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As I've been reading Volume I of Lucy Maud Montgomery's journals, I've been underlining quotes that I've found especially interesting, insightful, and fun. I've been sharing them on Facebook and Twitter but realized readers here might like to read them, too. Here's a glimpse into Maud's thoughts from ages fourteen to twenty. Be sure to return Monday, 25 February to discuss Volume I!
12/2/1889
Miss Gordon looked rather blank. I think she had been expecting to hear that Nate and I broke all the ten commandments all at once every day.
3/4/1890
I thought Jack was killed but when he picked himself up with a real live “cuss word” I concluded he wasn’t. But his face was all spattered with soot and he did look so funny.
10/20/1890
(Very Anne-ish): Today I got a letter from home with some pressed flowers in it. It just seemed as if they spoke to me and whispered a lovely message of a far-off land where blue skies are bending over maple-crimsoned hills and spruce glens are still green and dim in their balsamic recesses.
6/6/1891
Mustard a minister!! Oh Lordy--how it will sound--Rev. Mr. Mustard.
10/4/1891
I must have some duck in my composition for I always love to be out in a rainstorm.
9/1/1892
Grandpa stayed home to look after us all. He told the boys that they could fight the whole evening, if they wanted to. ...Well and Dave were black and blue for a week but they had had the time of their lives. I’m sure they wished Grace Macneill could have got married nightly.
1/12/1983
Books are a delightful world in themselves. Their characters seem as real to me as my friends of actual life.
9/28/1983
Oh, I wonder if I shall ever be able to do anything worth while in the way of writing. It is my dearest ambition.
9/6/1984
I may be teaching my pupils something but they are teaching me more -- whole tomes of wisdom.
9/18/1894
It is a regular fall rain now -- a night wild enough to suit any novelist in search of suitable weather for a murder or elopement.
12/15/1894
Well, my goodness! -- or somebody else’s goodness if mine isn’t substantial enough!
11 Comments on L. M. Montgomery in Her Own Words: 1889-1894, last added: 2/16/2013
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I wish I had said, "Well, my goodness! -- or somebody else’s goodness if mine isn’t substantial enough!"
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Yes!
I love LM Montgomery. I've read her those journals of her life and I loved them. They read just like her novels. The later volumes are harder because of the things she goes through, but they are still gems. She was an amazing writer. I love all of her books.
Another LMM fan who has read the journals! Those later ones are harder. In re-reading the first, I'm struck again by just how difficult her life became. But they all are so rich. The honesty makes her books that much more special, I think.
Come back to discuss on the 25th, even if you haven't re-read recently!
I'm going a little slow right now...only about a third of the way through. I just love her sense of humor--even in the "depths of despair" she had the humility to laugh about things afterwards!
So wonderful! I loved the Anne books so much as a kid that I read them over and over again. I think I read the series a dozen times by the time I was twelve. How amazing to see into Montgomery's head and glimpse the parallels she and Anne shared in personality. Thanks, Caroline! <3
She was so funny! This read through is reminding me of that. I've been a bit slow, too. I think it's because my first time through I had babies to nurse (which meant lots of good reading time).
Jackee! Come read with us!
Caroline, I just wanted to say thank you so much for your comment on Writer Unboxed today. Love and prayers to you. And I may have to join your read-along, because L M Montgomery is hands down my absolute favorite writer of all time. I read every single one of her books and short stories when I was a teenager--so many times I still have whole stretches of her writing memorized--and yet somehow I never read her journals. Time to remedy that, I'd say!
And I thank you for your post today. I'd absolutely love for you to join us. When I was a teen, a friend sent me home over summer break with two bags of books filled with the LLM books I'd missed in middle school. It was bliss.
It might take a while to track down the journals (if you're in a big city, your library might have them), but they are so very worth it. The reading schedule is set up to give you time to read (we'll discuss each of the five volumes every other month). Let me know if you need more information!