A Name for Herself

by L. M. Montgomery

  146 When describing this anecdote in her 1911 article “How I Began to Write,” she referred to this newspaper as “let us say – The Charlottetown Enterprise” (70) – a fictional newspaper mentioned in several of her books.

  147 Montgomery would revisit this experience of her first publication in her essay “Blank Verse? ‘Very Blank,’ Said Father.”

  148 These items, “The Wreck of the Marco-Polo” and “A Western Eden,” appear earlier in this volume. Omitted in this list of early publications are the several school publications also included in this volume.

  149 These poems published in the Charlottetown Daily Patriot include “On Cape Le Force” (November 1890), “June!” (June 1891), and “The Wreck of the ‘Marcopolo,’ 1883” (August 1892).

  150 A near identical version of this sentence appears in Emily Climbs: “She … was beginning to plume herself on being quite a literary person” (EC, 275).

  151 The term “filthy lucre,” meaning money (especially when gained dishonestly), originates in Titus 1:11 (KJV).

  152 I have corrected the original, which reads “I kept one to myself.” The poem, entitled “The Violet’s Spell” and beginning with the line “Only a violet in the trodden street,” was published in The Ladies’ World (New York) in July 1894. In a journal entry dated seven years later, she admitted that “the price” she had received for that poem “was as good as the verses. They were trash” (Montgomery, 21 March 1901, in CJLMM, 2: 13). She nonetheless transcribed the entire text of the poem in her journal (Montgomery, 21 March 1901, in CJLMM, 2: 14).

  153 This journal entry, written upon the acceptance of “The Violet’s Spell” by The Ladies’ World, appears without variation in Montgomery, 28 September 1893, in CJLMM, 1: 170.

  154 The short story in question, “Our Charivari,” was actually her second published short story, appearing in Golden Days for Boys and Girls in May 1896. Her first published short story, “A Baking of Gingersnaps,” had appeared in The Ladies’ Journal (Toronto) in July 1895. Both stories were signed “Maud Cavendish.”

  155 See Luke 15:13 (KJV): “And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.”

  156 According to her journal, Montgomery bought bound volumes of “Tennyson, Longfellow, Whittier and Byron” not with the payment she received for “Our Charivari” but with the money she received for first prize in the 1896 contest hosted by the Evening Mail (Halifax) earlier that month, for the best response to the question “Which has the more patience under the ordinary cares and trials of life – man or woman?” Her responses appear earlier in this volume. See Montgomery, 15 February 1896, in CJLMM, 1: 311; Montgomery, 20 February 1896, in CJLMM, 1: 314.

  157 The Lucy Maud Montgomery Album (1999) defines the term “wee sma’” as referring to “early morning hours” (“Lucy Maud Words,” 415).

  158 The poem “Fisher Lassies,” signed M.L. Cavendish and appearing in the 30 July 1896 issue of The Youth’s Companion, was subsequently reprinted numerous times in American newspapers. See Montgomery, 21 March 1896, in CJLMM, 1: 316.

  159 “Art for art’s sake” is the English version of the French expression “l’art pour l’art,” an early nineteenth-century slogan. This entry appears with minor variations in Montgomery, 23 August 1901, in CJLMM, 2: 19. In her journal, she then added, “But the editors who cater to the ‘young person’ take themselves too seriously for that and so in the moral must go, broad or narrow, as suits the fibre of the particular journal in view” (Montgomery, 23 August 1901, in CJLMM, 2: 19–20).

  160 See Montgomery, 1 March 1897, in CJLMM, 1: 356. I have corrected the original, which reads “‘stunt.’”

  161 The third instalment of the 1917 text of “The Alpine Path” ends here, as does chapter 6 of the 1974 book version.

  162 This poem appears in the April 1901 issue of Munsey’s Magazine, a popular New York periodical.

  163 This journal entry appears with minor variations in Montgomery, 21 March 1901, in CJLMM, 2: 10. After the sentence “I never expect to be famous,” the entry continues: “I don’t want to be, really, often as I’ve dreamed of it.” It is in this entry that Montgomery first reminisced about her early literary work.

  164 For the etymology of “presto-change,” see “Around the Table,” note 96, above.

  165 The phrase “beer and skittles” is “used to denote that something is (not) unmixed enjoyment” (OED). It originated in Tom Brown’s Schooldays (1857), a novel by Thomas Hughes (1822–1896), English lawyer and author.

  166 The parts of this journal entry up till this point appear with minor variations in Montgomery, 13 November 1901, in CJLMM, 2: 22–23; the parts that follow appear with minor variations in Montgomery, 14 November 1901, in CJLMM, 2: 25.

  167 The phrase “thorns in the flesh” originates in 2 Corinthians 12:7 (KJV).

  168 “Nom de plume” is French for “pen name.” Such society letters were unsigned, and since Montgomery did not include any of hers in her scrapbooks, they cannot be identified.

  169 Omitted in this memoir is the modest self-congratulation that Montgomery permitted in her journal: “I think it rather goes” (Montgomery, 14 November 1901, in CJLMM, 2: 26).

  170 In her journal, Montgomery identified the cat from home as “Bobs” (Montgomery, 14 November 1901, in CJLMM, 2: 26). She later had three cats named Daffy, including one who lived with her in Leaskdale when she wrote “The Alpine Path.”

  171 This journal entry appears with minor variations and with lukewarm descriptions of her landlady in Montgomery, 18 November 1901, in CJLMM, 2: 30–32.

  172 For the origins of this Wellerism, see “Around the Table,” note 128, above.

  173 In a journal entry dated 23 November 1901 and not included in “The Alpine Path,” Montgomery mentioned receiving from The Delineator a cheque for $25 for a short story, but her earliest known story in this magazine, “The Promise of Lucy Ellen,” was not published until February 1904, and her earliest known contribution to this magazine, the poem “In Lovers’ Lane,” did not appear until July 1903. Montgomery published the poem “To My Enemy” in The Smart Set: A Magazine of Cleverness and the poem “Harbor Sunset” in Ainslee’s Magazine (which she spells Ainslie’s), both in January 1902; as I note in the preface to this volume, the latter poem was republished as “Sunset on Halifax Harbor” in the Halifax Daily Echo in March 1902. See Montgomery, 23 November 1901, in CJLMM, 2: 33.

  174 This entry appears with only minor variations in Montgomery, 8 December 1901, in CJLMM, 2: 37.

  175 Samples from this assignment appear as “Christmas Shopping in Halifax Stores” earlier in this volume.

  176 This entry appears with only minor variations in Montgomery, 12 December 1901, in CJLMM, 2: 37.

  177 Bon Marche Milliners was located in what is now the Colwell Building, built in 1871, at 1673 Barrington Street.

  178 An allusion to Galatians 6:9 (KJV): “And let us not be weary in well doing.”

  179 This entry appears with minor variations in Montgomery, 20 December 1901, in CJLMM, 2: 38.

  180 The full text of “A Royal Betrothal” appeared in the Morning Chronicle, the counterpart of the Halifax Daily Echo, on 21 December 1901 (a day after the date of this entry). Montgomery would reuse this experience in Emily’s Quest, except that later the author of the story tracks Emily down and promptly falls in love with her (EQ, 179–87).

  181 The phrase “stranger in a strange land” alludes to Exodus 2:22 (KJV).

  182 In her journal, where this entry appears with only minor variations, “B.” is identified as Bertha Clark, who had been the housekeeper at the Halifax Ladies’ College, where Montgomery had lived during her year at Dalhousie University in 1895–1896. It is with Bertha’s brother, Worth, however, that Montgomery went to see The Little Minister, a play based on the novel of the same title by Barrie, and there is no mention in the journal entry of her having to write a revi
ew of the play for the Morning Chronicle. Searches for this review in both newspapers in the days following the date of this journal entry were unsuccessful. See Montgomery, 27 December 1901, in CJLMM, 2: 39–40.

  183 Most of this entry appears with only minor variations in Montgomery, 29 March 1902, in CJLMM, 2: 50–51, except for the last two sentences, which appear in Montgomery, 12 April 1902, in CJLMM, 2: 52. In her journal, however, the phrase “blameless rhymes” is replaced with “Sunday schooly rhymes” (Montgomery, 29 March 1902, in CJLMM, 2: 50). For the origins of the term “filthy lucre,” see “The Alpine Path,” note 151, above.

  184 The Anglo-Irish expression “bad ’cess to him” means “bad luck to, evil befall” (OED).

  185 My searches for this item in the microfilm copies of the Halifax Daily Echo and the Morning Chronicle as well as in Montgomery’s scrapbooks were unsuccessful.

  186 Otherwise known as Palm Sunday, Palmday refers to the Sunday preceding Easter in the Christian calendar. As implied in the preceding journal extract, however, Easter in 1902 fell on 30 March, whereas this entry appears with minor variations in Montgomery, 4 May 1902, in CJLMM, 2: 53. Missing from this excerpt are two sentences in which Montgomery announced her plans to return to Cavendish at the end of the month.

  187 This unsigned work of fiction ran in the Halifax Daily Echo from 18 March to 29 May 1902.

  188 Founded in Chicago in 1882, the American Press Association provides ready-to-print journalistic materials to smaller newspapers across North America.

  189 This journal entry and the one that follows appear with only minor variations in Emily Climbs, in which Emily likewise is asked to cut ruthlessly the text of “a sensational and sentimental English novel” entitled A Bleeding Heart, with the same amusing result (see EC, 249, 252).

  190 In Montgomery’s journal entry, dated 20 May instead of 31 May 1902, it was a new member of staff who said this to her; it was not a conversation between two people that she overheard. Her journal entry dated 31 May 1902 concerns her final day at the office. See Montgomery, 20 May 1902, in CJLMM, 2: 54; Montgomery, 31 May 1902, in CJLMM, 2: 55. Chapter 7 of the 1974 book version of “The Alpine Path” ends here.

  191 Montgomery’s description of the writing process of Anne of Green Gables appeared elsewhere in similar form. See, for instance, Montgomery, 16 August 1907, in CJLMM, 2: 171–72; Montgomery, “An Autobiographical Sketch,” 257.

  192 In her journal, in which this description of the genesis of Anne of Green Gables is narrated in almost identical form, Montgomery recorded her recollection that she had found the kernel of the story in her notebook of ideas “two years ago in the spring of 1905” (Montgomery, 16 August 1907, in CJLMM, 2: 171; see also Montgomery, 18 April 1914, in LMMCJ, 1: 156).

  193 This is evidently an allusion to Montgomery’s own 1915 essay “The Way to Make a Book” (139), where an earlier version of this paragraph appears. She returns to this notion in “‘I Dwell among My Own People,’” an essay published around 1921; both essays appear in Volume 1 of The L.M. Montgomery Reader.

  194 The model for Peg Bowen, Mag Laird, was mentioned earlier in this memoir. The expression “to paint the lily,” meaning “to embellish excessively, to add ornament where none is necessary” (OED), can be traced to Shakespeare’s King John (1623).

  195 Montgomery’s details about characters and settings in her books appear in more elaborate form, in a different order, and with minor variations in Montgomery, 27 January 1911, in CJLMM, 2: 348–54. In her journals, it was certain details about the Cuthbert yard that were “transplanted from the estates of my castle in Spain,” whereas the White Way of Delight, Willowmere (not “Wiltonmere” as stated here), and Violet Vale were deemed products of her imagination (see Montgomery, 27 January 1911, in CJLMM, 2: 349, 350, 354). For more on the “castle in Spain,” see “Around the Table,” note 225, above.

  196 “Lovers’ Lane,” also known as “Lover’s Lane,” a stretch of woods near the farm on which Montgomery drew to an extent for the original of Green Gables; she referred to it as “my favourite object in Nature” (Montgomery, 15 April 1914, in LMMCJ, 1: 153). Montgomery’s poem “In Lovers’ Lane” had appeared in The Delineator in 1903, and this place is also referenced in Anne of Green Gables and its sequels as well as in The Blue Castle. They also inspired four nature essays that Montgomery had published in 1911 and that appear in Volume 1 of The L.M. Montgomery Reader as “[Seasons in the Woods].”

  197 These descriptions of Katie Maurice and Lucy Gray appear with only minor variations in Montgomery, 26 March 1905, in CJLMM, 2: 127.

  198 “Lucy Gray, or Solitude” (1799), a poem by Wordsworth.

  199 The fourth instalment of the 1917 version of “The Alpine Path” ends here.

  200 For the origins of the “new-fangled flavouring” story, see “Around the Table,” note 260, above.

  201 Montgomery’s account of finding a publisher for Anne of Green Gables appears with minor variations in Montgomery, 16 August 1907, in CJLMM, 2: 172–73.

  202 In her journal, Montgomery identified this publisher as the Bobbs-Merrill Company of Indianapolis, which, although founded in 1850, had been rebranded as Bobbs-Merrill in 1903 (see Montgomery, 16 August 1907, in CJLMM, 2: 172).

  203 According to her journal, the established firm was the Macmillan Company of New York, founded in 1843.

  204 The idiomatic expression “damn with faint praise,” referring to praise that is so lukewarm that it comes across as insincere, originates in “Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot,” a satirical poem by Alexander Pope (1688–1744), English poet.

  205 Here, this record departs from the version in Montgomery’s journals, in which she mentioned only one “betwixt and between firm” (Lothrop, Lee and Shephard of Boston) and then a fourth firm, Henry Holt Company of New York, which sent the “damned with faint praise” note (see Montgomery, 16 August 1907, in CJLMM, 2: 172).

  206 Compare this with the version in Montgomery’s journal: “The book may or may not sell well. I wrote it for love, not money – but very often such books are the most successful – just as everything in life that is born of true love is better than something constructed for mercenary ends” (Montgomery, 16 August 1907, in CJLMM, 2: 173). This paragraph is followed by one in which Montgomery writes dubiously about her publisher, L.C. Page and Company, and her displeasure at her royalty rate, which was far below industry standards.

  207 Montgomery’s stated surprise that her book appealed to such a diverse readership was one of her set phrases for the conclusion to her “how I began” narratives; see, for instance, Montgomery, “An Autobiographical Sketch,” 257–58.

  208 Likely a reference to Kenneth Cruit, a young English soldier whom Montgomery mentioned in Montgomery, 3 February 1917, in LMMCJ, 1: 280.

  209 This entry appears in slightly different form – minus the Scottish phrase “spleet-new” – in Montgomery, 20 June 1908, in CJLMM, 2: 192. The term “spleet-new” also appears in a similar description of Emily Starr’s receipt of her first published book in Emily’s Quest (see EQ, 232).

  210 These anecdotes appear in similar form in Montgomery to Weber, 2 September 1909, in GGL, 93, and in Montgomery, “Bits from My Mailbag,” 186–87.

  211 Anne på Grönkulla, translated by Karin Lidforss Jensen, was published in Swedish in 1909; In Veilige Haven, translated by Betsy de Vries, was published in Dutch in 1910. Montgomery’s comments on the cover art for the Swedish edition of Anne of Green Gables appear in different form in Montgomery, 19 March 1910, in CJLMM, 2: 290.

  212 “Una of the Garden” appeared in five instalments in the Minneapolis magazine The Housekeeper between December 1908 and April 1909; its date of composition is unknown. See also “A Canadian Novelist,” 106.

  213 These details about The Story Girl appear in longer form and with only minor variations in Montgomery, 23 May 1911, in CJLMM, 2: 404–6.

  214 Montgomery appears to have overlooked that she already identified the origin of Peg Bowen as Mag Lai
rd earlier in this autobiography. Parts of this description of Peg appear with minor variations in The Golden Road (see GR, 245). This account of the origins of Peg Bowen appears with only minor variations as part of a journal entry detailing many of the sources of The Story Girl, including the courtship of her Penman ancestors and “the story of the captain of the Fanny,” which she narrates near the beginning of this autobiography. See Montgomery, 23 May 1911, in CJLMM, 2: 404–5.

  215 See her similar telling of this story in Montgomery’s journals, in which she identified the source of this story as a “Mrs. Boswell” of Hampton immediately after narrating the courtship of her Penman ancestors (Montgomery, 23 May 1911, in CJLMM, 2: 405).

  216 Scotch expression referring to a narrative that is completely true, as opposed to most tales, which are presumed to be fictitious.

  217 In The Story Girl, Sara Stanley tells the story of Rachel Ward, who packed up all her wedding trousseau and gifts into a trunk after her fiancé had run away the morning of the wedding ceremony and who then left the island and took the key with her; at the end of the book, her trunk is opened after her death (SG, 127–31, 354–63).

  218 Chapter 8 of the 1974 book version of “The Alpine Path” ends here.

  219 I have amended the dates of the seven journal entries included here, all of which read “1912” instead of “1911”; the 1974 book version of “The Alpine Path” retains the erroneous dates but notes the error in its unsigned preface. The version of this entry in Montgomery’s journal begins with the header “St. Enoch’s Hotel, Glasgow” (Montgomery, 20 July 1911, in LMMCJ, 1: 3), and this entry is preceded by entries describing their time in Chester (near the Welsh border), Glasgow, and Liverpool.

  220 This first paragraph appears in slightly different form in Montgomery, 22 July 1911, in SJLMM, 2: 70; the rest of this entry was cut by editors Rubio and Waterston, who refer to Oban, Staffa, and Iona as “a village, and islands, in the west of Scotland described in Walter Scott’s Lord of the Isles (1804)” (Rubio and Waterston, in SJLMM, 2: 411).