L.M. Montgomery Research Group

An article on the front page of this morning’s Globe and Mail-“Is this Lucy Maud’s suicide note?”-reproduces the following scrap of paper found on Montgomery’s bedside the afternoon she died:

This copy is unfinished and never will be. It is in a terrible state because I made it when I had begun to suffer my terrible breakdown of 1940. It must end here. If any publishers wish to publish extracts from it under the terms of my will they must stop here. The tenth volume can never be copied and must not be made public during my lifetime. Parts of it are too terrible and would hurt people. I have lost my mind by spells and I do not dare think what I may do in those spells. May God forgive me and I hope everyone else will forgive me even if they cannot understand. My position is too awful to endure and nobody realizes it. What an end to a life in which I tried always to do my best.

It is accompanied by a follow-up article by James Adams, “Lucy Maud suffered ‘unbearable psychological pain,’” which includes extracts from an e-mail interview with Mary Henley Rubio, whose biography of Montgomery, Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings, will be published next month by Doubleday Canada.

Thanks to Joshua Ginter of the Centre for Research in Young People’s Texts and Cultures, University of Winnipeg, for bringing this article to my attention.

An article titled “The Heartbreaking Truth about Anne’s Creator,” written by Kate Macdonald Butler (Montgomery’s granddaughter), appears in today’s Globe and Mail (pp. F1, F6):

Despite her great success, it is known that she suffered from depression, that she was isolated, sad and filled with worry and dread for much of her life. But our family has never spoken publicly about the extent of her illness.

What has never been revealed is that L.M. Montgomery took her own life at the age of 67 through a drug overdose.

UPDATE: The full text of the article has been archived here.

The Toronto Public Library will host two lectures and an exhibit in the coming weeks. On 25 September 2008, at 8:00 PM, Mary Rubio will deliver the Second Annual Sybille Pantazzi Memorial Lecture, titled “In Search of My Subject: Writing the Biography of L.M. Montgomery,” in anticipation of her forthcoming biography, Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings, published by Doubleday Canada in late October. The lecture will be given in the Community Room at the Lillian H. Smith branch.

On Thursday, 23 October, at 8 PM, Deirdre Baker will deliver the Twenty-First Helen E. Stubbs Memorial Lecture at the Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books. Her lecture, titled “L.M. Montgomery at Her Finest and Funniest: How Montgomery Has Kept Us Laughing for a Hundred Years,” will examine Montgomery’s humour to “show how its influence lives on and enlivens contemporary Canadian children’s books.”

The exhibit, “Anne of Green Gables: Celebrating 100 Years in Print,” will be open between 13 September and 5 December 2008. Their description is as follows:

Canada’s best-known novel for children, Anne is a favourite at home and abroad. The retellings continue to proliferate, as succeeding generations of children find fresh appeal in the red-haired heroine. The exhibit will range 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.

The Osborne Collection is open 10-6 weekdays, 9-5 Saturdays, closed Sundays and holidays.

Groups welcome; please call ahead: 416-393-7753

Admission to the exhibit and to lectures is free. For more information, see the Events & Exhibits page and the news release on the TPL website.

Kevin Sullivan’s upcoming film Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning will have its world premiere at the 2008 Boston Film Festival on Monday, 15 September 2008, at 8:15 PM. The synopsis on their schedule reads as follows:

Kevin Sullivan’s original story explores the unwritten origins of the iconic character, Anne of Green Gables, as Anne finds a secret letter in the floorboards of Green Gables, almost 50 years after she arrived on Prince Edward Island, that reveals her troubled family history.

The 141-minute film, which stars Barbara Hershey, Hannah Endicott-Douglas, Rachel Blanchard, and Shirley MacLaine, will air on CTV this fall. A broadcast date has not been announced, nor has plans to broadcast the film outside Canada, but it will eventually be available on DVD. A novelization of the film will be published by Key Porter Books on 1 October 2008.