About the L.M. Montgomery Literary Society - LMMLS
and The Shining Scroll Periodical
Mary Beth Cavert
WELCOME!
The L.M. Montgomery Literary Society was organized in 1991 by Carolyn Strom Collins and Christina Wyss Eriksson after the publication of their first collaboration, The Anne of Green Gables Treasury. The first meeting of the local group was held on Montgomery’s birthdate, November 30, at the Children’s Literature Research Collections at the University of Minnesota. About thirty people shared their interest in Montgomery’s work and examined the collection of Montgomery books in the Kerlan Collection.
Since 1991, the internet has made it possible to open this community - the LMMLS today is comprised of everyone who has an interest in the author and follows the L.M. Montgomery Literary Society on social media accounts. The focus of these accounts is to highlight the words and work of Montgomery and educate readers about her life.
Look for posts on Instagram, Threads, and @LMMontgomeryLS on Facebook and Twitter, links are in the upper corner of this page. For questions, use the email link at the top of the page. This website and all social media accounts are written and published by Mary Beth Cavert. Join our founding members at the Montgomery conferences on Prince Edward Island and Ontario.
Founding members of the LMMLS, Carolyn Collins and Mary Beth Cavert,
received the L.M. Montgomery Legacy Award from the L.M. Montgomery Institute in 2020.
Past Activities of the LMMLS [pdf]
THE SHINING SCROLL PERIODICAL
Mary Beth Cavert was invited to edit and publish a newsletter for the L.M. Montgomery Literary Society in February 1992 and it was named The Shining Scroll, after a line in the poem The Fringed Gentian that inspired Montgomery to persevere in her dream of becoming a successful writer. The Scroll has expanded from a simple newsletter to a highly respected extensive periodical containing original research, context, background information about the author and her work, information on events and locations connected to the author's life, and new publications. You can read about the LMMLS as a research hub in the Preface of the 2014 edition of The Fragrance of Sweet-Grass: L.M. Montgomery's Heroines and the Pursuit of Romance by Dr. Elizabeth Rollins Epperly. The Shining Scroll, is published "in-house." (Carolyn Collins suggests that an appropriate gesture of appreciation is to donate to The Friends of the L.M. Montgomery Institute.)
Carol Gaboury, a member of our local literary society until her death in 1998, identified the source of the poem,
The Fringed Gentian, which was first mentioned in the Winter 1989 issue of Kindred Spirits Newsletter of Vermont.
It was published in Godey's Lady's Book in March 1884 as part of a continued story called Tam, the Story of a Woman by Ella Rodman Church and Augusta De Bubna. Montgomery used the words "Alpine Path" as the title for her autobiography, published in Everywoman's World (1917). The original clipping of the poem is in her scrapbooks. The last verse of the poem:
Then whisper blossom, in thy sleep,
How may I upward climb
The Alpine path so hard, so steep,
That leads to heights sublime?
How may I reach that far-off goal
Of true and honored fame,
To write upon its shining scroll
A woman's humble name?
Full Text of Poem p. 237
The L.M. Montgomery Literary Society was organized in 1991 by Carolyn Strom Collins and Christina Wyss Eriksson after the publication of their first collaboration, The Anne of Green Gables Treasury. The first meeting of the local group was held on Montgomery’s birthdate, November 30, at the Children’s Literature Research Collections at the University of Minnesota. About thirty people shared their interest in Montgomery’s work and examined the collection of Montgomery books in the Kerlan Collection.
Since 1991, the internet has made it possible to open this community - the LMMLS today is comprised of everyone who has an interest in the author and follows the L.M. Montgomery Literary Society on social media accounts. The focus of these accounts is to highlight the words and work of Montgomery and educate readers about her life.
Look for posts on Instagram, Threads, and @LMMontgomeryLS on Facebook and Twitter, links are in the upper corner of this page. For questions, use the email link at the top of the page. This website and all social media accounts are written and published by Mary Beth Cavert. Join our founding members at the Montgomery conferences on Prince Edward Island and Ontario.
Founding members of the LMMLS, Carolyn Collins and Mary Beth Cavert,
received the L.M. Montgomery Legacy Award from the L.M. Montgomery Institute in 2020.
Past Activities of the LMMLS [pdf]
THE SHINING SCROLL PERIODICAL
Mary Beth Cavert was invited to edit and publish a newsletter for the L.M. Montgomery Literary Society in February 1992 and it was named The Shining Scroll, after a line in the poem The Fringed Gentian that inspired Montgomery to persevere in her dream of becoming a successful writer. The Scroll has expanded from a simple newsletter to a highly respected extensive periodical containing original research, context, background information about the author and her work, information on events and locations connected to the author's life, and new publications. You can read about the LMMLS as a research hub in the Preface of the 2014 edition of The Fragrance of Sweet-Grass: L.M. Montgomery's Heroines and the Pursuit of Romance by Dr. Elizabeth Rollins Epperly. The Shining Scroll, is published "in-house." (Carolyn Collins suggests that an appropriate gesture of appreciation is to donate to The Friends of the L.M. Montgomery Institute.)
Carol Gaboury, a member of our local literary society until her death in 1998, identified the source of the poem,
The Fringed Gentian, which was first mentioned in the Winter 1989 issue of Kindred Spirits Newsletter of Vermont.
It was published in Godey's Lady's Book in March 1884 as part of a continued story called Tam, the Story of a Woman by Ella Rodman Church and Augusta De Bubna. Montgomery used the words "Alpine Path" as the title for her autobiography, published in Everywoman's World (1917). The original clipping of the poem is in her scrapbooks. The last verse of the poem:
Then whisper blossom, in thy sleep,
How may I upward climb
The Alpine path so hard, so steep,
That leads to heights sublime?
How may I reach that far-off goal
Of true and honored fame,
To write upon its shining scroll
A woman's humble name?
Full Text of Poem p. 237
Photograph c. 1910, Mt. Tom Road, New Glasgow, PEI. The woman is Ella Jean Bagnall Simpson. Colourization by Mason Mac.
Montgomery sent this postcard to GB MacMillan in June 1910.
In Memory of Christy
We will always remain deeply saddened about the loss of our dear friend, Christy Woster, on April 29, 2016. She was a vital part of all our activities and a joyous partner in a large network of friends in many Montgomery communities. She shared a passion for L.M.M. and Prince Edward Island which you can read about in many issues of The Shining Scroll; she was a founder and driving force for The Friends of the L.M. Montgomery Institute; she had a complete and first-rate collections of L.M. Montgomery books and material; and she was a superb researcher who was a major contributor to a bibliography of LMM's short stories and poems (acquiring copies and original publications of many of them). We will always miss her bright companionship and share many happy memories with her family, especially mother, Penny, and daughters, Dr. Emily Woster, and Anne Woster.
Please read about Christy in the 2016 issue of The Shining Scroll
lmmontgomeryliterarysociety.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/6/5/226525/theshiningscroll2016.pdf
and more about her life:
| http://isanticountynews.com/2016/05/02/christy-p-woster/
We will always remain deeply saddened about the loss of our dear friend, Christy Woster, on April 29, 2016. She was a vital part of all our activities and a joyous partner in a large network of friends in many Montgomery communities. She shared a passion for L.M.M. and Prince Edward Island which you can read about in many issues of The Shining Scroll; she was a founder and driving force for The Friends of the L.M. Montgomery Institute; she had a complete and first-rate collections of L.M. Montgomery books and material; and she was a superb researcher who was a major contributor to a bibliography of LMM's short stories and poems (acquiring copies and original publications of many of them). We will always miss her bright companionship and share many happy memories with her family, especially mother, Penny, and daughters, Dr. Emily Woster, and Anne Woster.
Please read about Christy in the 2016 issue of The Shining Scroll
lmmontgomeryliterarysociety.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/6/5/226525/theshiningscroll2016.pdf
and more about her life:
| http://isanticountynews.com/2016/05/02/christy-p-woster/
Dr. Emily Woster, former LMMI Visiting Scholar (2017–19), founding co-editor of the Journal of L.M. Montgomery Studies, 2018 LMMI conference keynote speaker, curator of annemanuscript.ca, and The L.M. Montgomery Bookshelf presents the 2020 L.M. Montgomery Insitute Legacy Awards to Mary Beth Cavert and Carolyn Strom Collins.
SELECTED WORKS BY FOUNDING MEMBERS OF THE LITERARY SOCIETY
Find many recent articles by Mary Beth Cavert, Carolyn Strom Collins, and Emily Woster in the Journal of L.M. Montgomery Studies. Find updates in every issue of The Shining Scroll.
Video Presentation about L.M. Montgomery's Letters to G. B. MacMillan
"L.M. Montgomery's Kindred Spirits: The One in Scotland"
https://lmmonline.org/conversations-about-lm-montgomery/lm-montgomerys-kindred-spirits/
“Honouring an Early Generation of L.M. Montgomery Legacy Pioneers: ‘Friends of the Author.’” In “#Maud150: Back to the Future,” edited by Abby Chandler, Lesley D. Clement, Mina Mollaie, and Kate Scarth. Special collection, Journal of L.M. Montgomery Studies, 5 May 2025.
Online: https://journaloflmmontgomerystudies.ca/Maud-150/Cavert/honouring-early-generation-lm-montgomery-legacy-pioneers-friends-author.
“L.M. Montgomery’s Letters to Scotland: Reading between the Lines.” Journal of L.M. Montgomery Studies, 15 December 2020. https://doi.org/10.32393/jlmms/2021.0005. Print edition: The Journal of L.M. Montgomery Studies: L.M. Montgomery and Reading. 2022.
“L.M. Montgomery’s Picture Postcards to George Boyd MacMillan 1904–1941.” Journal of L.M. Montgomery Studies, 14 December 2020. https://doi.org/10.32393/jlmms/2021.0004.
“‘To the Memory of’: Leaskdale and Loss in the Great War.” In L.M. Montgomery’s Rainbow Valleys: The Ontario Years, 1911–1942, edited by Rita Bode and Lesley D. Clement, 35–53, 283–84. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2015.
“Nora, Maud, and Isabel: Summoning Voices in Diaries and Memories.” In The Intimate Life of L.M. Montgomery, edited by Irene Gammel, 106–25. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005.
“L.M. Montgomery’s Book Dedications.” In The Lucy Maud Montgomery Album, compiled by Kevin McCabe, edited by Alexandra Heilbron, 468–70. Toronto: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1999.
“L.M. Montgomery and Friendship.” In The Lucy Maud Montgomery Album, compiled by Kevin McCabe, edited by Alexandra Heilbron, 281–85. Toronto: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1999.
See list of articles in The Shining Scroll (2010-2020) at L.M. Montgomery Online
“Images of Magic and Lament: Frederica Campbell.” Kindred Spirits Chronicle. November 2009: 2-3.
Montgomery, L.M. A Chapter of Accidents: Twenty-Seven Rediscovered Stories. Selected and edited by Carolyn Strom Collins. Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 2025.
Montgomery, L.M. The Blue Castle: The Original Manuscript. Edited by Carolyn Strom Collins. Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 2024.
Montgomery, L.M. Anne of Green Gables: The Original Manuscript. Edited by Carolyn Strom Collins. Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 2019.
Montgomery, L.M. After Many Years: Twenty-one "Long-Lost" Stories. Edited by Carolyn Strom Collins and Christy Woster. Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 2017.
A Guide to L.M. Montgomery’s Story and Poem Scrapbooks 1890–1940: Stories and Poems Published in Periodicals and Preserved by L.M. Montgomery in Twelve Scrapbooks. Charlottetown: L.M. Montgomery Institute, 2016.
Collins, Carolyn Strom, comp. and ed. An Annotated Bibliography of L.M. Montgomery’s Stories and Poems. Charlottetown: L.M. Montgomery Institute, 2016.
“‘Bound for Quebec’ or ‘Journey’s End’? Conflicting Stories about the Montgomery Family’s Arrival in Prince Edward Island.” In Storm and Dissonance: L.M. Montgomery and Conflict, edited by Jean Mitchell, 363–72. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2008.
“The Scrapbooks.” In The Lucy Maud Montgomery Album, compiled by Kevin McCabe, edited by Alexandra Heilbron, 112–17. Toronto: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1999.
“Green Gables.” In The Lucy Maud Montgomery Album, compiled by Kevin McCabe, edited by Alexandra Heilbron, 40–43. Toronto: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 1999.
Collins, Carolyn Strom, and Christina Wyss Eriksson. The Anne of Green Gables Christmas Treasury. Toronto: Viking, 1997.
Collins, Carolyn Strom, and Christina Wyss Eriksson. The Anne of Green Gables Treasury of Days. Toronto: Viking, 1994.
Collins, Carolyn Strom, and Christina Wyss Eriksson. The Anne of Green Gables Treasury. Toronto: Viking, 1991.
See list of articles in The Shining Scroll (2010-2020) at L.M. Montgomery Online
“Envisioning Anne of Green Gables: How L.M. Montgomery Shaped a Classic.” 2020. https://journaloflmmontgomerystudies.ca/vision-forum/envisioning-anne-of-green-gables
“Virtual Tour of L.M. Montgomery Sites.” 2020.
https://journaloflmmontgomerystudies.ca/vision-forum/2020-virtual-tour-lm-montgomery-sites-pei
Collins, Carolyn Strom, and Christy Woster. Preface to After Many Years, by L.M. Montgomery, edited by Carolyn Strom Collins and Christy Woster, vii–xii. Halifax: Nimbus Publishing, 2017.
See list of articles in The Shining Scroll (2010-2020) at Contributors: W - L.M. Montgomery Online
Curator: The Anne of Green Gables Manuscript, L.M. Montgomery Bookshelf.
Woster, Emily, and Kate Scarth. “Welcome to the Journal of L.M. Montgomery Studies.” Journal of L.M. Montgomery Studies, 6 June 2019. https://doi.org/10.32393/jlmms/2019.0001.
“L.M. Montgomery: The Reading of a Lifetime.” L.M. Montgomery and Reading, 13th L.M. Montgomery Institute Biennial International Conference, Keynote. University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, PE. YouTube, uploaded by Robert Drew, 23 June 2018. youtu.be/0tF2Bqk4tuI.
“Old Years and Old Books: Montgomery’s Ontario Reading and Self-Fashioning.” In L.M. Montgomery’s Rainbow Valleys: The Ontario Years, 1911–1942, edited by Rita Bode and Lesley D. Clement, 151–65, 291–92. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2015.
“L.M. Montgomery and Reading in/as Autobiography.” Auto/biography Studies 29, no. 2 (September 2014): 199–210. https://doi.org/10.1080/08989575.2014.991894.
“Intertextuality and Life Writing: The Reading Autobiography of L.M. Montgomery.” Ph.D. dissertation, Illinois State University, 2013.
“The Readings of a Writer: The Literary Landscape Created by L.M. Montgomery’s Love of Literature.” CREArTA 5 (2005): 209–22. Special issue: “L.M. Montgomery’s Interior and Exterior Landscapes.”
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Santelmann, Patricia Kelly. "Written as Women Write: Anne of Green Gables within the Female Literary Tradition." Harvesting Thistles. Ed. Mary Henley Rubio. Guelph, ON: Canadian Children's Press, 1994. 64-73.
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The late Barbara Esbensen was an active member of our society until her death.
"Barbara Juster Esbensen is the author of nineteen books, including seven collections of poetry. Her award-winning nature books and retellings of Native American legends have been honored by the NSTA and the NCSS/CBC as outstanding trade books in science and social studies.
In 1994, she received the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry For Children -- a lifetime achievement award. Her book, DANCE WITH ME, was honored with the 1995 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award."
My early reading of the L. M. Montgomery books gave me the courage to play with words. I named a special tree where I would read. I named a certain place down by Lake Monona where I would sit on the breakwater and think. I named my bedroom. My bedroom faced west and I called it Castle Afterglow. I made a sign for the door. The sign had a sunset with dark words in crayon over the pink: "Welcome to Castle Afterglow - Keep Out."
Her papers and poetry collection are in the Kerlan Collection at the University of Minnesota
Barbara Juster Esbensen Memorial
