Lucy Maud Montgomery is best known for her beloved children�¢??s series documenting the exploits of the unforgettable, red-haired heroine, Anne Shirley. Inextricably linked to Prince Edward Island, both Anne and L.M. Montgomery�¢??s home, and the fictional town of Avonlea (real-life Cavendish), her fiction embodies both the cultural and geographical landscape of Canada. The revenue created by tourism on the island is a testament to this claim, as well as to the impact of childhood reading on lifelong character formation. To many, a trip to Green Gables is not simply a vacation--it is a pilgrimage.

Montgomery was born on November 30, 1874. Maud was only 21 months old when her mother died of tuberculosis. Montgomery�¢??s father moved to the mainland and remarried, leaving young Maud in the custody of her grandparents in Cavendish. An only child with few friends, Montgomery was forced to develop an active imagination, much like the imaginative, orphaned character, Anne. After finishing her schooling and attempting a brief teaching career in Nova Scotia, Montgomery returned to Cavendish in 1890 to care for her grandmother after her grandfather�¢??s death and remained on the island for nearly three more decades. A prolific writer, Montgomery published over five hundred short stories and poems in addition to her twenty novels. She finished her first novel, Anne of Green Gables, in 1905 and when the novel was published, in 1908, it found immediate success. She continued to write about Anne for thirty more years, a total of six novels in the series. Montgomery�¢??s other works include the Emily trilogy, The Story Girl (1911), The Chronicles of Avonlea (1912), and Jane of Lantern Hill (1937). She married Reverend Ewan MacDonald in 1911 and was the mother of three sons (one son, Hugh, died at birth). Montgomery died in 1942 in Toronto, where she moved to be closer to her sons. Though Montgomery was largely overlooked by literary scholars for most of the twentieth century (and certainly during her lifetime), there has been a resurgence in her popularity and academic recognition over the past twenty years. The first installment of Montgomery�¢??s journals was published in 1985, adding new depth to the popular and academic perceptions of her life. Though she kept up appearances as dutiful wife and mother, the journals reveal the painful truth of her �¢??passionless�¢?�� marriage to her husband, grief over the death of her son, and her aversion to the horrors of World War I.

The same year the journals were published, Kevin Sullivan produced a critically acclaimed mini-series of Anne of Green Gables that aired on public television in Canada and the United States. The mini-series sparked a popular culture phenomenon. In addition to the television shows, musical, and merchandise devoted to Anne, she became the subject of discussion on heavily traveled Internet fan sites. Most extremely, in Japan, where �¢??Anne Schools�¢?�� began to offer training in how to live like a resident of Avonlea. In an effort to draw attention and recognition back to the author and her craft, Canadian scholars founded the L.M. Montgomery Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island in 1993. The Institute continues to hold bi-annual conferences devoted to Montgomery�¢??s life and work. Still, it is the child who continues to find her mother�¢??s copy of Anne of Green Gables on the bookshelf that makes Montgomery a mainstay in the literary world.

Articles About Montgomery, Lucy Maud

Lucy Maud Montgomery An Island Tribute to a Great Writer	February 4, 2007
On June 20, 1908, Lucy Maud Montgomery received a copy of her first book, Anne of Green Gables, from the publishers, fresh off the presses. Little did Maud, as friends and family knew her, realize the impact her story, and the delightful character she created, would have on the world. Anne Shirley went on to become a beloved literary character and a role model for millions of young girls.