FAMOUS CANADIANS' BIOGRAPHY 

Lucy Maud Montgomery is certainly Prince Edward Island’s most famous daughter.  She created one of Canada’s most endearing heroines, loved by readers worldwide.  Even years after her death, the quaint world described by L.M. Montgomery continues to delight and to draw tourists from around the world to experience her beloved Prince Edward Island.

Lucy Maud Montgomery was born in Clifton, now known as New London, Prince Edward Island on November 30, 1874 to Hugh John Montgomery and Clara Woolner Macneill.  When Maud (as she was known) was only two years old, her mother died of tuberculosis.  Maud’s father moved to western Canada, where he remarried, and left her to be cared for by her maternal grandparents who lived in Cavendish.   Her new home was quite isolated and her grandparents were strict and quick to discipline. 

The lonely Maud found joy in her imagination, nature, and books and eventually in her own writing.  When she was 9 years old, she started to keep a journal and write poetry.  When Maud was 15, her poem “On Cape LeForce” was published by the local newspaper – her first published work. 

Maud completed grade 10 in 1893 and went on to Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown to get her teacher’s certificate the following year.  She taught for a few years in small schoolhouses but chose to return to school in 1896.  She attended Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia where she studied literature.   Upon Maud’s grandfather’s death, she returned to Cavendish to care for her grandmother and took a job in the local post office.  During her years in Cavendish, Maud continued to write and she submitted many stories and poems to magazines in Canada, the United States and Great Britain.   Although many were rejected, she didn’t give up.  

In 1905, Maud wrote her first and most famous novel, Anne of Green Gables.   It, too, was rejected but Maud didn’t give up and by 1908 it was published.  It became an immediate bestseller.  

  Anne of Green Gables is the story of young Anne Shirley, a talkative, redheaded orphan who was adopted by the elderly Matthew Cuthbert and his sister, Marilla.  Many of Anne’s adventures and mishaps were drawn from Maud’s own childhood experiences.    (click here to listen to Anne)    Maud wrote many sequels that followed Anne into adulthood.   The book was made into a musical performed in Charlottetown and has been very popular for more than 25 years.  (click here for a link to the book Anne of Green Gables       http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/People/rgs/anne-table.html)

Maud’s grandmother died in March 1911 and in July of that year, Maud married Reverend Ewan MacDonald.  They soon left Prince Edward Island for Leaksdale, Ontario, near Toronto.  They had three sons:  Chester, Hugh (stillborn) and Stuart.  Maud helped her husband with his ministry duties, ran their household and still continued to write.  She never again lived on Prince Edward Island although she did return for vacations.          

Lucy Maud Montgomery died in Toronto, Ontario on April 24, 1942.  She was buried in the Cavendish cemetery, near her childhood home.   Her gravesite and Green Gables remain popular tourist attractions to this day. 

(click here to take a virtual tour of Green Gables http://www.gov.pe.ca/greengables/index.asp)

 This second biography of L. M. Montgomery is for more advanced students:  

L.M. Montgomery's appeal crosses the boundaries of time, age, culture, and gender.  Her works are translated into more than a dozen languages; she inspires serious scholarly work and maintains international best-selling status with her shrewd portraits, her minute chronicling of Island and Canadian customs, and her compelling recreations of Island land- and seascapes.

Montgomery's influence is felt today in almost every area of life on Prince Edward Island -- in education, research, the arts and theatre communities, tourism, land and building preservation, crafts councils, private businesses, and government policies and decisions. Internationally today Montgomery's works are recognized as touchstones for Canadian culture. Hundreds of thousands of people, directly or indirectly influenced by the way of life depicted in Montgomery's writing, visit Prince Edward Island each year.

L.M. Montgomery was born at Clifton (now New London), Prince Edward Island. When she was two, her mother died. Her father, who was a merchant, remarried, moved away, and she was raised by her maternal grandparents in Cavendish. The place was isolated and her childhood was not so happy: she grew up in an atmosphere of strict discipline and punishments for slight reasons. She joined her father briefly in Prince Albert, but then returned to Prince Edward Island.

At an early age Montgomery read widely. She started to write in school and had her first poem published in a local paper at the age of fifteen. In 1895 Montgomery qualified for a teacher's licence at Prince Wales College, Charlottetown. During the 1890s she worked as a teacher in Bideford and at Lower Bedeque, both on Prince Edward Island.

In 1895-96 Montgomery studied literature at Dalhousie University, Halifax. She returned to Cabendish to take care of her grandmother and worked at a local post office. After her grandmother died, Montgomery married in 1911 Ewan MacDonald, the Presbyterian minister, and moved with him to rural Ontario. While caring for her grandmother, she wrote the first book of Anne series. It drew on her girlhood experiences. The idea was based on a notebook entry from 1904: 'Elderly couple apply to orphan asylum for a boy. By mistake a girl is sent them.'

Anne of Green Gables was a story of a talkative, red-haired orphan. It gained a huge popularity, although The New York Times (July 18, 1908) critic wrote: "...there is no real difference between the girl at the end of the story and the one at the beginning of it. All the other characters in the book are human enough." The sequels followed Anne's life from childhood to adulthood - she marries Gilbert Blythe, a doctor, loses her first child but her life is then fulfilled with the birth of Little Jem. The initial volume has been filmed several times, adapted to stage and translated into some 40 languages.

"It's all very well to read about sorrows and imagine yourself living through them heroically, but it's not so nice when you really come to have them, is it?" (from Anne of Green Gables)

Montgomery's success was shadowed by her husband's bouts of melancholy and a nine-year dispute with her publisher. In 1925 the family moved to Norval, near Toronto, and then in 1935, after her husband's retirement, to Toronto. During the late 1930s Montgomery suffered a dreakdown, and remained despondent until her death on April 24, in 1942. At her death she left 10 volumes personal diaries (1889-1942), whose publication began in 1985.

Montgomery wrote several collections of stories and two books for adults. His other series characters include Emily, who appeared in three novels, and Pat, who was in two novels. Montgomery's heroines are frequently motherless, but adventurous, imaginative and determined. Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables has much temperament, which is connected to her red hair. After becoming tired with Anne, Montgomery created Emily Byrd Starr, who has dark hair and loves nature and to write. Anne's imagination leads her into conflict with her surroundigs, but Emily uses her imagination to compose poems and stories. In the third part, Emily's Quest (1927), she publishes her first book, is confused by reviews, which are conflicting, and marries Teddy Kent, an artist.

For further reading: Lucy Maud Montgomery Album by Kevin McCabe and Alexandra Heilbron (1999); Anne's World, Maud's World: The Sacred Sites of L.M. Montgomery by Nancy Rootland ( 1998); World Authors 1900-1950, ed. by Martin Seymour-Smith and Andrew C. Kimmens (1996); L.M. Montgomery, ed. by J.R. Sorfleet (1976); The Wheel of Things by M. Gillen (1975); The Years Before Anne by F.W.P. Bolger (1974); The Story of L.M. Montgomery by H.M. Ridley (1956) - Museums: Anne of Green Gables Museum, Box 491, Kensington, Prince Edward Island - House where L.M. Montgomery spent much of her childhood. - Green Gables, Cavendish, Prince Edward Island - Montgomery's neighbour's house, which is 'Green Gables' in her novels. - SEE : Astrid Lindgren and her unconventional children's book character Pippi Longstockings; see also Louisa Alcott

Selected works:

• ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, 1908 - Annan nuoruusvuodet - film 1934, dir. George Nicholls Jnr, starring Anne Shirley (Dawm O'Day, who adopted the name of her character); Anne of Windy Willows, with the same starts and production team, followed in 1940 - musical versions, once on Broadway and once in London in 1969

• ANNE OF AVONLEA, 1909 - Anna yst?v?mme

• KILMENY OF THE ORCHARD, 1910

• THE STORY GIRL, 1911 - Sara Stanleyn tarinat

• THE GOLDEN ROAD, 1913

• ANNE OF THE ISLAND, 1915 - Annan unelmavuodet

• THE WATCHMAN, 1916

• ANNE'S HOUSE OF DREAMS, 1917 - Anna omassa kodissa

• RAINBOW VALLEY, 1919 - Sateenkaarinotko

• FURTHER CHRONICLES OF AVONLEA, 1920

• RILLA OF INGLESIDE, 1921 - Kotikunnan Rilla

• EMILY OF NEW MOON, 1923 - Pieni runotytt?, trans. into Finnish by I.K. Inha

• EMILY CLIMBS, 1924 - Runotytt? maineen polulla

• THE BLUE CASTLE, 1926

• EMILY'S QUEST, 1927 - Runotytt? etsii t?hte?

• MAGIC FOR MARIGOLD, 1929

• A TANGLED WEB, 1931

• PAT OF SILVER BUSH, 1933

• COURAGEOUS WOMEN, 1934

• MISTRESS PAT, 1935

• ANNE OF WINDY POPLARS, 1936

• JANE OF LANTERN HILL, 1937 - Jane Victoria (osa 1); Jane Victoria tulee kotiin (osa 2)

• ANNE OF INGLESIDE, 1939

• THE GREEN GABLE LETTERS, 1960

• THE ROAD TO YESTERDAY, 1974

• THE ALPINE PATH: THE STORY OF MY CAREER, 1974

• THE DOCTOR'S SWEETHEART, 1979

• MY DEAR MR. M., 1980

• SPIRIT OF PLACE, 1982

• THE SELECTED JOURNALS OF L.M. MONTGOMERY, 1985-87 (2 vols.)

• THE SELECTED JOURNALS OF L.M. MONTGOMERY: 1910-21, 1988

• THE POETRY OF LUCY MAUD MONTGOMERY, 1987

• AKIN TO ANNE, 1988

• ALONG THE SHORE, 1989

• THE SELECTED JOURNALS OF L.M. MONTGOMERY: 1921-29, 1993

• AFTER MANY DAYS, 1995

• THE SELECTED JOURNALS OF L.M. MONTGOMERY: 1929-1935, 1999

Excerpt from Ann of Green Gables:

"Diana and I just imagined the wood was haunted. All the places around here are so--so--commonplace. We just got this up for our own amusement. We began it in April. A haunted wood is so very romantic, Marilla. We chose the spruce grove because it's so gloomy. Oh, we have imagined the most harrowing things. There's a white lady walks along the brook just about this time of the night and wrings her hands and utters wailing cries. She appears when there is to be a death in the family. And the ghost of a little murdered child haunts the corner up by Idlewild; it creeps up behind you and lays its cold fingers on your hand--so. Oh, Marilla, it gives me a shudder to think of it. And there's a headless man stalks up and down the path and skeletons glower at you between the boughs. Oh, Marilla, I wouldn't go through the Haunted Wood after dark now for anything. I'd be sure that white things would reach out from behind the trees and grab me."

"Did ever anyone hear the like!" ejaculated Marilla, who had listened in dumb amazement. "Anne Shirley, do you mean to tell me you believe all that wicked nonsense of your own imagination?"

"Not believe exactly," faltered Anne. "At least, I don't believe it in daylight. But after dark, Marilla, it's different. That is when ghosts walk."

"There are no such things as ghosts, Anne."

"Oh, but there are, Marilla," cried Anne eagerly. "I know people who have seen them. And they are respectable people. Charlie Sloane says that his grandmother saw his grandfather driving home the cows one night after he'd been buried for a year. You know Charlie Sloane's grandmother wouldn't tell a story for anything. She's a very religious woman. And Mrs. Thomas's father was pursued home one night by a lamb of fire with its head cut off hanging by a strip of skin. He said he knew it was the spirit of his brother and that it was a warning he would die within nine days. He didn't, but he died two years after, so you see it was really true. And Ruby Gillis says--"

"Anne Shirley," interrupted Marilla firmly, "I never want to hear you talking in this fashion again. I've had my doubts about that imagination of yours right along, and if this is going to be the outcome of it, I won't countenance any such doings. You'll go right over to Barry's, and you'll go through that spruce grove, just for a lesson and a warning to you. And never let me hear a word out of your head about haunted woods again."

Anne might plead and cry as she liked--and did, for her terror was very real. Her imagination had run away with her and she held the spruce grove in mortal dread after nightfall. But Marilla was inexorable. She marched the shrinking ghostseer down to the spring and ordered her to proceed straightaway over the bridge and into the dusky retreats of wailing ladies and headless specters beyond.

"Oh, Marilla, how can you be so cruel?" sobbed Anne. "What would you feel like if a white thing did snatch me up and carry me off?"

"I'll risk it," said Marilla unfeelingly. "You know I always mean what I say. I'll cure you of imagining ghosts into places. March, now."

Anne marched. That is, she stumbled over the bridge and went shuddering up the horrible dim path beyond. Anne never forgot that walk. Bitterly did she repent the license she had given to her imagination. The goblins of her fancy lurked in every shadow about her, reaching out their cold, fleshless hands to grasp the terrified small girl who had called them into being. A white strip of birch bark blowing up from the hollow over the brown floor of the grove made her heart stand still. The long-drawn wail of two old boughs rubbing against each other brought out the perspiration in beads on her forehead. The swoop of bats in the darkness over her was as the wings of unearthly creatures. When she reached Mr. William Bell's field she fled across it as if pursued by an army of white things, and arrived at the Barry kitchen door so out of breath that she could hardly gasp out her request for the apron pattern. Diana was away so that she had no excuse to linger. The dreadful return journey had to be faced. Anne went back over it with shut eyes, preferring to take the risk of dashing her brains out among the boughs to that of seeing a white thing. When she finally stumbled over the log bridge she drew one long shivering breath of relief.

"Well, so nothing caught you?" said Marilla unsympathetically.

"Oh, Mar--Marilla," chattered Anne, "I'll b-b-be contt-tented with c-c-commonplace places after this."

CHRONOLOGY

1874     Lucy Maud Montgomery born 30 November, into a family of Scots-English farmers on the north shore of Prince Edward Island.

1876     Death of her mother Clara Macneill Montgomery; left by her father Hugh John Montgomery to be raised by maternal grandparents Lucy and Alexander Macneill in Cavendish, P.E.I

1880-90  Winters at school, summers on the Macneill farm, at the seashore, and in Park Corner with her Campbell cousins; writes poetry and keeps a diary from the age of nine.

1890-91 Travels across Canada from P.E.I. to Saskatchewan, with her grandfather Senator Donald Montgomery, to join her father and stepmother and attend high school in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. First publications: November 1890, a poem in the Charlottetown Patriot; February 1891, an essay in the Montreal Witness; June 1891, an article in the Prince Albert Times.

1891-92 Returns to Cavendish and Park Corner: a year out of school.

1892-93 Finishes school with high final marks in provincial examinations.

1893-94 Takes a teacher’s course at Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown, P.E.I. Publishes in College Record and Charlottetown Guardian.

1894-95 Teaches at Bideford, P.E.I. Publishes short stories and poems in Ladies’Journal.

1895-96 Studies at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. First earnings from her writing, from Philadelphia Golden Days and Boston Youth’s Companion.

1896-97 Teaches at Belmont, P.E.I. Becomes engaged to Edwin Simpson, a Baptist minister. Poems and stories published in American Agriculturist, Ladies’ World, Philadelphia Times, etc.

1897-98 Teaches at Lower Bedeque, P.E.I. Breaks off engagement to Simpson, and also rejects Herman Leard, a young Bedeque farmer with whom she has fallen in love. Grand father Macneill’s death brings her back to Cavendish, to help her 76-year-old grandmother. Publishes 11 stories and 14 poems.

1899 Death of Herman Leard. Stories published this year include one republished in Anne of Avonlea.

1900 Death of her father in Prince Albert.

1901-02 Works as copy-editor in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the Daily Echo; after 7 months returns to Cavendish.

1902-04 Keeping house for her grandmother, reading, writing, gardening, acting as assistant postmistress. Stories from this period will reappear in Chronicles of Avonlea, Story Girl, and Further Chronicles of Avonlea.

1905 Friendship with cousin Frederica Campbell and with the new Presbyterian minister, Rev. Ewan Macdonald. Writes Anne of Green Gables.

1906 Engaged to marry Ewan Macdonald; he leaves for a year’s study in Scotland. Writes “Una of the Garden,” later revised as Kilineny of the Orchard.

1907 Anne of Green Gables accepted by L.C. Page of Boston. Begins work on Anne of Avonlea.

1908 Anne of Green Gables published; goes through six editions, 19,000 copies, in five months; evokes praise from reviewers and letters from admirers including Mark Twain.

1909 Anne ofAvonlea (about Anne as a young teacher) publish ed as well as over 50 stories and poems. Anne of Green Gables translated into Swedish.

1910 Ewan Macdonald moves to the Presbyterian church in Leaskdale, Ontario. Kilmeny of the Orchard is published. Governor-General Earl Grey asks to meet Montgomery in Charlottetown. Travels to Boston to visit publisher L.C. Page. Anne of Green Gables translated into Dutch.

1911 Grandmother dies in March, aged 87. The Story Girl published in May. Marries Ewan Macdonald July in Park Corner. After two months’ honeymoon in Scotland and England, settles into Presbyterian manse at Leaskdale, Ontario, 6o miles north-east of Toronto.

1912 Chronicles ofAvonlea (older stories revised to entail Anne) published. First child Chester Cameron Macdonald born 7 July. Anne of Green Gables translated into Polish.

1913 The Golden Road, first of her novels composed in Ontario, published.

1914 Second son Hugh Alexander born and died 13 August.

1915 Anne of the Island (about Anne’s college days) published. Gives birth to youngest son Ewan Stuart Macdonald 7 October. Experiences wartime pressures as a minister’s wife in a parish devastated by casualties.

1916 The Watchman, and Other Poems published (13 new poems plus o others published since 1899). Changes pub lishers, from L.C. Page of Boston to McCleIland, Goodchild & Stewart of Toronto.

1917 Anne’s House of Dreams (about Anne’s early days of marriage and motherhood) published. “The Alpine Path,” an autobiography, in Everywoman’s World of Toronto.

1918 Lawsuit against Page over shortchanging in royalties and unauthorized selling of reprint rights. Anne of Green Gables translated into Norwegian.

1919 Wins first case against Page in Boston. Frederica Campbell dies of influenza. Ewan Macdonald suffers nervous break down. Publishes Rainbow Valley (Anne’s children befriend the motherless children of a dreamy minister). Anne of Green Gables made into a film with Mary Miles Minter.

1920 L. C. Page, unauthorized, publishes early stories as Further Chronicles of Avonlea; second lawsuit launched in Boston. Anne of Green Gables translated into Finnish.

1921 Rilla of Ingleside (about Anne’s children as young adults in World War I) published.

1923     Emily of New Moon published. Becomes first Canadian woman to become a  member of the British Royal Society of Arts.

1925     Emily Climbs published. Anne of Green Gables translated into French.

1926     The Blue Castle (an adult romance set in Muskoka, Ontario) published. Moves with her family to Ewan Macdonald’s new parish at Norval, Ontario.

1927     Emily’s Quest published. Invited to meet Prince of Wales and Duke of York (later King Edward viii and King George vi) in Ottawa.

1928     Her sons now both away at boarding school.

1929     Magic for Marigold published.

1930     Makes a speaking tour through the Canadian west.

1931     A Tangled Web (a novel for adults) published. Older son Chester enters University of Toronto as a law student.

1933     Pat of Silver Bush published. Anne of Green Gables translated into Icelandic. Younger son Stuart enters University as a medical student. Chester reveals his secret marriage.

1934     Courageous Women (biographies written with Marian Keith and M.B. McKinley) published. Second film version of Anne of Green Gables with Aime Shirley. L.C. Page Co. gets $40,000 for the rights to this talking picture. First grandchild is born. Husband Ewan spends four months in mental hospital.

1935     Mistress Pat published. Ewan Macdonald retires from the ministry; family moves to west-end Toronto. Awarded the Order of the British Empire.

1936     Anne of Windy Poplars (stories of Anne as a young school teacher) published. Birth of second grandchild.

1937     Jane of Lantern Hill published. Anne of Green Gables adapted as a play twice: by Alice Chadwick, and by Wilbur Braun. Suffers a nervous collapse. Ewan a “mental case.”

1939     Last visit to P.E.I. Recovery from nervous breakdown. Anne of Ingleside (early days of Anne’s marriage and young motherhood) published. Deep depression at out break of World War II.

1942 Dies 24 April in Toronto; buried in Cavendish cemetery, Prince Edward Island.

1943 Husband Rev. Ewan Macdonald dies.

1948 Monument in memory of Lucy Maud Montgomery is erected in the National Park in Cavendish. Posthumous publications include short stories edited by her son Stuart and others (i9 1979, 1988, 1989, 1990); translations of Anne of Green Gables into 8 more languages (195 i_8o); volumes of letters (1960, i 980); selected poetry (1987); and journals (1985, 1987).

Lucy Maud Montgomery - online e-texts:

Read the complete text of Ann of Green Gables at 

http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/People/rgs/anne-table.html

or at

Anne Of Green Gables

Encyclopedia article about Lucy Maud Montgomery
Pegasos: Lucy Maud Montgomery
Uxbridge On-Line Inc.: Lucy Maud Montgomery
Valancy: Lucy Maud Montgomery

Lesson courtesy of Karen St. Aubin of Ottawa, Ontario