Details

Title

"There is a pleasure in the pathless woods"postcard.

Author

Trainor, A.M.

Collection

L.M. Montgomery Institute. Ryrie-Campbell Collection.

Donor

Donated by Donna Jane Campbell.

Call Number(s)

939 SI PC 1913

Abstract

A postcard addressed to "Mrs. L.M. Macdonald, The Manse, Leaskdale, Ontario, Canada". The sender signs themselves "A.M. Trainor": research by the donor has identified this person as a member of the publishing staff of the L.C. Page Company of Boston, L.M. Montgomery's publisher from 1908 through to 1915. The handwritten message on the card reads simply: "I am sending ms. by tomorrow's mail." Assuming "ms" was being used as the common abbreviation for manuscript, this message raises interesting questions about why a representative of Montgomery's Boston-based publisher would be sending Montgomery a manuscript from Charlottetown to her Ontario home, especially when Montgomery spent much of July and August 1913 visiting Prince Edward Island. The postmark is still quite legible, and confirms the postage date as June 17, 1913: it is notable that L.C. Page did release Montgomery's sixth book, "The Golden Road" on or about September 1st, 1913. On the front of the postcard is a tinted / colourized photograph, shot through trees on shore, of a small boat riding at anchor. There is also a printed stanza of verse, from Byron's "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage", followed by "Prince Edward Island".