Mary Henley Rubio has spent over two decades researching Montgomery's life, and has put together a comprehensive and penetrating picture of this Canadian literary icon, all set in rich social context. Extensive interviews with people who knew Montgomery - her son, maids, friends, relatives, all now deceased - are only part of the material gathered in a journey to understand Montgomery that took Rubio to Poland and the highlands of Scotland. From Montgomery's apparently idyllic childhood in Prince Edward Island to her passion-filled adolescence and young adulthood, to her legal fights as world-famous author, to her shattering experiences with motherhood and as wife to a deeply troubled man, this fascinating, intimate narrative of her life will engage and delight.
The first edition of The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery was published in the 1980s, with fifty percent of the material removed to save space, as well as to reflect a quaint, marketable vision of small-town Canada. The editors were instructed to excise anything that was not upbeat or did not "move the story along." The resulting account of Montgomery's youthful life in Prince Edward Island depicts a fun-loving, simple country girl. The unabridged journal, however, reveals something quite different. We now know that Montgomery was anything but simple. She was often anxious, bitter, dark, and political, although always able to see herself and her surroundings with a deep ironic - and often comical - twist. The unabridged version shows her using writing as a means of managing her own mood swings, as well as her increasing dependency on journal keeping, and her ambition as a writer. She was also exceedingly interested in men. We see here a more developed portrait of what she herself described as a "very uncomfortable blend" between "the passionate Montgomery blood and the Puritan Macneill conscience." Full details describe the impassioned events during which she describes becoming a "new creature," "born of sorrow ... and hopeless longing." In addition, this unedited account is a striking visual record, containing 226 of her own photographs placed as she placed them in her journals, as well as newspaper clippings, postcards, and professional portraits, all with her own original captions. New notes and a new introduction give key context to the history, the people, and the culture in the text. A new preface by Michael Bliss draws some unexpected connections. Available for the first time in paperback, the full PEI journals tells a fascinating tale of a young woman coming of age in a bygone rural Canada, a tale far thornier and far more compelling than the first selected edition could disclose.
L.M. Montgomery (1874-1942) had begun keeping a private journal before she turned fifteen. From 1918 onward, she had carefully copied out her entries. She intended this detailed life record to be published posthumously. Montgomery's long-hidden version of her early life emerged as the bestselling Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volumes I-V, first published in 1985. Twenty-five years ago, it seemed prudent to offer a tightly organized book with a strong central narrative, but this decision meant setting aside many entries on her personal tastes, her effusions over landscape, and her increasing bouts of depression. L.M. Montgomery's record of her life is published now for the first time without abridgement. The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The P.E.I. Years, 1889-1900 was published in early 2012 to much acclaim. This second book, covering the years 1901 to 1911, continues to provide a more comprehensive portrait of Montgomery's life in PEI than has ever been available before. This publication covers Montgomery's early adult years, including her work as a newspaper editor in Halifax, Nova Scotia; her publishing career taking flight; the death of her grandmother; and her forthcoming marriage to a local clergyman. It also documents her own reflections on writing, her increasingly problematic mood swings and feelings of isolation, and her changing relationship with the world around her, particularly that of Prince Edward Island. Available for the first time in paperback, this new edition recreates the format Montgomery herself devised. Over 300 of her photographs, newspaper clippings, postcards, and professional portraits are reproduced, all with Montgomery's original placement and captions.
The life of pioneering Jamaican nurse Mary Seacole gets its dramatic due in a sweeping and stunning biography. Mary Seacole spent much of her life on the front lines of the Crimean War, ministering to the wounded, caring for soldiers, and making her mark on the world of medicine. This fascinating biography honors Mary Seacole's life, from her childhood in Kingston, Jamaica, and her encounters with racist Americans to her treatment of cholera patients in Panama and her bitter run-in with Florence Nightingale, who declined to work with her in Crimea because she wasn't white. But Mary Seacole knew that the sick and wounded needed her compassion and care, and despite all obstacles, she answered the call to help them. Author Susan Goldman Rubin gives voice to this fearless nurse and healer through captivating details drawn from Mary Seacole's own writings, while debut illustrator Richie Pope vividly captures her service at the bedside and on the battlefield. Inspiring and engaging, this biography introduces a compelling heroine who rose above barriers to earn a place in history.
The true story of Mary Seacole, the "Celebrated Heroine of the Crimean War".Over two hundred years ago in Kingston, Jamaica, a little girl called Mary watched as her mother selected a bottle of medicine for a sick British soldier. This marked the beginning of Mary Seacole's passion for nursing, which would go on to shape the rest of her life. As a young woman, she would have to overcome personal tragedy – the sudden loss of her mother and husband – and prejudice from her peers to reach the battlefields of the Crimean War, nursing soldiers back to health and even carrying them from the midst of the fighting. With words by Susan Goldman Rubin and lively illustrations by Richie Pope, this is the true story of the "Celebrated Heroine of the Crimean War".
