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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On the opening of the 2024 Olympic Games, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, “For well over a century, the Olympic Games have brought together communities from across the world – encouraging … the values of teamwork and hard work. These are universal values that anchor our work to build a better, fairer future for everyone in Canada.” As the Olympic Games draw to a close, tributes from Kazuko Sakuma, Sarah Bacaller, Weronika Madryas, and Hope Dalvay remind us of the global impact that Canadians – and specifically one Canadian, L.M. Montgomery – have had in building community through shared values.
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From Japan: Kazuko Sakuma on the continuing relevance of issues Montgomery explores
親愛なるモードへ
150歳のお誕生日おめでとうございます！
私は11歳の時に『赤毛のアン』に出会って以来、あなたの作品にすっかり魅せられ、小説を読む楽しさを存分に知り、やがて文学研究の道に進みました。深く批評的に読むことを学ぶにつれ、あなたが今の社会にも通じる個人や社会の問題を鋭く描き出すその洞察力と先見性に、目を見張っています。
私は日本の研究者としての視点から、今後もあなたの作品世界をより深く研究し、あなたの小説の価値を英語と日本語の両方で発表し、日本の若い学生たちと授業で作品を読みながら、これからもあなたの文学の知られざる魅力を、微力ながら広めてゆきたいと願っています。
素晴らしい「腹心の友」に出会えることも、あなたが私にくださった大切な宝物です。かけがえのないご縁をありがとうございます。
心からの感謝を込めて
作間 和子（日本）
Dear Maud,
Happy 150th Birthday!
Since encountering Anne of Green Gables at the age of eleven, I have been captivated by your works, finding immense joy in reading novels and eventually pursuing a path in literary scholarship. As I delved deeper into critical reading, I have been amazed by your keen insight and foresight in portraying individual and societal issues that still resonate with us today. From my perspective as a Japanese scholar, I aspire to continue exploring your literary world in greater depth, presenting the value of your writings in both English and Japanese, and sharing your charm widely with young students in Japan through lectures and discussions of your works.
Meeting Kindred Spirits from around the world has also been such a precious gift you have given me. Thank you so much for these cherished connections.
With heartfelt gratitude,
Kazuko Sakuma (Japan)
Kazuko Sakuma teaches L.M. Montgomery’s novels and Literature and Culture of North America at the Graduate School of Tokyo Woman’s Christian University in Japan. She completed her MA and PhD at Sophia University in Tokyo. She has regularly presented at L.M. Montgomery International Conferences and sits in the Editorial Board of the Journal of L.M. Montgomery Studies.
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From Australia: Sarah Bacaller on a community that coheres around Montgomery’s values
Dear LMM,
My husband was 12 years old when it happened. He visited a friend’s house, a boy from school. The two comrades anticipated hours of vigorous skateboarding or jamming on their guitars. But upon my husband’s arrival at his friend’s home, the boy’s mother accosted the unsuspecting pair.
“Boys!” she cried, delight and desperation flashing in her work-worn eyes. “Look what I’ve got! Are you ready for an afternoon of …” – and here she flourished the full VHS box set of Anne of Green Gables before the horrified boys – “hours of Anne?!”
(Of course, dear LMM, you never lived to see Anne on the screen, let alone in a VHS box set, but I’m sure you can imagine how the scene played out).
“Nooooooooo!” the boys screamed. They ran off.
Well, LMM, things have changed. My husband is now an Anne-convert. (Did he ever really have a choice?). Ah yes, we are a determined lot, we kindred spirits of Anne-ish inclination.
LMM, you have given to the world friends for the lonely, family for the isolated. You have turned our eyes towards beauty and have played those notes which resonate with the inklings of our hearts. You have invited together a community of people from such times and places – across national borders, cultures and languages – who cohere around the values of wonder and imagination, hope and friendship.
I live an hour’s drive from Melbourne, Australia, in a town where suburban blocks are interspersed with paddocks and where gravel paths bear hoof tracks. And when I walk around my town, in which pine and birch grow interspersed with Australian eucalypts and tea-tree scrub, Anne is never far away. The Lake of Shining Waters, the red roads of Prince Edward Island, the Snow Queen, and even the house with the Green Gables … they are all just around the corner. Their presence brings me joy and delight, furnishing the scenery of my mind. My eyes fall in wonder upon the world around me and I see with Anne-ish eyes. This brings home the knowledge that, despite the unceasing pain of this world, there somehow still is beauty that fuels us for another day.
Thank you. Thank you, again.
And happy birthday.
Sarah Bacaller.
Sarah Bacaller is a writer, researcher, and audiobook narrator from Melbourne, Australia.
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From Poland: Weronika Madryas on Montgomery’s inspiring courage to follow one’s dreams
“Jako kilkunastoletnia dziewczynka zaczytywałam się w powieściach Lucy Maud Montgomery …. Kiedy rodzice wybudowali dom na wsi, nieopodal Wrocławia, nie mogłam go nazwać inaczej niż Zielone Wzgórze. …
Kiedy moja córeczka Ania przyjeżdża na Zielone Wzgórze do swoich dziadków, wnosi taką radość, jaką powieściowa Ania obdarowała poważną i pozornie surową Marylę o gołębim sercu (dobrze skrytym pod udawaną oziębłością) oraz małomównego, dobrotliwego i wrażliwego Mateusza. I choć polska Ania z Zielonego Wzgórza ma oczy modre niczym niebo, a włosy złote, to maleńka Bławatkowa Dziewczynka jest równie pogodna i skora do psot co rudowłosa Ania Shirley.”
—Ania z Baśniowego Zielonego Wzgórz, Weronika Madryas)
Dziś po latach śmiało mogę rzec, że powieści Lucy Maud Montgomery w dużej mierze ukształtowały moje postrzeganie świata. Odważna, uduchowiona i ambitna Ania Shirley dodała mi odwagi, by podążać za marzeniami. „Ania z Baśniowego Zielonego Wzgórza” to literacki hołd złożony pisarce i Jej ponadczasowej twórczości.
“As a teenage girl, I was engrossed in the stories by Lucy Maud Montgomery, especially those concerning the adventures of Anne Shirley. When my parents later built a house in the country near Wrocław, I couldn’t call it anything other than Green Gables. …
When [my daughter] Anne visits her grandparents, she brings the same joy that the Anne from the stories brought to the serious and ostensibly stern Marilla with a heart of gold (well-hidden beneath a sheen of cold) and the reticent, generous and sensitive Matthew. And though the Polish Anne of Green Gables has eyes as blue as the skies and golden hair, the little Cornflower Girl is just as cheery and mischievous as red-headed Anne Shirley.”
—from Anne from the Fairly Tale Land of Green Gables by Weronika Madryas
After many years, I can declare today that the tales of Lucy Maud Montgomery have, to a large degree, shaped my view of the world. The plucky, soulful, and ambitious Anne Shirley has given me the courage to follow my dreams. Anne from the Fairy Tale Land of Green Gables is a literary homage to the writer and her timeless creation.
Weronika Madryas – doktor nauk humanistycznych, wykładowca akademicki na Uniwersytecie Wrocławskim, autorka baśni i powieści dla dzieci i młodzieży
Weronika Madryas is doctor of humanities, lecturer at Wrocław University, and author of fairy tales and stories for children and young people.
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Hope Dalvay on discovering the joy Montgomery has brought to readers in Saudi Arabia
When my husband and I were in our late twenties, we lived in Saudi Arabia for a few years. During our first week there, I remember having lunch with my husband at the hospital where he worked. After lunch, I walked back to the housing compound, which was located behind the hospital. It was blistering hot, and I confess I was feeling a little homesick. As I approached the security gate to show my ID badge, a young Saudi woman on her way to the hospital stopped me.
“You’re new here. Where are you from?” she asked in a friendly voice.
“Oh, I’m from Canada.” Past experience had taught me to simply say “Canada,” rather than the name of my home province.
Obviously curious, she then asked, “Where in Canada?”
I thought, There’s no way she’s going to know where I’m from. It’s such a small place. I braced myself for when she would inevitably say she had never heard of it.
“I’m from Prince Edward Island,” I answered.
Without missing a beat, she said, “Anne of Green Gables, right?”
I was absolutely shocked. Someone in Saudi Arabia, on the other side of the world, knew where I was from because of my favourite book, Anne of Green Gables.
Thank you, Maud, for your gift of writing with humour and heart. Your stories uplift, inspire, and bring such joy. But most of all, they connect us.
When Hope Dalvay first read L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables at the age of ten, she became a forever reader. Inspired by her favourite author, Hope began writing children’s novels.
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Next week the tributes will celebrate Montgomery in the context of World Humanitarian Day.