Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories, 1909 to 1922

Between 1909 and 1922, L. M. Montgomery placed dozens of short stories in North American magazines and family periodicals, and this volume gathers that scattered work into a single collection of twenty-seven pieces. Most lean toward romance, reconciliation, and quiet domestic comedy, set among the farms, villages, and shorelines of Montgomery’s native Maritime Canada. In one story, “A Golden Wedding,” a man returns home to find his elderly relatives living in a poorhouse and sets about giving them the anniversary they were denied. The characters tend to be ordinary people caught in small crises of pride, love, or family duty. For readers who know Montgomery only through Anne of Green Gables, the book reveals the working magazine writer behind the famous novels and preserves fiction that would otherwise stay buried in old periodical files.