I thoroughly enjoyed this autobiography of LMM!

As a lifelong fan of Anne of Green Gables and L. M. Montgomery I went into this book worried that I wouldn’t like what I read (I worried it wouldn’t be a “never meet your hero’s” moment). Instead, I found a kindred spirit in Montgomery.

In this book you can clearly see the influence of Montgomery’s life in her fiction books and it was a joy to see where so many heartfelt stories came from.

I will say, her time in Scotland was a jarring switch in her story, as it turned suddenly from her day to day life to her honeymoon where she oddly enough mentions her husband so infrequently that you forget she was there with him at all!

What a delightful, flowery story of hard work and determination as only L.M. Montgomery could write. It was fun to hear about her childhood, where the ideas for some of her characters came from, and all about her honeymoon in Scotland. It was helpful to read near the internet so I could look up the beautiful places that she referenced. If you like L.M. Montgomery, you will love this quick read.

This wasn’t quite what I expected from the description/subtitle. The first half is a brief sketch of Montgomery’s early years. I enjoyed reading those biographical details in her own words, and found it interesting what she chose to highlight, especially after having recently read a much more detailed biography about her. Then the second half throws in lots of excerpts from her journals, with very little commentary to tie them together (or to connect them to the story of her career). I understand this was compiled from a series of autobiographical essays that she published separately rather than in one volume—but it didn’t feel like a series of essays, either. The edition I read, at least, had no section or chapter divisions, and maybe it would have helped to see how it was divided up when originally published. As it is, it felt very scattered—I really wanted more of a throughline, more clarity on the relevance of the autobiographical details she included.

Valutazione 3,5
Un'autobiografia sobria abbastanza soddisfacente per quel che concerne l'infanzia della scrittrice canadese ma che lascia qualche vuoto, voluto, relativamente alla sua età adulta...

As the title says, this is the story of LMM's career, not strictly an autobiography, though she does go into her family history. She was very much a write-what-you-know person, you can tell that her writing was inspired by real life; for example the liniment cake incident from Anne of Green Gables really happened (just not an orphan girl). It's interesting how coldly she mentions her marriage and only refers to her husband only as "my husband", not by name... The descriptions of their honeymoon were a bit tedious, but otherwise I found it a really interesting read, and so would all her fans.

L. M. Montgomery's brief history of her journey to be a published author. Lots of diary entries flesh out the little book including her travels around Scotland on her honeymoon. It then ends abruptly when she then moves from P. E. I. with her husband.

The first half of the book seemed filled with information that made me want to learn more about her career, but when it came to Lucy Maud talking about her wedding and the tour that they took in Europe it wasn’t connected to her career.

A brief, distant writer's memoir, intent on setting up her real-life basis for some of her stories. At some points, I did wonder if she was embellishing or depicting her own life. I assume this memoir was written for her child readers, so it left me disappointed as an adult reader with some biographical knowledge of Montgomery. In my opinion, The Alpine Path is better read by Montgomery's younger readers.

I love her! I wish we could be friends because the way she looks at life is absolutely beautiful

Very interesting to read a memoir in her own words, however it seemed oddly scattered. I have to wonder if it was heavily edited to remove the negative aspects of her life, as her journals were.

As one of millions of readers in the world who have loved Canada's most famous red-haired Anne of Green Gables both in books, films, and animation, I have always admired Anne's creator, Lucy Maud Montgomery's choice of words and illustrative descriptions of characters, things, and situations that make the story at once vivaciously realistic and fantastically romantic. Naturally, when I came across this book by the author herself, I knew I had to read it with heart to find out more about her ont only on a professional but a personal levels.

The Alpine Path is her autobiography, originally published as a series of her essays in the Toronto magazine Everywoman's World in 1917 at the request of its editor to write about her writing career. In fact, Montgomery did not think it as a "career" but something of a niche where she wouldalways find comfort, happiness, and life itself abounded with the memories of beautiful Prince Edward Island whose chaste and restive loveliness was unsurpassed. Added to her natural affinity for words was her incessant diligence in practicing writing on a daily basis. Her topics of wiring ranged from scribbling her thoughts and feelings to biographic accounts of her cats and critical book reviews.

Of all her fortes that enabled her to arrive as a writer, it was her indefatigable will combined with, commendable perseverance and brilliant imaginativeness, all grouping around her indomitable aspiration to become a writer, as discerned in her narrative. Montgomery believed in herself and struggled in secrecy and silence by making writing activities strictly private because deep down, under all rejections, discouragement, and rebuff, she knew she would arrive as a writer someday.

What makes Montgomery's books entertaining and approachable to readers of all ages are her ideas of a good story that consists of the following components: (1) absence of a moral undertone in a story lest it should be a didactic textbook or a fable strips of literary merits and entertainment because literature should be "art for art's sake and fun for fun's sake"; and (2) use of imagination, which is a powerful tool to create a world of make-believe, based upon studying people and observing scenery in life to render realistic feelings to the imaginary world of fiction. To Montgomery, making use of the real to perfect the ideal is what gives to art its true meaning.

To illustrate, the famous liniment cake episode that happened when Anne made the selfsame cake by accident for the parson and his wife was based upon her own experience as a school teacher in Bideford boarding at the Methodist parsonage there; the parson's wife mistakenly put liniment in a cake, but only the parson himself did not recognize it. Also, while working as a reporter for The Daily Echo in Halifax, she was often asked to write up a society letter when it was not sent by the requested lady of high society. Montgomery used her wide scope of imagination by writing such letter as if she were the lady of high society, which gained popularity from readers.

As Benjamin Franklin once said, "Heaven helps those who help themselves," Montgomery's unyielding will and diligent practice of writing everyday were the sine qua non of her meet reward as a successful writer. This light volumed, charming autobiography is a must read for not only fans of her books but also those who love writing and cherish in secret the thought of becoming writers. Or those who are struggling to rise above the planes of biological, psychological, or sociological inhibition through what means they deem aspirational and meaningful to achieve will find a kindred spirit in this book. Montgomery encourages her readers to climb up the alpine path so steep, so hard that will eventually lead to the height sublime as she once did.

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