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.
*
L.M. Montgomery died on 24 April 1942. She would never have predicted the global impact that her life and work would have. This week Montgomery readers from five continents celebrate Montgomery’s global reach: Yoshiko Akamatsu (Asia), Laura Leden (Europe), Idette Noomé (Africa), Julio Moyano (South America), and Chelsea Wallis (Australia).
*
A tribute from Yoshiko Akamatsu (Japan)
親愛なるモードへ
2024年11月30日、あなたの150回目の誕生日のお祝いを申し上げます。
2023年9月に、私は、「L・M・モンゴメリ」というコラムを執筆しました。このコラムは『カナダ文化事典』に収録され、2025年に丸善出版から刊行される予定になっています。あなたは日本で最も知名度の高い作家の一人として選ばれ、日本の図書館でカナダ文化を知ろうとする人々にあなたを紹介する文章を書く栄誉を私が得たのです。この吉報を誕生日のお祝いとして喜んで受け取ってくだされば嬉しく思います。
楽しい作品を創作してくださってありがとうございます。日誌に書かれたあなたの艱難辛苦でさえ、人生とは何かを私たちに考えさせてくれています。
愛と感謝を込めて
赤松佳子（日本）
Dear Maud,
I am sending you my best wishes for your 150th birthday on November 30, 2024.
In September, 2023, I wrote a column titled “L.M. Montgomery” to be included in The Canadian Cultural Encyclopedia, which will be published by a Japanese company, Maruzen Publishing, in 2025. You had been selected as one of the best-known Canadian novelists in Japan, and I had the great honour of introducing you to Japanese people who want to know about Canadian culture at libraries in Japan. I hope you will be glad to have this news as a birthday present to you.
Thank you for creating such enjoyable literary works for us. Even the hard experiences you recorded in your journals lead us to understand what life is.
With love and gratitude,
Yoshiko Akamatsu (Japan)
Yoshiko Akamatsu, PhD, is a Japanese scholar of L.M. Montgomery and has participated in every International L.M. Montgomery Conference except one since 1994 and has presented every time since 2008.
*
A tribute from Laura Leden (Finland)
Ensikohtaamiseni L.M. Montgomeryn kirjan kanssa 10-vuotiaana oli maaginen, mutta silloin en vielä tiennyt, kuinka paljon hänen teoksensa tulisivat vaikuttamaan elämääni lukijana ja tutkijana. Nuorena aikuisena halusin aina vain lisää Montgomerya. Löysin kansainvälisen nettiyhteisön täynnä sukulaissieluja ja myöhemmin L.M. Montgomery -instituutin konferenssit. Pääsin matkustamaan iki-ihanalle Prinssi Edwardin saarelle tapaamaan lisää sukulaissieluja. Oli itsestään selvyys, että kirjoittaisin graduni Montgomery-käännöksistä. Kiitos Montgomery-tutkijayhteisön kannustuksen taipaleeni tutkijana ei loppunut siihen, vaan aiheesta on syntynyt sekä väitöskirja että lukuisia artikkeleita ja somepostauksia. Ja lisää on varmasti tulossa! Montgomeryn alkuperäisistä teksteistä sekä niiden käännöksistä ja mukaelmista löytää aina jotain uutta ja kiehtovaa.
My first encounter with L.M. Montgomery’s books at the age of ten was magical, but little did I know how her books would come to shape my life as a reader and scholar. As a young adult, I did not want to let go of her world. I found an international online community of Kindred Spirits, and eventually I discovered the L.M. Montgomery Institute conferences and travelled to PEI to meet even more Kindred Spirits. Writing my master’s thesis on the translations of Montgomery’s books was a no-brainer. All the encouragement I have got from the community of Montgomery scholars along the way has now resulted in a PhD thesis, a number of articles, and countless social media posts. And I’m far from done! There are always new aspects to discover in Montgomery’s original texts and in their translations and adaptations.
Laura Leden, PhD, is a translation scholar from Finland. She has created the Instagram account @lmmontgomerynordic where she posts about the Nordic Montgomery translations.
*
A tribute from Idette Noomé (South Africa)
Jane of Lantern Hill contains my favourite Montgomery heroine (practical, can-do, and resilient), but I only met Jane when I was in my thirties. Montgomery and I go back to when I was seven, and my (Afrikaans) mother and (German) aunt gave me Anne of Green Gables, which I reread annually with Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women for over fifty years! Anne and Jo March validated reading voraciously, offering a touchstone for openness to others’ needs and ideas, for being true to oneself, and for loving beauty, albeit in the very different South African landscape (they also helped me work at curbing a flaming temper!). Today, I am fascinated by the adult characters in Montgomery’s work, loving Marilla more with every rereading. The Anne centenary brought me to a new avenue of research, to Prince Edward Island, and to a community of sharing, generous and rigorous scholars, and new friends – abundance and delight!
Idette Noomé lectures in English literature, language, and editing in the Department of English at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.
*
A tribute from Julio Moyano (Argentina)
La adaptación televisiva de Anne of Green Gables por Moira Walley-Beckett reavivó el interés del público argentino por la novela original y sus secuelas. Así fue expandiéndose la circulación de la gran novela de LMM en mi país: aprovechando la difusión masiva de adaptaciones para cine y televisión. Disponible en castellano desde 1947, por mucho tiempo se ofertó como “literatura para niñas” junto a la obra de L.M. Alcott, mientras a los niños se les ofrecía Mark Twain, Verne o Salgari, división que se desdibujaba en la lectura efectiva. Pero ¡ay de quien lo reconociese ante otros muchachos! Mundialización y cambios culturales mediante, la circulación actual es muy otra, y tanto la obra de Montgomery como su biografía profesional son objeto de creciente interés, influencian e inspiran obras, estudios, lecturas. Deseo que el 150 cumpleaños acreciente ese interés y fortalezca los lazos culturales que toda gran obra literaria promueve.
The television adaptation of Anne of Green Gables by Moira Walley-Beckett revived the Argentine public's interest in the original novel and its sequels. This is how the circulation of Montgomery’s great novel expanded in my country: by taking advantage of the massive dissemination of adaptations for film and television. Available in Spanish since 1947, for a long time it was offered as “literature for girls” along with the work of Louisa May Alcott, while boys were offered Mark Twain, Jules Verne, or Emilio Salgari, a division that was often blurred in actual reading practice. But woe to those who recognized it in front of other boys! Globalization and cultural changes through current circulation is very different, and both Montgomery's work and her professional biography are objects of growing interest, influencing and inspiring works, studies, and readings. I hope that her 150th birthday increases that interest and strengthens the cultural ties that every great literary work promotes.
Julio Moyano, PhD, is with the IEALC Institute, Universidad de Buenos Aires.
*
A tribute from Chelsea Wallis (Australia)
Maud’s writing first spoke to me when my own world had gone very quiet. I dwelt in a small town in regional Australia and was rarely able to leave my home due to chronic illness. Instead, I lived vicariously through her tales of girls and young women on an equally small island, about as far away from my own as it was possible to be. She showed me that life lived on a domestic scale could be just as vivid as that on the wider horizon. Unable to travel elsewhere, I gained strength from Pat’s decision to remain in a home to which she was so powerfully attached. Later, as a young teacher in a rural boarding school, I found comfort in my isolated state from Emily’s example of writing through her difficult feelings. Later still, when I reached Oxford, it was Anne’s experiences at university and her rich relationships with the kindred spirits she found there that resonated with special force. Maud’s words have been inscribed on each stage of my life, a tapestry of experiences that I have shared with her remarkable heroines, and which I will continue to weave in the decades yet to come.
Listen to Chelsea Wallis' tribute here:
Chelsea Wallis is an Autistic writer and doctoral candidate in English, researching how epistolary friendships impacted Victorian women writers.
*
Next week we will feature tributes to Montgomery from some of the translators who have been instrumental in extending and expanding Montgomery’s global reach.