L.M. Montgomery Research Group

This article describes the centenary exhibition in Korea:

Celebrating 100 Years of Anne of Green Gables

Anne Shirley of Green Gables is 100 years old this year. Her story, by Canadian writer Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942), was first published in 1908. The National Library for Children and Young Adults and the Canadian Embassy in Korea are holding a special exhibition celebrating Anne’s 100th anniversary.

The exhibition will include 35 handcrafted works, like Anne of Green Gables-themed dolls and dollhouses, art and pop-up books. Some 25 photographs of the Prince Edward Island landscape, Anne’s nominal home, a giant map of Canada, and other information on Canada will be featured. For further information, call (02) 3413-4757.

An article about the L.M. Montgomery Christmas in Norval, which will be celebrated on Saturday, 29 November, appears in the Georgetown Independent & Free Press. It’s going to be a great celebration!

Scott MacDonald’s article “The death of L.M. Montgomery” appears in the December 2008 issue of Quill & Quire (page 8), which also includes Budge Wilson’s Before Green Gables in its list of 15 Books of the Year.

From Joshua Ginter, Administrator of Canadian Children’s Literature / Littérature canadienne pour la jeunesse and Research Coordinator at the Centre for Research in Young People’s Texts and Cultures:

The forthcoming Fall issue of Canadian Children’s Literature / Litterature canadienne pour la jeunesse features a collection of articles and essays on the work of L.M. Montgomery. Special rates are offered for single, non-subscription copies.

Issue Contents

• Anne of Green Gables, Elijah of Buxton, and Margaret of Newfoundland—Margaret Mackey (University of Alberta)
• Weaving a Tapestry of Beauty: Anne Shirley as Domestic Artist—Kathleen Miller (University of Delaware)
• The “Murray Look”: Trauma as Family Legacy in L.M. Montgomery’s Emily of New Moon Trilogy—Lindsey McMaster (Nipissing University)
• Rereading Anne of Green Gables in Anne of Ingleside: L.M. Montgomery’s Variations—Perry Nodelman (University of Winnipeg)
• A report on the digitization of the L.M. Montgomery Collection at the University of Guelph—Lorne Bruce, Wayne Johnston, and Helen Salmon (University of Guelph)
• Review Essays on Montgomery Criticism and new Anne of Green Gables Material—Carole Gerson (Simon Fraser University) and E. Holly Pike (Memorial University)

Special rates for single copies are payable by cheque or money order to Canadian Children’s Literature / Littérature canadienne pour la jeunesse. Please provide full mailing and contact details.

Rates

• Canada: $25 CAD (Individual), $38 CAD (Institution)
• U.S.: $27 USD (Individual), $38 USD (Institution)
• Overseas: $32 USD/€23 (Individual), $40 USD/€32 (Institution)

Mail to:
CCL/LCJ
Department of English,
University of Winnipeg
515 Portage Avenue
Winnipeg, MB R3B 2E9
Canada

For more information, email ccl@uwinnipeg.ca or telephone 204 786 9351.

Irene Gammel’s review of Mary Henley Rubio’s Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings, titled “The fatal disappointments of Lucy Maud,” appears in today’s Globe and Mail, p. D4.

The following announcement has been made concerning the L.M. Montgomery Christmas in Norval, Ontario. A whole day of activities have been scheduled for Saturday, November 29, 2008:

10:00 am - 2:00 pm: Visit country church bazaars and lunches at the Norval Presbyterian Church, Norval United Church and St. Paul’s Anglican Church

1:00 pm - 3:00 pm: Meet Dr. Mary Rubio, author of Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings at the L.M. Montgomery Museum at Crawford’s Village Bakeshop

3:00 pm: Watch a re-creation of the 1919 Anne of Green Gables movie at St. Paul’s Parish Hall, cost: $2

7:00 pm: Enjoy an evening at the Norval Presbyterian Church featuring L.M. Montgomery scholars:

• Dr. Benjamin Lefebvre, University of Alberta
• Dr. Irene Gammel, Professor, Ryerson University
• Dr. Edith Smith, Professor Emerita, McMaster University

Music by Jack Hutton, ragtime pianist.

Tickets at the door or in advance, contact kgastle@norvalontario.com,
905-877-7059, cost: $10

News from Yuka Kajihara, who heard from Korean LMM reader “MS, Kang” that Budge Wilson’s Before Green Gables has been translated into Korean, using the original English version, and not the Japanese translation, as the source.

Here is the cover image:

The Toronto Public Library will host a Literary Lunch on “All about Anne and Lucy Maud Montgomery” on Thursday, 20 November 2008, between 12:30 and 2:00 PM:

Dr. Irene Gammel introduces her book Looking for Anne: How Lucy Maud Montgomery Dreamed Up a Literary Classic. Dr. Elizabeth Rollins Epperly discusses Imagining Anne: The Island Scrapbooks of L.M. Montgomery. Q&A. Bring your own lunch. Coffee and tea will be provided.

For more information, see the TPL announcement.

The L.M. Montgomery Research Centre at the University of Guelph has launched their searchable digital collection of L.M. Montgomery’s photographs. Although the images are available through the Our Ontario portal, the collection can also be searched through the LMMRC website directly.

Sullivan Entertainment has announced on its Anne of Green Gables website that its latest film, Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning, will air on CTV on 14 December 2008, at 7:00 PM. They include a detailed synopsis:

It is 1945 and Anne Shirley (Academy-award nominee and Golden Globe winner, Barbara Hershey) now a successful, middle-aged writer has returned to Prince Edward Island for an extended visit. On a whim, she agrees to write a play for a theatre producer. The play, she reasons, will keep her busy—at least busy enough to not go out of her mind with worry about her only son who has yet to return from the war overseas. But a long-hidden secret in the form of a letter from her errant father, discovered under the floorboards at Green Gables, provides a distraction of its own. As Anne struggles to complete the play, she delves into long-buried memories, reliving the troubled years before she arrived as an orphan at the Green Gables farmhouse. She is forced to confront the fact that she made up stories about her life; after her mother died and when her father deserted his young daughter. During that time, Young Anne (newcomer Hannah Endicott-Douglas), is taken into the care of a wealthy matriarch, Amelia Thomas (Academy-award winner Shirley MacLaine) and her daughter-in-law, Louisa (Rachel Blanchard), which changes her life forever.

Over the course of one remarkable summer, Anne Shirley discovers the astonishing truth about her father, the origins of her quest for “kindred spirits” and the roots of her brilliant, magical imagination.

A new trailer for the telefilm is now available at Sullivan’s Anne of Green Gables website. While there is not yet any news about broadcast dates outside of Canada, they have also announced that the film will be released on DVD shortly.