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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This week’s tributes from Melanie Fishbane, Terry Kamikawa, Nomisha Kurian, and Mike James celebrate the power that Montgomery’s literature has to inspire the imagination of creatives and readers.
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Melanie Fishbane’s personal tribute
The life and work of L.M. Montgomery is such an integrated part of my life that if I were to pick one book, or character, or anecdote, it would feel like I was ignoring something important. Montgomery has been such a creative force, inspiring me to write essays on her characters and novels. Later, when I was working on my novel based on her teen life, it felt like she was always walking beside me – as if I was seeing the world through her fictional lens. Most recently, exploring her writing process and early publications has given me a new perspective of my creative process. Montgomery demands that we look beyond the surface and question societal conventions around gender. Her complex legacy is an opportunity to examine assumptions on Canada’s history. I’m grateful for how her work has connected me to members of a diverse international community.
Melanie J. Fishbane has written extensively on L.M. Montgomery, including the YA novel, Maud: A Novel Inspired by the Life of L.M. Montgomery.
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Terry Kamikawa’s appreciative tribute
感謝を込めてL.M.モンゴメリへ
運命がすでに決められたものなのかどうか、私は不思議な呼び声に引き寄せられて、胸躍るモンゴメリの王国に足を踏み入れた。私はそこで言語の色彩を教えられ、その虹の粒子は心の奥深くしみわたり、私に人生の意義を与えてくれた。同時にそこは笑いと涙、あるいは希望や明日という人生の現実が息づいている小宇宙であることを発見した。
虹の暖かさと雪片の溶け行くさまを物語に包み込んで、彼女は生き、教え、残していった。それは癒しの旅であり、永遠に続く祈りでもあるだろう。
エメラルドとルビーの小島に注がれるモンゴメリの愛と守りへ、終わりない心からの感謝を込めて、150年目のHAPPY BIRTHDAY を送りたい。
My gratitude to L.M. Montgomery
Whether fate was predetermined, I was lured by a mysterious call whereupon I lighted upon Montgomery's enchanting realm. It was there that I encountered the colours of language, its rainbow penetrating my core giving my life meaning. At the same time I discovered that it is a microcosm wherein the reality of life was playing out in my own real life, with laughter and tears, hope and tomorrows. She lived and taught, leaving behind the warmth of a rainbow and melting of a snowflake, enveloped within a story. Her life will be a journey of healing and prayer for eternity, With heartfelt gratitude for a HAPPY 150th BIRTHDAY – her reverence and guardianship showers upon the emerald and ruby isle with infinite blessings!
Terry Kamikawa, a semi-retired baker by profession, is a private scholar of L.M. Montgomery and has published two on books on her novels in Japan. Terry has been a resident of Prince Edward Island for the past thirty-seven years.
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Nomisha Kurian’s poetic tribute
A Prayer for Anne – and All Who Love Her
May we always hear her sing
In the verdant fields of spring
Spirit roaming blossom-light
Through tranquil days and wind-wild nights
May she dance by trilling brooks
Daydream in their mossy nooks
Glory in the first mayflower
And shelter in a dryad’s bower.
When sorrow makes her eyes grow dim
May the wind murmur a hymn
And when the fairies call her kin
May we join her joy therein
And catch her, arms about a birch
This grateful daughter of the earth.
Nomisha is a researcher at the University of Cambridge, specialising in children's wellbeing. She traces her love for art-in-nature education to the rich inspiration provided by Lucy Maud Montgomery.
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Mike James’ theatrical tribute
Back in 2005, when “The Nine Lives of L.M. Montgomery” was only a potential idea being researched and nothing had been written for it yet, co-creator and composer Leo Marchildon was with me in my studio apartment in North Hollywood, California. He had this idea for a kind of wistful, wintery theme, so we recorded it while it was fresh on his mind. Then it went into digital mothballs.
But there was something about what he considered a melancholy tune that I found hopeful and victorious. The following year, when I was in the throes of writing the first version of the libretto for our forming show, I recalled Leo's melody. For the scene depicting Maud's publication of Anne of Green Gables on June 20, 1908, words came to me that would be sung by both Maud and Anne – as a major conceit of the musical was to have Maud's heroines come to life and interact with her.
The result was “An Epoch in My Life,” in which creator and created express the thrill and delighted disbelief of having such a long-held dream materialize. “This is what can happen if you just believe,” Maud and Anne harmonize triumphantly, neither sensing that Maud would soon forget the credo that brought her to the crowning moment in the first place.
This performance of “An Epoch in My Life” is from the 2009 production of “Nine Lives,” presented at the Carrefour Theatre in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island; Natalie Oman played Maud, and Lindsay Kyte portrayed Anne. Leo and I hope it inspires in you the same joy these characters felt, and reminds you to keep believing in the power of imagination.
Listen to “An Epoch in My Life” here:
Adam-Michael (Mike) James has a long history in the entertainment industry. A sampling of some of his projects, past and present, can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/224848903419,
https://www.facebook.com/adammichaeljames/,
https://www.facebook.com/bwcontinuum,
https://www.facebook.com/isletunes
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To launch Pride Month, next week’s tributes celebrate Montgomery representations of queerness.