Margaret Prescott Montague - WV’s most filmed author
The cover of the videotape version of “Amy”
Margaret Prescott Montague Greenbrier County native [pseudonym Jane Steger] (1878-1955) is WV’s most filmed novelist with at least five film versions of her work. She won the First O. Henry Award in 1919 for her story “England to America,” which was published in The Atlantic Monthly, September 1918. Her “The Sowing of Alderson Cree” was made into the film Seeds of Vengeance in 1920. A film with the same name was also made of her book Uncle Sam of Freedom Ridge, also in 1920. In 1922 a film, Calvert’s Valley, was made from her book, In Calvert’s Valley. In 1929 a film called “Linda” based on her 1912 novel. Her collection of short stories, Closed Doors (1915) was based on seven teachers and children she met while she visited her brother, R. Cary Montague, who was the director of the West Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind. The film version, “Amy”(1981, 100 minutes) was produced by the Walt Disney Company The film is about a woman leaving her wealthy husband to teach at the WV School for the Blind & Deaf. The director, Vincent McEveety, directed many of the original Star Trek episodes on TV and in the nineties directed Columbo episodes. This film was originally made for TV and called Amy on the Lips. Distribution – available at www.half.com. She is listed on the WV Literary Map.
You can search the AFI Silent Film Catalog and learn more about the four silent feature films made of her stories. http://www.afi.com/members/catalog/SearchResult.aspx?s=1&TBL=PN&Type=YP&ID=105400&pName=%20Margaret%20Prescott%20Montague&bhcp=1
You can download a copy of “The Sowing of Alderson Cree” here - http://books.google.com/books?id=cu4dAAAAMAAJ&printsec=titlepage&dq=%22margaret+prescott+montague%22
Google also has posted a copy of her “Calvert’s Valley”- http://books.google.com/books?id=bO4dAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22margaret+prescott+montague%22&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=3mwjDsj4zN&sig=LWH0QODGcyrOW11r_2sdOdCK34w
”Uncle Sam of Freedom Ridge” - http://books.google.com/books?id=ce4dAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22margaret+prescott+montague%22&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=IwYABfRV73&sig=MJVK8-PhjTlmIl_ZWRounnrqnj4
“Twenty Minutes of Reality” - http://books.google.com/books?id=foKJwQvHRKYC&dq=%22margaret+prescott+montague%22&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=4MGIerB8Rd&sig=98xy1kGVSUuP4aGVw76awu-HHuk
An essay on Virginia-WV authors including this one - http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/VAGuide/literature.html
