ANNE OF THE ISLAND by Montgomery, L[ucy]. M[aud] - 1915

1915. With frontispiece and cover in colour by H. Weston Taylor. Boston: The Page Company, 1915. Original pale grey-green cloth with color portrait affixed to front cover.

First Edition, first impression, of the third of the eight "Anne Shirley books," following ANNE OF GREEN GABLES (1908) and ANNE OF AVONLEA (1909); the fourth title, following this one, would be ANNE'S HOUSE OF DREAMS (1917). For the first three titles in the series, the order of publication equals the chronological order of Anne's saga; beginning with the fourth (the eighth and last would not be until 1939), the chronology jumps around. ANNE OF THE ISLAND mainly covers Anne's years at Redmond College in Nova Scotia -- where she realizes she may live elsewhere but she is still "of" Prince Edward Island. The year after this was published, Montgomery had the Canadian publisher McClelland publish her volume of verse -- and Page of Boston (who held world rights to her books) was upset, so much so that Frederick Stokes of New York became her publisher beginning with the 1917 ANNE book. This is a near-fine copy -- unusually clean, with scarcely any external wear; there is a small brown mark on pages 3-7, and about a third of the front free endpaper is clipped out, undoubtedly to remove an early owner's inscription.