In 1901, at the age of 27, Montgomery found herself working as the proofreader for the Daily Echo newspaper. In her journals, she described herself as the “general handyman” at the newspaper and was kept busy with a number of jobs – some menial and some constructive. She writes, “I am a newspaper woman! Sounds nice? Yes, and the reality is very nice, too. Being of the earth, it is earthy and has its drawbacks. Life in a newspaper office isn’t ‘all beer and skittles’ any more than anywhere else. But on the whole it is not a bad life at all.”
Though her salary was only five dollars a week, Montgomery didn’t complain, as it was experience she was after - not money. During this time, she often dealt with feelings of homesickness and loneliness. Only two other women worked in Montgomery’s building and she writes of it being a definite man’s world. In addition to her work at the paper, Montgomery really wanted to set aside time for her own personal writing so that she could make some lead way in the pursuit of an official writing career, but it was difficult to do both at the same time.
“I have had a hard time trying to arrange for enough spare minutes to do some writing,” she reflects. “As my salary only suffices for board and bed and as it is against the law, not to mention the climate, to go about naked, I have to make enough money to clothe myself in other ways.”
But Montgomery had the ability to look at her life from an outside perspective and give herself her own sound guidance. She said to herself, “Now, Maud, what are you going to do? Leaving the tenets of the Plymouth Brethren out of the question, you have to choose between two courses. You must either decamp back to the tight little Island or you must hit upon some plan to make possible the production of pot-boilers.”
Since Montgomery was so used to the notion that she could only write in quiet solitude, it didn’t occur to her right away that she could do some writing while at work. But soon it became part of her routine. “Every morning here I write and not bad stuff either,” she reflects in her journal. “I have grown accustomed to stopping in the midst of a paragraph to interview a prowling caller and to pausing in full career after an elusive rhyme to read a catch of proof and snarled-up copy. It’s all in the day’s work—but I don’t like it over and above. It’s trying. However, it has to be done and I won’t grumble, no, not one little bit!”
It was during this time that she found herself being published in several magazines, including Delineator, Smart Set and Ainslees. And her future as a novelist was not too far down the road.
Montgomery’s journey in becoming a novelist makes you wonder how hard it is nowadays to get a piece of fiction published, let alone a novel. How different do you think the struggles of writers in Montgomery’s days were compared to writers today? Make sure to check back for our future blog about Montgomery’s trials and successes in getting Anne of Green Gables published!
Source: The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery –Volume 1: 1889-1910
