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Looking for Anne of Green Gables: The Story of L. M. Montgomery and Her Literary Classic
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Product Description
In June 1908, a red-haired orphan appeared on to the streets of Boston and a modern legend was born. That little girl was Anne Shirley, better known as Anne of Green Gables, and her first appearance was in a book that has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide and been translated into more than 35 languages (including Braille). The author who created her was Lucy Maud Montgomery, a writer who revealed very little of herself and her method of crafting a story. On the centenary of its publication, Irene Gammel tells the braided story of both Anne and Maud and, in so doing, shows how a literary classic was born. Montgomery’s own life began in the rural Cavendish family farmhouse on Prince Edward Island, the place that became the inspiration for Green Gables. Mailmen brought the world to the farmhouse’s kitchen door in the form of American mass market periodicals sparking the young Maud’s imagination. From the vantage point of her small world, Montgomery pored over these magazines, gleaning bits of information about how to dress, how to behave and how a proper young lady should grow. She began to write, learning how to craft marketable stories from the magazines’ popular fiction; at the same time the fashion photos inspired her visual imagination. One photo that especially intrigued her was that of a young woman named Evelyn Nesbit, the model for painters and photographers and lover of Stanford White. That photo was the spark for what became Anne Shirley. Blending biography with cultural history, Looking for Anne of Green Gables is a gold mine for fans of the novels and answers a trunk load of questions: Where did Anne get the “e” at the end of her name? How did Montgomery decide to give her red hair? How did Montgomery’s courtship and marriage to Reverend Ewan Macdonald affect the story? Irene Gammel's dual biography of Anne Shirley and the woman who created her will delight the millions who have loved the red haired orphan ever since she took her first step inside the gate of Green Gables farm in Avonlea.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #170445 in Books
- Published on: 2008-07-08
- Released on: 2008-07-08
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 320 pages
Features
- ISBN13: 9780312382377
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
- Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
The 100th anniversary of the publication of the still-popular Anne of Green Gables (50 million copies sold to date) is being greeted by a flurry of activity, including a new edition of the novel; a prequel, Before Green Gables (2008), written by Canadian Budge Wilson; and, now, this new biography of Anne’s creator and alterego, Lucy Maude Montgomery. Gammel, a Canadian academic and editor of several earlier collections of Anne-related essays, is clearly a fan, and, frankly, her prodigiously researched and breathlessly written study will have its primary appeal to other fans. Her revelations “for the first time” of the inspirations for Anne’s face and the character itself provide persuasive answers to some lingering questions about the genesis of the fiery redhead. But they will be of interest principally to what Margaret Atwood has tartly called “The Annery.” General readers will be interested, however, in Gammel’s careful deconstruction of the context—early-twentieth-century popular culture—for Anne’s creation and the complex personality of the woman who found refuge from her own unhappy life in the creation of Anne and her beloved Avonlea. --Michael Cart
Review
"Drawing on a vast array of neglected and unknown sources, this groundbreaking study establishes new connections between Montgomery's isolated life in Cavendish, P.E.I., and the metropolitan existence that she consumed vicariously through magazines published in New York, Boston and Philadelphia. Looking for Anne is a highly readable, top-rate study that [provides] a new spin on Montgomery's text."— Globe and Mail (click here for the full article, "Eternally Anne")
"Rather than simply rehashing available material, Ryerson professor and noted literary researcher Irene Gammel … explores the social and literary influences that guided and inspired Montgomery in creating her impetuous heroine. … Even more fascinating is the amount of inspiration Montgomery found in the myriad of current magazines and journals that made their way into her hands via the desk of her grandmother the town postmistress." — Quill and Quire
"Looking for Anne is a fascinating and wonderful book. It brings forward an amazing wealth of new information, filling in many gaps (some of which I didn’t even know existed!), and is presented in a captivating narrative that is very well organized and a great read. The research is fabulous…. It’s rather like the Road to Xanadu.”— Carole Gerson, Simon Fraser University and co-editor of History of the Book in Canada
"... The material is incredible, the interpretive work unsurpassable. "— Holly Virginia Blackford, Rutgers University-Camden.
About the Author
Irene Gammel is Professor of English and holds the Canada Research Chair in Modern Literature and Culture at Ryerson University, Toronto. She is the author and editor of eight academic titles, including the internationally-acclaimed Baroness Elsa: Gender, Dada and Everyday Modernity: A Cultural Biography (2002). Irene Gammel has served as president of the Canadian Comparative Literature Association, editorial board member of Canadian Literature, and director of Women’s Studies at UPEI. She is the curator of the exhibit Anne of Green Gables: A Literary Icon at 100, May 1, 2008 to March 1, 2009.
Customer Reviews
The definitive study of how Anne of Green Gables came about.
I recently made a trip to Prince Edward Island and picked up a number of books related to L.M. Montgomery and Anne of Green Gables. I actually had passed on this one because I saw that Amazon had such a fantastic price on it. Anyway, as an Anne of Green Gables and L.M. Montgomery junkie, I've read practically every book on Maud and her work and this one is by far the best. The research in this book is positively amazing. Kudos to the author for digging so deeply and for taking the time to be so complete and thorough. However, I don't want people to think that this is some dry scholarly book, on the contrary, it is almost impossible to put down. Not only does the author dig up facts, she analyzes them with exceptional insight and brillance. She knows her subjects backwards and forwards. At times during the book, one could almost sense the presence of Maud Montgomery herself. It is as though she whispered her secrets to the author who then revealed them to us the readers. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves Anne or Maud. It is as close as a book can come to being perfect.
A Biography of the Book, not the Person
I was disappointed by two aspects of this book. The first was the dramatic style of writing by the author. Just write, we get it.
The second was that I expected a biography of Lucy Maud Montgomery's life, but I really didn't get a sense of who she was. This book ends near the publication date of "Anne," so I don't know anything about Maud's marriage, move west, birth of her 2 sons (I don't even know their names!), and when she and her husband die.
This is more of a scholarly look at the life of the book, instead of it's creator, so I was disappointed in that. There are also some allusions to lesbianism, but they're unfounded. No facts are brought to bear on that allegation. It just seems too "fashionable" to publish some "dirt" on this pastor's wife. It's speculation - looking back on 100 years of history - and I didn't like it. (The same thing was said when the author alludes that Hans Christian Anderson was a homosexual.) If you're going to make such statements, at least provide me with FACTS, not speculation. It's tawdry.
Anne
This author did some serious & indepth research. She looked at a lot of the period magazines Maude would have read and/or have published in for clues as to where she got her inspiration. She looked at some of the popular models of the time period. She compared Anne to similiar types of stories. She examined Maude's unpublished journals. A lot of research was done. This was all very interesting. Reading the aspects of Maude's unhappy early life that may have contributed to Anne was interesting.
What I did not find interesting or appreciate was the author placing her own sexual ideas onto Maude and/or Anne. The author tried to make an unsubstantiated case that Maude was a lesbian; and that Maude also made Anne & Diana's friendship into a lesbian relationship. This really angered me. There is no proof, current or historic to support this. Apparently the author has some personal axe to grind. It's like she wanted Maude to be a lesbian, so the fact that she had many close friends & her marriage was unhappy made this all ring true when it did not. It ruined an otherwise interesting & well researched book.
