I listened to all of the Anne books in 2010 (minus Windy Poplars and Anne of Ingleside, which are not available as recorded books), which made me more interested in Montgomery's life & career. This was a very quick and fascinating read.

Este librito de escasas 100 páginas recoge los artículos que le encargaron a L.M. Montgomery desde la revista Everywoman's world para que explicara a sus lectoras cómo consiguió convertirse en una escritora de éxito. La mujer, que había picado mucha piedra antes de conseguir publicar el título más famoso de su carrera, 'Ana la de Tejas Verdes', aprovechará estas páginas para hablarnos de su infancia, del entorno en el que se crió y de anécdotas personales que le marcaron y le ayudaron a ser la escritora que fue.

Los fans de Anne Shirley encontrarán aquí los orígenes de muchos de los escenarios y anécdotas de sus libros, aunque he encontrado bastantes más paralelismos entre esos recuerdos de la autora y los libros de 'Emily la de Luna Nueva'. Su enorme respeto por los niños y niñas, producto de haberse sentido ella misma humillada de pequeña simplemente por la edad, sin tener en cuenta su sensibilidad o su madurez, es algo que me ha resultado muy interesante.

Además de estos capítulos más autobiográficos, nos deleita también con la ilusión de sus primeras publicaciones en prensa, su trabajo en un periódico (me encantó esta parte), su odisea para encontrar una editorial que adoptase a Anne y, para terminar, y de forma un poco descolgada tanto en tono como en contenido, el viaje que hizo de recién casada al Reino Unido.

3.25/5

Probably the weakest of the L.M. Montgomery books I've picked up due to pacing and structure issues. Montgomery as expected for the most part glosses over the difficult parts of her life. The last few chapters are bogged down by her journal entries and honeymoon experiences, which I unfortunately was not interested in. I do really appreciate seeing where certain scenes from The Story Girl and Anne of Green Gables originated, and I probably would have enjoyed this a lot more had I read it before reading House of Dreams.

Ricordate la meravigliosa “Anna dai capelli rossi”?
Nel 1917 l’editore chiese a Lucy Maud Montgomery, la sua brillante autrice, di scrivere una biografia della sua carriera. Nacque così Il sentiero alpino. La storia della mia carriera, curato e tradotto per la prima volta in italiano dal bravissimo Riccardo Mainetti e pubblicato dalla casa editrice flower-ed.
Lucy ci fa entrare nella sua vita, rendendoci partecipi delle sue origini scozzesi e inglesi, delle storie dei suoi antenati, della prematura scomparsa della madre, della sua infanzia felice e spensierata trascorsa con i suoi nonni materni a Cavendish presso l’Isola del Principe Edoardo. Apprendiamo con vivo piacere che c’è moltissimo di Anna in lei e che numerosi dettagli, fantasie, luoghi e personaggi del famoso libro “Anna dai capelli rossi” sono stati ispirati proprio dall’infanzia dell’autrice. Il bellissimo e incantevole paesaggio dell’Isola del Principe Edoardo ha profondamente influito nella sua vita e nello sviluppo del suo talento letterario, tanto che Lucy stessa ammetterà che senza la sua tranquilla infanzia a Cavendish “Anna dai capelli rossi” non sarebbe mai esistita.
Alcune frasi mi hanno particolarmente colpito. Sembra quasi che l’autrice mi abbia letto nel pensiero: “Sarò sempre grata del fatto che la mia scuola fosse vicina a un boschetto – un luogo con sentieri sinuosi e il suo tesoro di felci, muschi e fiori del legno. Ciò ebbe un’influenza più forte ed educativa nella mia vita rispetto alle lezioni apprese al banco di scuola”.
“Sono estremamente grata che la mia infanzia sia trascorsa in un luogo dove vi erano molti alberi, alberi dotati di personalità, alberi che erano stati piantati e curati da mani da lungo tempo scomparse, legati a tutta la gioia e il dolore che hanno vissuto le nostre vite. Quando ho “vissuto” con un albero per molti anni tendo a considerarlo come un beneamato compagno in carne ed ossa”.
Procedendo con la lettura, scopriamo del suo difficile apprendistato da scrittrice definito per l’appunto “un sentiero alpino”, dell’emozione della prima pubblicazione di una sua poesia su un giornale, della nascita di “Anna dai capelli rossi”, dei rifiuti degli editori, della sua perseveranza e coraggio per poi arrivare infine alla pubblicazione del romanzo, con il conseguente agognato successo.
Quest’opera è essenziale per comprendere appieno non solo la vita, ma anche e soprattutto i sentimenti dell’autrice. I numerosi ammiratori italiani di “Anna dai capelli rossi”, che proprio in questo mese di giugno festeggia il 110 anniversario della pubblicazione del libro, potranno finalmente scoprire com’è nata quest’opera che ha dolcemente accompagnato la nostra infanzia e non solo.
Questa biografia è stata scritta con lo scopo di “infondere coraggio in quanti stanno faticando lungo l’estenuante sentiero che anch’io ho percorso per raggiungere il successo”.
Io sono particolarmente affezionata ai personaggi di Anna e di Matthew. Ogni tanto torno anch’io ai Tetti Verdi, quando ne ho più bisogno. La porta di Anna è sempre aperta, per tutti noi.
Non possiamo fare a meno di ringraziare Riccardo Mainetti e Michela Alessandroni per questo splendido regalo letterario che ci hanno fatto.

This didn't have as much information as I would have liked, but it was still fun to read it. Through a lot of the book she would mention things from real life that she had put in Anne of Green Gables and The Story Girl , but I would recognize stories from her own life that were in the Emily of New Moon books. Even the name of the book is a big part of the Emily books, so I wondered why she never said anything about Emily. Then I realized she hadn't written the Emily books at the time this was written. I'm very glad she kept on writing after this so I could have my beloved Emily.

So apparently a magazine editor asked Montgomery for a short article about her career and its resulting success. And apparently Montgomery responded by sending what amounted to a small book.

The Alpine Path is Montgomery's autobiography. Published in small installments during 1917 it is only partly finished in the modern reader's eyes and do not take Montgomery's later works into account; instead Montgomery focuses mainly on her beloved Anne series and the nostalgic memories of her childhood that inspired it.

Montgomery's success was not the work of an instant – and in these pages she tells the story of her early writing triumphs, her countless rejections and the small wonders of her world and her home that made her able to climb the steep Alpine path of her dreams. Best of all, Montgomery does not offer apologies or hides behind false modesty; she is proud of her work and her words. Rightly so.

As you read, it is easy to be led astray by her picturesque descriptions of her childhood home; of the beloved trees and constant view of the glistening sea surrounding Prince Edward Island. And while Montgomery's childhood surroundings certainly was the inspiration for many of her novels, it was by no means as idyllic as this text suggests. Montgomery was perhaps editing herself, creating her own myth.

Reading Montgomery's autobiography was an odd and beautiful experience in so many ways. I found small pieces of Montgomery's heroines hiding in every line – and some lines even seemed oddly familiar, an echo of something I'd read before. While Montgomery wrote The Alpine Path years before Emily of New Moon she re-used direct passages, making Emily speak words from Montgomery's own lived experiences. I've never encountered this in such a clear format before; in Montgomery's world fiction and reality always blends together so beautifully.

There's no doubt in my mind that the way up Montgomery's alpine path was a hard climb; much harder than Montgomery even allows her reader to suspect.

3.5 - As autobiographies go, this is pretty bad. She tells a few stories from her childhood and then throws in some of her journal entries from when she worked on a newspaper and when she went on her honeymoon. It leaves out just about everything important. But it’s short and has some fun tidbits about what was based on truth in some of her stories. And it’s written in the same voice she uses to write everything else. Plus reading it on PEI was fun, seeing some of the places she mentions.

I read this book in one sitting and it was a wonderful experience. I read it on the grass on the top of a cliff in Prince Edward Island, with the warmth of the sun and the sounds of the waves, the wind and the seagulls. Reading about Prince Edward Island while being there felt incredibly special and all I had to do to see the beauty that LMM was talking about was to look up. To me, this afternoon felt like a religious experience, even though it had nothing to do with religion. I will always remember the time I spent reading this book.

Simple and beautiful. I already love LMM as an author but now my heart has opened to her more. Her simple and humble conveyance of her history/life brought forth so much fresh air and beauty, I have a new appreciation for her. She has a true gift and talent. Love how her inspiration came from nature!

I anticipated loving “The Alpine Path: The Story Of My Career”, as much as my friend, Kerri, who bought a secondhand copy to read with me. Four stars reward Lucy Maud Montgomery’s eloquence and relatable tone. I wanted the story of herself and her books, without breadth on details common to many; having just finished the novels preceding this 1917 autobiography. Brevity could have fulfilled the areas of keenest interest. Where she chose elaboration and sparseness were odd. A newspaperwoman and story lover surely knew to steer to the salient interview questions.

Maud’s expressiveness is divine, except where I muttered: “Fine but please expound upon the subjects we are eager to read”! I am relieved she was well rooted in family, having heard her described as “abandoned”. Did her Dad too, live with his parents in Cavendish? Suddenly, she visited him in Saskatchewan. How do you not name or highlight the story of a husband? Baldly, her Grandmother ascended and then Maud married? The honeymoon was a whiny travelogue, about preferring attractions void of people. It exuded no feeling of a couple!

I cherish her encouragement and humble elation upon success. We should keep our work but I enjoyed her start from scratch. I love knowing a notebook held the seed for Anne. She shared nothing else: not the story of fame washing over her book, nor how the sequels came about. The third had just been published in 1915. Did she plan the scenes of her sequels?

I am touched that she retained her Mom’s love, who ascended when Maud was a toddler. I wish she had emphasized what was poignant and unique to her, like her series and treated us to a sequential story filled-in gratifyingly. Some personal details were clearly supplied afterwards, only to bridge other events.

While I would have loved a deep dive into all aspects of L.M. Montgomery, her life, her writing, her struggles and triumphs, I knew that this book was too brief to contain all of that. This was originally published as series of magazine articles on 1917. It contained many insights that I adored, and I had too much fun reading it to rate it less than five stars, but it did make clear to me that biographies of L.M. Montgomery, as well as perhaps her collected journals, are the way to go if I want to experience that deep dive I mentioned above.

I loved the author's recollection of her childhood, her beautifully captured sense of herself as a young girl, and how that influenced her writing as an adult. There are heart-leaping moments that make for memorable reading -- the early days of writing "Anne", when it is accepted for publication, when she finally holds in her hands an actual copy of her book.

The only section I found not so interesting was her honeymoon. With the death of her grandmother mentioned almost in passing, followed by her marriage, we head straight off on her honeymoon, knowing nothing of the man she has married, their courtship, what she thinks of him, no mentions of conversation or an sense of excitement at being newly married. Perhaps she considered this too private to discuss in-depth, but at times I felt like she was travelling alone. When her husband was mentioned, I would start a little, having forgotten he was of course there! It felt oddly detached, especially after the vividness her youth. These parts were saved though by the time she spends detailing her imagination and her love of her home.

By the end of this, I had some sense of L.M. Montgomery, though as I have said, there is more I want to know -- so much more. However, I will finish reading the Anne books, and most or all of her other novels before I dig deeper for information about the woman herself.

This was another buddy-read with Carolyn, and the discussion of the book so far has been just as interesting as the book itself, and a nice supplement to our reading of the Anne series.

This was a fun little book. It's kind of a memoir of Montgomery's writing journey up to 1917, when she wrote it. Originally, these memories were published in several installments in Everywoman's World, and later collected into one slim volume.

This was a fairly enlightening read, if only because it shows you how Montgomery wanted her life and her work to be viewed. I have read enough about her actual history to know that her childhood was not a particularly happy one, and I got the impression that she cherry-picked some good and funny memories for this so she didn't need to delve into a more morose reality. I was actually surprised with how much of the book revolved around her childhood, but she's trying to trace how her life informed her writing, so it does make sense.

Obviously, since she wrote this in 1917, it doesn't include her memories of writing all her books, since she was in the midst of her career. Still, this was an enjoyable read, filled with lovely passages in her distinctive style. There's a section that's all about her memories of a trip to Scotland with her husband which made me laugh several times, though I'm not sure what it had to do with her writing, actually.