Canadian Author Challenge — July: LM Montgomery & Pierre Berton

July authors:

LM Montgomery
Pierre Berton

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Photo from http://www.adirondackvic.org

Lucy Maud Montgomery (born at Clifton, Prince Edward Island 30 Nov 1874; died in Toronto 24 Apr 1942) published her first novel, Anne of Green Gables, in 1908. The book became an instant bestseller in Canada and the US, and has remained in print for nearly a century in English as well as in numerous translations. Although Montgomery was 34 when Anne of Green Gables appeared, she had been writing short stories and poems since her mid-teens, selling them for many years with considerable success to magazines in North America. By the time she died, Montgomery had published 22 novels and books of short stories, in addition to one book of poetry (The Watchman, and Other Poems in 1916); a brief autobiographical account (The Alpine Path: the Story of My Career in 1917); and the many and still incompletely catalogued poems, stories, and articles she wrote for magazines throughout her whole life.

Montgomery became an astute businesswoman, managing what was remarkable for a woman writer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries: to ensure a reasonably stable and solid income from her work. She did, however, have considerable artistic anxiety early in her career and throughout her life. She felt that her work was perceived to be less literary and less modern than the writing of many of her contemporaries, something even her extraordinary international popularity did little to assuage. She was also disappointed that her poetry, which she continued to write and publish for her whole life, was not taken as seriously as her fiction. Montgomery herself considered her poetry to be more significant than the novels she sometimes characterized as "potboilers."

Her international fame and Prince Edward Island on the literary map. Anne of Green Gables was sent to Polish WWII soldiers on the front, while post-war Japan turned to Montgomery’s novels for lessons in optimism.

From http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca and http://extraordinarycanadians.tv

Pierre Francis de Marigny Berton (born at Whitehorse, Yukon 12 July 1920; died at Toronto, Ont 30 Nov 2004) was a journalist, historian and media personality . An accomplished storyteller, Berton was one of Canada's most prolific and popular authors. He wrote on popular culture, Canadian history, critiques of mainstream religion, anthologies, children's books and historical works for youth. He was also a founder of the Writers' Trust of Canada, a non-profit literary organization that seeks to encourage Canada's writing community. Berton's 50 books became popular because his light and fast-paced style was not weighted down by footnotes or deep probes into primary sources. Historian C.P. Stacey in 1980, said Berton demonstrated his skill as an anecdotalist, or storyteller, who emphasized the human dimension, while often overlooking the scholarship.

"Probably the most famous line Pierre Berton never wrote was the definition of a Canadian as someone who can make love in a canoe". The line is attributed to Berton in the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, as well as Colombo's Canadian Quotations, but it turns out, at least according to Brian McKillop's biography of Berton, that the legendary British Columbia newspaperwoman Ma Murray may well have said it first.

If Berton did not write the canoe quip, it was just about the only thing that he didn't write. McKillop's book, Pierre Berton: A Biography, makes clear that Berton was prolific to the point of incontinence. At one point during the 1960s, he was writing a daily newspaper column for the Toronto Star, starring in his own television interview show, appearing weekly as a panelist on the quiz show Front Page Challenge and daily on radio with a brief opinion piece, as well as producing a book a year. The most astonishing example of his productivity? He wrote the first draft of his railway history, The National Dream, in a month, the time it takes most authors to organize their thoughts. When the CBC turned his railway books into a historical docudrama, Berton himself was the presenter. He once had three books on the bestseller list at the same time, and periodically he dropped by Rideau Hall to pick up another Governor General's Award ( for The Last Spike, 1972; Klondike, 1958; and The Mysterious North, 1956).

From wikipedia and http://thetyee.ca

Next one's all yours! Tell us what you plan on reading this month, and if you've read anything by either author, do share your experience here!

Definitely a reread of an Anne novel for me. I've picked them up in different places and times in my life and always found them a gentle, engaging read.

Sounds like Montgomery and Louisa May Alcott had the same problem. Alcott believed that Little Women and its sequels were not her best work and weren't "literature."

I'm also going for the re-read of Anne of Green Gables. I read everything by Montgomery in the late 80s/early 90s along with a lot of works either about her or her works. I was obsessed then!

I plan on reading one of Pierre Berton's books which I have on my shelves. I have 5 of them and haven't read any yet. I am debating between The Promised Land: Settling the West or The Great Depression.

I'm going to try and do a Montgomery book before the end of the month. Even tho I'm a guy I loved the Anne books and read the first 5 or 6 when my wife and I got hooked on the Anne TV series and followup Avonlea in the 80's. I think I'd feel lost trying to read one of the later Avonlea books after so many years so I'll give a try to one of the solo ones like Jane of Lantern Hill or possibly Akin to Anne which I saw at the library recently. Then again I can always re-read Anne of Green Gables!

I've read nearly everything by Montgomery (it's the law if you live on PEI, lol) at least once. I prefer Anne to Emily, but Blue Castle is the best.

Last summer I started listening to the Anne books on audio, the ones I could get. July seemed perfect to listen to Rilla of Ingleside. There is very little Anne, and it tells the story of life on the home front in PEI during WW1.

I have found the audiobooks have been a wonderful way to appreciate the Anne story all over again. The only problem is the pronunciation of some local names, especially Clow which should rhyme with 'low' not 'cow'.

I enjoyed my read of Jane of Lantern Hill.

I read Some of the Green Gable series when I was young and don't see myself going back for rereads now. Although I do have a recently acquired book called Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson. I hope to get to this one sooner rather than later. I couldn't resist buying this one when I saw it.

I also know I have read some of Pierre Burton's vast work, though I can't recall which titles. It was a long time ago. But funnily enough, a book that stands out in my memory is one written by his mother, Laura Burton, called I Married the Klondike, about her life and, of course, Pierre's early life.

I am not sure that I will get through Pierre Berton's The Promised Land: Settling the West 1896-1914 by the end of the month. I have a lot of Berton's works on my shelves but have never read any of them. I am interested in this time period because of my families trek west from Ontario which started around 1907. Then there was my grandfather who immigrated from England to Saskatchewan in 1911. I am interested to see how those immigrants were viewed.

Aha! I knew I had read something by Berton but couldn't remember exactly what. I was browsing back through my little notebooks that I keep (I always write down authors and titles, to help me remember!) and found that I had read his biography called The Dionne Years about the Dionne Quintuplets. I was fascinated by it. Such a sad story, really. I suspect that even though human nature probably stays essentially the same, to a degree, their whole lives might have been handled differently had they been born today rather than back in the 1930s.

>14 jessibud2: My father is mentioned in that book as he was the resident pediatrician who was part of the team from "Sick Kids Hospital" in Toronto who looked after the newborn Dionne babies. I wish now that I had asked him more questions about his experience!

Well, I read Anne of Green Gables this month, and very glad I did! I wasn't so keen on it initially, thinking it might prove too sickly-sweet for my liking, but of course that was not the case. I was needing some comfort reading when I picked it up, disgusted as I am by the current political happenings south of us (I should say, disgusted by all the exposure Donald Trump is getting) and this book offered comfort in droves. Now I'm keen on pursuing the series, because Anne is such a wonderful character that I'm eager to find out how she evolves over time.

Didn't manage to fit in Berton, but I've got his Klondike book out from the library and may pick it up sometime in the next couple of months.

>15 mdoris: That sounds really neat. It must have been fascinating for him.

>16 Smiler69: I'm glad you liked Anne of Green Gables.

>17 thornton37814: I now count it among my favourite children's/YA books!

>15 mdoris: very cool. The Dionne story is so sad.

>16 Smiler69: I read and reread Anne as a teen, the whole series, and have such love for it. Reading beloved books for the first time as an adult can be disappointing and I worry about how people will receive Anne. I am so pleased you enjoyed the book. They really are delightful. And for me reading as an adult, I see Marilla in such a different light!
Come to PEI and see how wonderful it really is!

>19 raidergirl3: Agreed, very very sad! The pictures of those little girls on display with throngs of people gawking at them is just so appalling with the 'nurses' in their stiff white uniforms.
Searched the web and here's a picture of my dad (on the left) with Dr. Dafoe with one of the babies.

I haven't kept up with all the CAC authors, but I was able to enjoy both of July's authors in August.



Pierre Berton's The Great Lakes is a stunning, large-format coffee table book, with fabulous archival photographs and contemporary photographs by Andre Gallant. As a Chicagoan, Lake Michigan is my backyard. Berton takes us to all 5 lakes: through the history, commerce, great disasters, recreation, environment and future of the lakes from both sides of the border. Written in the 1990's, it could use some updating from the last 20 years, but overall still a lovely look at one of the greatest resources shared by Canada and the U.S.A.



Listening to the audiobook of Anne of Green Gables was such a pleasure--I really didn't want it to end! Yes, Anne is over-the-top excited about everything, but in many ways it reminded me of how I take so many things for granted. Anne was thrilled by the smallest pleasure--just a stretch of lovely green space let her imagination run wild. In fact, after reading these two books, I spent some hours at Lake Michigan, using my "imagination" and taking in the silvery waters that I often take for granted.

>21 kac522: Thanks so much for sharing your impressions on these books. I still need to read Berton, and looking forward to discovering Anne's further adventures.

It took me a while but I finally finished The Promised Land: Settling the West 1896-1914 for this challenge. This is the first book by Pierre Berton that I have read although I have a number on my shelves. I look forward to reading another of them soon.