Anne of Green Gables: The Original Manuscript
Anne of Green Gables: The Original Manuscript
According to L. M. Montgomery’s journal, it took about eight months to write Anne of Green Gables (from the spring of 1905 until January 1906). She wrote it longhand, with a pen that had to be dipped in ink every few lines. The manuscript-well over one hundred years old now- is still in existence and kept in the archives at the Confederation Centre for the Arts in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. For the first time since Anne of Green Gables was published in 1908, Montgomery’s manuscript is published here in its original form, transcribed from Montgomery’s pen-and-ink copy, with its revisions, additions, and “notes”.
Many of her pages have changes, additions, blots and oddities; other pages seem to have been recopied, as they are “clean,” with only a few added notes or corrections, and the handwriting is very even. (It is well known that Montgomery frequently recopied pages of her work, even her journals, to make them more legible.) Montgomery used her handwritten copy to type the novel to send to publishers, and kept the original all of her life. Montgomery’s typed copy of the manuscript, sent to the L.C. Page Co. in 1907, has been lost.
This latest version of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s much-loved classic is more than just a beautiful new edition (although it is also that!). Anne of Green Gables: The Original Manuscript provides readers with an intimate look at the story as it came into being and into the mind and heart of its creator. Editor Carolyn Strom Collins has painstakingly assembled all of Montgomery’s own corrections and revisions, her notes and additions as well as words and phrases that were scratched out and/or replaced, and has incorporated them into this volume in a way that is clear and easy to follow. With the author’s actual handwritten manuscript as her reference point, Strom Collins has gathered all of the many changes that Montgomery made to her own manuscript before she typed it and sent it to publishers. In her introduction, Strom Collins gives a detailed description of how LMM, herself, handled many of the additions and insertions she made, explaining how she had more than a hundred pages of notes at the end of the manuscript. Here, in this book, the editor brings those notes to the appropriate pages so that readers can see all of Montgomery’s additions, deletions and changes on each page as they read. Copies of LMM’s corresponding handwritten page are included at the beginning of each chapter, and the book also features floral images scattered throughout that come from Maud’s scrapbooks.
From cover to cover, every single page of this book is a treasure! Even for fans who have read the book numerous times and who are well-acquainted with Montgomery’s journals and other books by and about her, this book is unique and special. Bringing together the text of Anne with scans of Maud’s handwritten pages and with all of her own revisions gives the book an intimate feel, providing readers with a revelatory glimpse into the mind of Montgomery, herself. This reader was fascinated to see what parts were added or inserted into the text after the fact, to note how many of the descriptive phrases and paragraphs that I cherish were later additions. Seeing the crossed out words and their replacements also helps readers to see the true process of bringing a book into being, how the author shapes and refines their work before finally deeming it ready to send out into the world and how this author, in particular, truly considered, and re-considered, each and every word.
While this level of detail might be overwhelming to a first-time reader of Anne of Green Gables, Montgomery’s countless fans from all over the world will consider this a gift, an opportunity to gain further insight into the creation of the book as well as its creator. The editor has done an outstanding job of bringing together these details and sharing them in a meaningful way, and the publisher is to be commended for the beautiful design of the book and the thoughtful attention to detail (including pages at the front and back that feature early editions of Anne as well as foreign editions). Anne of Green Gables: The Original Manuscript feels as though it has been lovingly produced, with great care and consideration for those who hold LMM and her work dear.
Lisa is Co-Manager of Woozles Children’s Bookstore in Halifax, Nova Scotia.