| Lancette Arts Journal Founded in 2000 |
NON-Fiction Book Reviews From our Archives |
September 2006 |
After Green Gables, edited by Hildi Froese Thiessen and Paul Gerald Thiessen, University of Toronto Press, 288 pages, paperback, $34.95 ISBN 0-8020-8459-1By Alidė Kohlhaas
After Green Gables is a book that sheds some light on L. M. Montgomery through her correspondence with a most unlikely person, a high school literature teacher with a yearning to be recognized as a writer. Hildi and Paul Tiessen have compiled the letters written by L. M. Montgomery to Ephraim Weber between 1916 and '41.
Although the two met only twice, and seemed to have little in common, these letters are of considerable importance as they show us Montgomery from a new aspect. We even learn that she was tired of writing about Anne of Green Gables long before she finished the final volume.
The two began to write to each other in 1902, and some of these early letters are included in other books about Montgomery. There is, however, a large gap in this earlier, more idyllic period of their letter exchanges as Montgomery's letters to Weber from 1902 to '05, and 1909 to '16 have not been found.
There is sincere intellectual exchange to be found in the letters. One gets the feeling that they are at times leaning on each other because they cannot find support in their own immediate social . . .
To Read the full article, go to our ABOUT US page and click on Contact to request the item.
Copyright © 2006-10 CamKohl Arts Productions