The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume I: 1889-1910 (1985)
Edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston
Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1985
Synopsis
Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942)—whose Anne of Green Gables and many other novels are loved by readers around the world—kept extensive journals for most of her life, beginning them in 1889 when she was fourteen and continuing them until shortly before her death. Spontaneous and frank, they are unusual for their narrative interest: Montgomery’s gifts as a storyteller are as much in evidence here as in her novels.
This first volume takes her to 1910, the year before her marriage, when she left Prince Edward Island. It recounts her schooldays in Cavendish, redolent with incidents, impressions, and romantic “crushes” that found their way into her fiction; a year spent in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, with her father and stepmother; a year of study at Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown, where she trained to be a teacher, and another at Dalhousie University; her teaching years; a powerful infatuation with the son of a family she lived with; a long and mostly unhappy period of keeping house for her grandmother; and the publication of Anne of Green Gables. The autobiographical content will fascinate every devoted reader of the Anne books. But the Montgomery journals are especially interesting because they provide a unique social history and the privilege of viewing closely the life of a remarkable woman. Comprising perhaps the most vivid and detailed memoir in Canadian letters, the journals will join Anne of Green Gables in ensuring Montgomery’s lasting place in Canadian literature. This volume is a rich and engrossing prelude to the whole.
Contents
Illustrations (x-ix)
Acknowledgements (xi-xii)
Introduction (xiii-xxiv)
1889 (1-12)
1890 (13-43)
1891 (44-74)
1892 (75-87)
1893 (88-101)
1894 (102-132)
1895 (133-153)
1896 (154-174)
1897 (175-200)
1898 (201-234)
1899 (235-246)
1900 (247-256)
1901 (257-277)
1902 (278-285)
1903 (286-291)
1904 (292-299)
1905 (300-316)
1906 (317-327)
1907 (328-333)
1908 (334-345)
1909 (346-367)
1910 (368-394)
Notes (395-415)
Omissions (416)
Index (417-424)
Reviews
Conrad, Margaret. Review of The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume I: 1889-1910, edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston. Canadian Historical Review 62, no. 3 (1986): 437-38.
Holland, Clifford G. Review of The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume I: 1889-1910, edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston. Queen’s Quarterly 93, no. 3 (Autumn 1986): 667-68.
Howells, Coral Ann. “LMM: Finding a Voice.” Review of The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume I: 1889-1910, edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston. Canadian Children’s Literature / Littérature canadienne pour la jeunesse 45 (1987): 79-81.
Keefer, Janice Kulyk. Review of The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume I: 1889-1910, edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston; The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume II: 1910-1921, edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston. The Antigonish Review 73 (Spring 1988): 83-88.
Thompson, Hilary. “Role-Maker.” Review of The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume I: 1889-1910, edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston. Canadian Literature 111 (Winter 1986): 205-6.
