Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

RITA BODE AND LESLEY D. CLEMENT

Prologue

1Leaskdale: L.M. Montgomery’s Rainbow Valley

ELIZABETH WATERSTON

A New Home in Leaskdale: War and Religion

2“To the Memory of”: Leaskdale and Loss in the Great War

MARY BETH CAVERT

3“Being a Christian” and a Presbyterian in Leaskdale

MARGARET STEFFLER

The Changing World of Women: Mother, Daughter, Friend

4“A Gift for Friendship”: Revolutionary Friendship in Anne of the Island and The Blue Castle

LAURA M. ROBINSON

5The New Mother at Home: Montgomery’s Literary Explorations of Motherhood

CAROLINE E. JONES

Shadows in Rainbow Valley: Loss and Grief

6The Shadow on the House of Dreams: Montgomery’s Re-Visioning of Anne

WILLIAM V. THOMPSON

7“My Pen Shall Heal, Not Hurt”: Writing as Therapy in Rilla of Ingleside and The Blythes Are Quoted

MELANIE J. FISHBANE

Interlude

L.M.M.

KATHERINE CAMERON

A Sense of Place: Reading and Writing

8Old Years and Old Books: Montgomery’s Ontario Reading and Self-Fashioning

EMILY WOSTER

9(Re)Locating Montgomery: Prince Edward Island Romance to Southern Ontario Gothic

NATALIE FOREST

Travels to Muskoka: Commodification and Tourism

10Propriety and the Proprietary: The Commodification of Health and Nature in The Blue Castle

E. HOLLY PIKE

11Bala and The Blue Castle: The “Spirit of Muskoka” and the Tourist Gaze

LINDA RODENBURG

Life in Toronto: Professional and Cultural Links

12Advocating for Authors and Battling Critics in Toronto: Montgomery and the Canadian Authors Association

KATE SUTHERLAND

13Toronto’s Cultural Scene: Tonic or Toxin for a Sagged Soul?

LESLEY D. CLEMENT

Epilogue

14Dear Grandmother Maud on the Road to Heaven

KATE MACDONALD BUTLER

Appendix

Montgomery’s Ontario Legacies: A Community Presence in the Twenty-First Century

RITA BODE AND LESLEY D. CLEMENT WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF KRISTINA ELDRIDGE AND CHLOE VERNER

Notes

Bibliography

Contributors

Index