"Anne of Green Gables" and an Evening in Autumn
- Linda Borromeo
- Sep 24, 2019
- 2 min read
Updated: Jul 30
My husband and I started out married life in an apartment near the University of California, Berkeley. When I began working in a library there, I would just happen to walk along Telegraph Avenue on my way home. Lining that street was a bibliophile's dream: a different bookstore with practically every step.
I wandered into one of the bookshops and discovered a volume called the The Anne of Green Gables Treasury of Days, edited by Carolyn Strom Collins and Christina Wyss Eriksson.
When I opened it, I knew the book would accompany me home (plus another one to give to a friend who loves the Anne stories). Inside I found 365 quotes from Anne's author, L. M. Montgomery—one for each day, according to the season:
"The year is a book, isn't it, Marilla? Spring's pages are written in Mayflowers and violets, summer's in roses, autumn's in red maple leaves, and winter in holly and evergreens."
In honor of the coming of autumn, here is another L. M. Montgomery quote to usher in the season of crimson falling leaves, brisk walks, and evenings curled up with an Anne book.
"It was a September evening and all the gaps and clearings in the woods were brimmed up with ruby sunset light. Here and there the lane was splashed with it, but for the most part it was already quite shadowy beneath the maples, and the spaces under the firs were filled with a clear violet dusk like airy wine."
A Happy Autumn to you!
More to Explore
The fifth time the rejected manuscript of Anne of Green Gables was returned to L. M. Montgomery, the author put it away in an old hatbox. To find out how L. M. Montgomery overcame discouragement to give her story one more chance, see my post here >
I first read the Anne books in my 20s. I went on to read just about everything L. M. Montgomery ever wrote (I'm still working on the short stories). Perhaps that's one reason my first mystery story also takes place on an island: Mystery Shores, a tale of secrets along the Pacific Northwest coast.
