L. M. Montgomery
After her father dies, Emily Starr keeps writing to him. In letters she hides in the attic at New Moon Farm, she tells him about her new life on Prince Edward Island: the relatives who have taken her in, the children she meets at school, and the discoveries she longs to share with him.At New Moon, Aunt Elizabeth Murray expects obedience and has little patience for Emily’s pride. But Emily has too much to say to keep it to herself. Aunt Laura gives her old papers to write on, Cousin Jimmy brings her notebooks, and a book from Aunt Elizabeth’s shelves inspires her to try her hand at a poem. Sometimes beauty strikes with such sudden force that she calls the sensation the 'flash.' Finding words for what she sees and feels becomes a pleasure she refuses to give up.Her friendships give her more to write about. Ilse Burnley has a blazing temper, Teddy Kent has a gift for drawing, and Perry Miller, the hired boy at New Moon, has ambitions that reach beyond the farm. Their quarrels and loyalties matter as much to Emily as the rules of the Murray household. As she comes to know them, the place she never wanted to live begins to feel like somewhere she belongs.Montgomery gives Emily room to be funny, prickly, and wrong. A slight at school can sting long after the day is over, and a poem that thrills her can leave its first listener unmoved. Her determination to write gains force from those small disappointments and from the pleasure she takes in trying again.First published in 1923, Emily of New Moon opens L. M. Montgomery’s Emily Starr trilogy with a portrait of a young writer at the beginning of her vocation. As New Moon becomes familiar, its fields, woods, and people give Emily something she could never have expected when she arrived: a world she wants to put into words.
