2024 is L.M. Montgomery’s 150th birthday! The L.M. Montgomery Institute (LMMI) at the University of Prince Edward Island is celebrating with 150 tributes – celebratory statements or greetings – that reflect upon personal connections to Montgomery or on an aspect of her life, work, or legacy.
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Last week L.M. Montgomery readers from around the world gathered in Charlottetown, either on site at the University of Prince Edward Island or virtually from around the globe, for the L.M. Montgomery Institute’s 16th Biennial conference. This week’s tributes from Caroline E. Jones, Simon Lloyd, and Emily Woster celebrate the sense of community that Montgomery and the LMMI conference have fostered.
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Caroline E. Jones on “L.M. Montgomery and the Politics of Home”
L.M. Montgomery has been home for me as long as I can remember, not least because of the generational family connections that I cannot dissociate from her texts. Her work, much like my family, has been home for me in times of change, stress, transition; through moves, relationships, loss, and incredible joy. Even as a young reader I felt Montgomery’s subtle, subversive commentary on the injustices inherent in her protagonists’ worlds. Emily’s and Anne’s quests for justice in a world that positioned them as less-than satisfied my longing for justice in an often unjust world. Montgomery was telling the world to do better – something we’re still working on. Those ongoing quests for justice, fairness, community, and home in my life and Montgomery’s work came together in this year’s conference theme, “L.M. Montgomery and the Politics of Home.” I have been honoured and privileged to be part of the community gathered, in person and virtually, from around the world to explore Montgomery through the lens of Politics of Home. I am overjoyed to be part of the even larger and more diverse international community of readers, scholars, and fans celebrating Maud’s 150th birthday.
Happy birthday, Maud, and thank you for your beautiful, caustic, hilarious, wise, and true words.
Caroline E. Jones served as the L.M. Montgomery Institute’s Visiting Scholar for 2023-25 and co-chaired the 2024 Biennial Conference, "L.M. Montgomery and the Politics of Home."
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Simon Lloyd on the importance of Montgomery in the global community
It’s not Montgomery’s most obviously-quotable line, but Matthew Cuthbert’s response when told of the plan to deliver Anne to Mrs. Blewett speaks volumes to me about Maud as a person and a writer: “‘I wouldn’t give a dog I liked to that Blewett woman,’ said Matthew with unusual vim.” Matthew may be mild and gentle by temperament, but he also knows that when the world turns hard, its cruelties must be resisted. A simple man, he is no simpleton: a lesser person would not have had the measure of Mrs. Blewett in the first place, let alone the wherewithal to save a helpless youngster from her clutches. In this small vignette – as in countless others – Montgomery’s vernacular flare and tart humour subtly deliver an important life lesson. We can, by all means, be alert – like Anne – for beauty and goodness, but we must also be ready to step up when those things need defending. For this lesson – and so many more – I am grateful to Montgomery, and to the fine members of the great global community who keep her teachings alive in a world that sorely needs them.
Simon Lloyd is University Archivist & Special Collections Librarian at University of Prince Edward Island’s Robertson Library and a member of the Journal of L.M. Montgomery Studies Editorial Board.
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Emily Woster on Montgomery and family
L.M. Montgomery has not just inspired my family; she has shaped it. My great-grandma Cora first read the books aloud to her students in a one-room schoolhouse. Her daughter, my grandma Penny, and her daughter, my mother Christy, spent countless family vacations tracking down old copies of Montgomery’s books. It is pretty easy to figure out where my name and my sister’s came from (Emily and Anne, naturally). Montgomery has inspired our travel, showed us the joy in unraveling historical puzzles, supplied countless treasured memories, and connected us to friends all over the world. We have studied, collected, honoured, researched, discussed, savoured and loved Montgomery’s works. And we’ve done it all together. We have learned that Montgomery’s legacy is not just literary; it is intergenerational and personal.
On her 150th birthday, it only seems fitting to celebrate with the generations of readers and families that have been shaped by Montgomery’s life and works.
Emily Woster is a lifelong reader and scholar of L.M. Montgomery. She is curator of annemanuscript.ca and the L.M. Montgomery Bookshelf Project as well as a former Visiting Scholar for the LMMI.
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Next week’s tributes will celebrate Montgomery’s legacy on the occasion of Canada’s 157th birthday.