Blonde Anne of Green Gables stirs controversy

Social media erupted in anger today over photos of a new edition of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s beloved Anne of Green Gables series. Gone is the girl with the fiery red braids, replaced by a young blonde woman who looks like she walked off the set of an MTV drama.

According to the book’s Amazon listing, the publisher of this new edition is CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, an Amazon-owned company that provides self-publishing tools for consumers. While the book is available for $13.49 on the U.S. site, it does not appear on the online retailer’s Canadian site.

Montgomery’s books entered the public domain in 1992, 50 years after her death in 1942. However, the Anne of Green Gables Licensing Authority, owned by the province of Prince Edward Island and Montgomery’s heirs, Ruth Macdonald and David Macdonald, still protects the “words and images depicting the fictional characters, places and events described in Montgomery’s novel Anne of Green Gables and related novels.”

Lucy Maud Montgomery museum is for sale

If you’re looking to invest in some CanLit history, the Lucy Maud Montgomery Heritage Museum in Park Corner, Prince Edward Island, is for sale.

According to CBC.ca, the museum’s owner, 72-year-old Robert Montgomery, a descendant of the beloved Green Gables author, is losing money on the property.

The 134-year-old house, which inspired Lucy Maud Montgomery’s fictional Ingleside, has been Robert’s home since he was 22. He expressed hope that the federal or provincial government would consider purchasing the museum.

BookNet bestsellers: Canadian fiction

Tanis Rideout makes her debut on this week’s list with her first novel, Above All Things.

For the two weeks ending June 24, 2012:

1. The Cat’s Table, Michael Ondaatje
(Vintage Canada, $22 pa, 9780307401427)

2. Secret Daughter, Shilpi Somaya Gowda
(HarperCollins Canada, $10.99 mm, 9780062203960)

3. A Good Man, Guy Vanderhaeghe
(McClelland & Stewart, $22 pa, 9780771086083)

4. The Witch of Babylon, D.J. McIntosh
(Penguin Canada, $13.50 mm, 9780143175735)

5. The Headmaster’s Wager, Vincent Lam
(Doubleday Canada, $32.95 cl, 9780385661454)

6. The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt
(House of Anansi Press, $22.95 pa, 9781770890329)

7. Room, Emma Donoghue
(HarperCollins Canada, $10.99 mm, 9781443413695)

8. Room, Emma Donoghue
(HarperCollins Canada, $19.99 pa, 9781554688326)

9. Secret Daughter, Shilpi Somaya Gowda
(William Morrow/Harper, $19.99 pa, 9780061974304)

10. Why Men Lie, Linden MacIntyre
(Random House Canada, $32 cl, 9780307360861)

11. Alone in the Classroom, Elizabeth Hay
(M&S, $22 pa, 9780771037979)

12. The Last Crossing, Guy Vanderhaeghe
(M&S, $22 pa, 9780771087844)

13. Never Knowing, Chevy Stevens
(St. Martin’s Press/Raincoast, $16.99 pa, 9781250009319)

14. The Book of Negroes, Lawrence Hill
(HarperCollins Canada, $10.99 mm, 9781443408981)

15. The Book of Negroes, Lawrence Hill
(HarperCollins Canada, $17.99 pa, 9781443409094)

16. The Winter Palace, Eva Stachniak
(Doubleday Canada, $24.95 pa, 9780385666565)

17. Half-Blood Blues, Esi Edugyan
(Thomas Allen Publishers, $24.95 pa, 9780887627415)

18. Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery
(Seal Books/Doubleday Canada, $5.99 mm, 9780770422059)

19. Spell Bound, Kelley Armstrong
(Vintage Canada, $17.95 pa, 9780307359032)

20. Above All Things, Tanis Rideout
(M&S, $29.99 cl, 9780771076350)

BookNet bestsellers: Canadian fiction

Perennial favourites mix with new titles in this week’s bestsellers list, covering Canadian fiction. For the two weeks ending March 18, 2012:

1. Flash and Bones, Kathy Reichs
(Pocket/Simon & Schuster, $17 pa, 9781451675290)

2. The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt
(House of Anansi Press, $22.95 pa, 9781770890329)

3. The Winter Palace, Eva Stachniak
(Doubleday Canada, $24.95 pa, 9780385666565)

4. Half-Blood Blues, Esi Edugyan
(Thomas Allen Publishers, $24.95 pa, 9780887627415)

5. Now You See Her, Joy Fielding
(Anchor Canada, $19.95 pa, 9780385676762)

6. Web of Angels, Lilian Nattel
(Knopf Canada, $22 pa, 9780307402097)

7. Still Life, Louise Penny
(Little, Brown and Company/Hachette, $10.99 mm, 9780351322303)

8. Room, Emma Donoghue
(HarperCollins Canada, $19.99 pa, 9781554688326)

9. Secret Daughter, Shilpi Somaya Gowda
(HarperCollins Canada, $19.99 pa, 9780061974304)

10. The Book of Negroes, Lawrence Hill
(HarperCollins Canada, $10.99 mm, 9781443408981)

11. The Midwife of Venice, Roberta Rich
(Anchor Canada, $22.95 pa, 9780385668279)

12. Bury Your Dead, Louise Penny
(Little, Brown/Hachette, $10.99 mm, 9780751547504)

13. Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen
(HarperCollins Canada, $16.50 pa, 9780006391555)

14. Tiger Hills, Sarita Mandanna
(Penguin Canada, $18 pa, 9780143174714)

15. The Bishop’s Man, Linden MacIntyre
(Random House Canada, $22 pa, 9780307357076)

16. The Cat’s Table, Michael Ondaatje
(McClelland & Stewart, $32 cl, 9780771068645)

17. Anne of Green Gables, L.M. Montgomery
(Doubleday Canada, $5.99 mm, 9780770422059)

18. Ru, Kim Thúy; Sheila Fischman, trans.
(Random House Canada, $25 cl, 9780307359704)

19. The Virgin Cure, Ami McKay
(Knopf Canada, $32 cl, 9780676979565)

20. Bride of New France, Suzanne Desrochers
(Penguin Canada, $16 pa, 9780143173397)

Bookmarks: Coolio cooks, Anne of Green Gables tweets, and more

A few sundry links from across the Web:

• “Living in a Gourmet’s Paradise?” Rapper Coolio now has his own cookbook, Cookin’ with Coolio
• A new audio-book version of the Bible is available, featuring Richard Dreyfuss as Moses, Luke Perry as Judas Iscariot, and — who else? — James Caviezel reprising his role as Jesus Christ. The L.A. Times Jacket Copy reports the audio-book is described as a “verbal cinema” complete with a musical score and sound effects
• You can now be a follower, or “kindred spirit,” of Canada’s favourite redhead. Anne of Green Gables is using Twitter
• We’re well aware how prevalent bad sex is in fiction … so how about awards for good sex? 
• You are officially invited to attend Hogwart’s School of Witchcraft and Wizardry … with a new iPhone Spells app 
• Sad but true: Finn Reeder, Flu Fighter is a book for middle-school aged children about the ubiquitous H1N1 virus

Bookmarks: The Tao of Wu, zombie hunter S. Thompson, and St. Anne of Green Gables

Sundry links from around the Web:

• Following in the footsteps of Kanye West and 50 Cent, NPR reports that The Wu-Tang Clan’s Robert F. Diggs (aka The RZA) is the latest rap artist to pen an inspirational book. The title: The Tao of Wu
• Halloween is just around the corner. Need a costume idea? Check out these literary-themed costumes. Zombie Hunter S. Thompson, anyone?
• Speaking of zombies, the Oxford University Press blog discusses our culture’s obsession with the dark and monstrous
• Think the new Where the Wild Things Are movie is too scary for children? “Go to hell … or wet your pants,” author Maurice Sendak tells parents
• Portuguese writer and Nobel laureate Jose Saramago says the Bible is a “manual of bad morals”
• St. Anne? The CBC reports on an Ottawa exhibition, the Canadian Martyrdom Series, that portrays Anne of Green Gables as a martyr

Montgomery’s “suicide” questioned

Last Saturday, a descendant of Anne of Green Gables author Lucy Maud Montgomery revealed, for the first time, that her grandmother committed suicide.

In the wake of this revelation, however, Montgomery’s biographer is publicly questioning whether it is actually true. According to The Globe and Mail:

One of the foremost experts on the life and literature of Lucy Maud Montgomery says she has “a totally different interpretation” of the death of the creator of Anne of Green Gables, one that does not necessarily point to Montgomery having committed suicide in her Toronto home in late April, 1942.

Mary Henley Rubio, professor emeritus of English at Ontario’s University of Guelph, said in an e-mail interview that a note found on Montgomery’s bedside table the afternoon she was found dead doesn’t conclusively demonstrate that Montgomery willfully killed herself at 67 with a drug overdose.

Dr. Rubio, 68, said that there’s “a much wider context for understanding that final ‘note,’” which she believes she provides in her much anticipated biography of Montgomery, more than 30 years in preparation, to be released by Doubleday Canada next month, the 100th anniversary of the publication of Anne of Green Gables.

L.M. Montgomery Institute looking for kindred spirits — with cash

Next year, the world – or mainly just Canada and Japan, perhaps – will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first publication of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s beloved Anne of Green Gables. But the L.M. Montgomery Institute in P.E.I. might not be ready to party.

The group, which was established in 1993 to honour and promote Lucy Maud and to be a hub for research, initially received a three-year grant from the Social Science and Humanities Council of Canada. Later funding came from the Macdonald Stewart Foundation and the telecommunications company Aliant.

In June 2004, Japan’s Imperial Highness Princess Takamodo became the Institute’s “international patron.” Furthermore, a long list of scholars, authors, and international figures – including Adrienne Clarkson and Jane Urquhart – grace its committees and board.

But the money seems to have stopped flowing in, according to CBC News Online.

Funding sources have dried up over the years, and the L.M. Montgomery Institute has struck a committee to try to source new ones.

“There is kind of this feeling that, you know, that there will always be funding there just because it’s so exciting and so great, how could there not be money?” Simon Lloyd, chair of the L.M. Montgomery Institute Committee told CBC News.

Lloyd added that he is confident they’ll be able to find enough funds to keep the lights on, so it’s not time to panic yet. Quillblog humbly suggests turning to the pages of Montgomery’s beloved tomes for fundraising ideas – Anne Shirley was pretty good at getting out of scrapes, after all.