The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume II: 1910-1921 (1987)
Edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston
Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1987
Synopsis
Since the publication—to great critical acclaim—of Volume I of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s journals, this second volume covering the period 1910 to 1921 has been eagerly awaited. Volume II records a time of great change and upheaval both in Montgomery’s life and in society. When she wrote the first entry in this volume she had recently become a world-famous author, having published Anne of Green Gables in 1908. Here we become privy to her response to the death of her grandmother, who had restricted her life severely; her marriage and honeymoon trip to Scotland and England; and her departure from Prince Edward Island to the new restrictions of her life as the wife of a Presbyterian minister in an Ontario village. Montgomery reveals the intensities of friendship, the minutiae of home-making, the joys of motherhood along with the traumas of a disturbed marriage, and records the sources and composition of the “Anne” series and the emergence of her new heroine “Emily”. Besides learning about the rewards and trials—including two unpleasant lawsuits—of being a successful author, we see also how a sensitive woman responded to the possibility, the actuality, and the aftermath of a world war.
By turns tart and sentimental, sharp-sighted and anxiety-ridden, L.M. Montgomery provides a compelling record of her remarkable life against the background—both social and literary—of a tumultuous period in Canadian history. The entries in this volume more than fulfil the promise of Volume I.
Contents
Illustrations (vi-vii)
Acknowledgements (viii)
Introduction (ix-xx)
1910 (1-35)
1911 (36-51)
1912 (52-116)
1913 (117-140)
1914 (141-158)
1915 (159-174)
1916 (175-200)
1917 (201-237)
1918 (238-279)
1919 (280-362)
1920 (363-394)
1921 (395-405)
Notes (406-434)
Omissions (435)
A Note on Dates (435)
Index (436-443)
Reviews
Avery, Heather. Review of The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume II: 1910-1921, edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston. Resources for Feminist Research / Documentation sur la recherche féministe 18, no. 2 (June 1989): 60-61.
Boone, Laurel. “Montgomery.” Review of The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume II: 1910-1921, edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston. Canadian Literature 122-123 (Autumn-Winter 1989): 163-64.
Gillham, V. Review of The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume II: 1910-1921, edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston. In Canadian Book Review Annual 1987, edited by Dean Tudor, 64. Toronto: Simon & Pierre, 1988.
Howells, Coral Ann. “Pluralisms.” Review of A History of Canadian Literature, by W.H. New; The Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories in English, selected by Margaret Atwood and Robert Weaver; The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume II: 1910-1921, edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston. English 39, no. 163 (Spring 1990): 83-87.
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.
York, Lorraine M. “Darkness and Ecstasy.” Review of The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume II: 1910-1921, edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston. Canadian Children’s Literature / Littérature canadienne pour la jeunesse 55 (1989): 71-73.
