biography of LMM, The Wheel of Things which was
published in 1975.

I saw Doris at the LMM conference in 94 and learned that Doris was a
friend of Adrian Clarkson (former Governor General) who is a fan of
LMM and made a brilliant speech at the conference. The speech is
published in Gammel and Epperly’s “L.M. Montgomery and Canadian
Culture” (1999).

If Doris didn’t pay attention to LMM in the 70s, Mollie would not
have thought about writing the biography, let alone reading LMM’s
books. I learned a life of LMM through “The wheel of things”.

To me, as an enthusiast of LMM, I would like to thank Doris Anderson
sincerely.

More info here: http://tinyurl.com/3byplb

Regards,

yuka kajihara
http://yukazine.com

I would like to add that there is a substantial article about Doris Anderson in today’s Globe and Mail. It’s available at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070302.wdorisandersonobit0302/BNStory/Entertainment/home