After Green Gables: LM Montgomery's Letters to Ephraim Weber, 1916–1941

Virginia Gillham is university librarian and archivist at Wilfrid
Laurier University library. She is also a judge of national and
international figure skating competitions.

For nearly 40 years, beginning in 1902, prolific Canadian author Lucy
Maud Montgomery and struggling poet/author Ephraim Weber exchanged
lengthy letters in which they shared details of their daily lives and
travels, discussed contemporary and classical authors, and shared
opinions on current events. The two corresponded for more than a quarter
of a century before they met face to face.

Theirs was primarily a literary relationship, focused on the efforts of
other authors, and on the successes and failures of their own work
(particularly Montgomery’s). Her letters to Weber barely hint at the
trials of her marriage, her husband’s mental illness, her difficulties
with her children, and the darker aspects of her personality. The image
she presents to Weber is that of an author, bibliophile, wife, and
mother largely in control of a busy, fulfilling life.

As social history, this collection of Montgomery’s letters to Weber
(his half of the correspondence has been lost) is invaluable. In their
lengthy, exhaustively researched introduction, the editors give
background on the circumstances of the correspondence and the
personality and life of Lucy Maud Montgomery. More importantly, they
provide a much-needed portrait of Ephraim Weber, a Mennonite farmer from
Waterloo County, Ontario, who lived most of his adult life in Western
Canada.

After Green Gables should be in every Canadian library, and in every
personal or public collection of Montgomery resources.