Lucy Maud Montgomery
Encyclopedia
Lucy Maud Montgomery OBE
(November 30, 1874 April 24, 1942), called "Maud" by family and friends and publicly known as L.M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables
, published in 1908. Anne of Green Gables was an immediate success. The central character, Anne, an orphaned girl, made Montgomery famous in her lifetime and gave her an international following. The first novel was followed by a series of sequels with Anne as the central character. Montgomery went on to publish 20 novels as well as 500 short stories and poems. Because many of the novels were set on Prince Edward Island
, Canada and the Canadian province became literary landmarks. She was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1935.
Montgomery's work, diaries and letters have been read and studied by scholars and readers worldwide.
Lucy Maud Montgomery was born in Clifton
(now New London), Prince Edward Island on November 30, 1874. Her mother, Clara Woolner Macneill Montgomery, died of tuberculosis when Montgomery was 21 months old (a year and 9 months). Stricken with grief over his wife’s death, Hugh John Montgomery gave custody over to Montgomery’s maternal grandparents. Later he moved to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan
when Montgomery was seven years old. She went to live with her maternal grandparents, Alexander Marquis Macneill and Lucy Woolner Macneill, in the nearby community of Cavendish
and was raised by them in a strict and unforgiving manner. Montgomery’s early life in Cavendish was very lonely. Despite having relations nearby, much of her childhood was spent alone. Montgomery credits this time of her life, in which she created many imaginary friends and worlds to cope with her loneliness, as what developed her creative mind.
Montgomery completed her early education in Cavendish with the exception of one year (1890-1891) during which she was at Prince Albert with her father and her step-mother, Mary Ann McRae. In November 1890, while at Prince Albert, Montgomery had her first work published in the Charlottetown
paper The Daily Patriot; a poem entitled "On Cape LeForce". She was as excited about this as she was about her return to her beloved Prince Edward Island in 1891. The return to Cavendish was a great relief to her. Her time in Prince Albert was unhappy due to the fact that Montgomery and McRae did not get along and because by, "... Maud’s account, her father's marriage was not a happy one." In 1893, following the completion of her grade school education in Cavendish, she attended Prince of Wales College
in Charlottetown for a teacher's license. Completing the two-year program in one year, she obtained her teaching certificate. In 1895 and 1896, she studied literature at Dalhousie University
in Halifax, Nova Scotia
.
Upon leaving Dalhousie, Montgomery worked as a teacher in various island schools. Montgomery did not enjoy her teaching career; however, she was content because it afforded her time to write. Beginning in 1897, she began to have her short stories published in various magazines and newspapers. A prolific talent, Montgomery had over 100 stories published from 1897 to 1907 inclusive.
During her teaching years, Montgomery had numerous love interests. As a highly fashionable young woman, she enjoyed "slim, good looks," and she was the attention of several young men. In 1889, Montgomery began a relationship with a Cavendish boy named Nate Lockhart. To Montgomery, the relationship was merely a humorous and witty friendship. It ended abruptly when Montgomery refused his marriage proposal.
The early 1890s brought unwelcome advances from Mr. John A. Mustard and Will Pritchard. Mr. Mustard, her teacher, quickly became her suitor who tried to impress her with his knowledge of religious matters. His best topics of conversation were his thoughts on Predestination
and "other dry points of theology." He held little appeal for Montgomery. During the period when Mustard’s interest became more pronounced, Montgomery found a new interest in Will Pritchard, the brother of her friend Laura Pritchard. This friendship was more amiable; however, again, Montgomery felt less than her suitor did for her. When Pritchard sought to take their friendship further, Montgomery resisted. Montgomery refused marriage proposals from both because the former was narrow-minded and latter was merely a good chum. She ended the period of flirtation when she moved to Prince Edward Island. However, she and Pritchard did keep up correspondence over six years until Pritchard caught influenza and died in 1897.
In 1897, Montgomery accepted the proposal of Edwin Simpson, who was a student in French River near Cavendish. Montgomery wrote that she accepted his proposal out of a desire for "love and protection" and because she felt her prospects were rather low. While teaching in Lower Bedeque, she had a brief but passionate romantic attachment to Herman Leard, a member of the family with which she boarded. In 1898, after much unhappiness and disillusionment, Montgomery broke off her engagement to Simpson. Montgomery no longer sought romantic love.
In 1898, Montgomery moved back to Cavendish to live with her widowed grandmother. For a nine month period between 1901 and 1902, she worked in Halifax as a substitute proofreader for the newspapers Morning Chronicle and The Daily Echo. She returned to live with her grandmother in 1902. Montgomery was inspired to write her first books during this time on Prince Edward Island. Until her grandmother's death in March 1911, Montgomery stayed in Cavendish to take care of her. This coincided with period of considerable income from her publications. Although she enjoyed this income, she was aware that “marriage was a necessary choice for women in Canada.”
In 1908, Montgomery published her first book, Anne of Green Gables. Three years later, shortly after her grandmother's death, she married Ewan (found in Montgomery's notes and letters as "Ewan") Macdonald (1870–1943), a Presbyterian Minister
, and they moved to Ontario
where he had taken the position of minister of St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Leaskdale
in present-day Uxbridge Township
, also affiliated with the congregation in nearby Zephyr. They had three sons, the second of whom was stillborn. The great increase of her writings in Leaskdale is the result of her need to escape the hardships of real life. Montgomery underwent several periods of depression while trying to cope with the duties of motherhood and church life and with her husband’s attacks of religious melancholia and deteriorating health: "For a woman who had given the world so much joy was mostly an unhappy one." For much of her life, writing was her one great solace. Also, during this time, Montgomery was engaged in a series of "acrimonious, expensive and trying lawsuits with the publisher L.C. Page, which dragged on until she finally won in 1929."
Montgomery wrote her next eleven books from the Leaskdale manse
. The structure was subsequently sold by the congregation and is now the Lucy Maud Montgomery Leaskdale Manse Museum. In 1926, the family moved in to the Norval
Presbyterian Charge, in present-day Halton Hills
, Ontario, where today the Lucy Maud Montgomery Memorial Garden can be seen from Highway 7
.
In 1935, upon her husband's retirement, Montgomery moved to Swansea
, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto
, buying a house which she named Journey's End, situated on the Humber River
. Montgomery continued to write, publishing Anne of Windy Poplars
in 1936, Jane of Lantern Hill
in 1937, and Anne of Ingleside
in 1939.
In the last year of her life, Montgomery completed what she intended to be a ninth book featuring Anne, titled The Blythes Are Quoted
. It included fifteen short stories (many of which were previously published) that she revised to include Anne and her family as mainly peripheral characters; forty-one poems (most of which were previously published) that she attributed to Anne and to her son Walter, who died as a soldier in the Great War; and vignettes featuring the Blythe family members discussing the poems. An abridged version, which shortened and reorganized the stories and omitted all the vignettes and all but one of the poems, was published as a collection of short stories The Road to Yesterday in 1974. A complete edition of The Blythes Are Quoted, edited by Benjamin Lefebvre, was published in its entirety by Viking Canada in October 2009.
It was reported that Montgomery died from coronary thrombosis
in Toronto. However, it was revealed by her granddaughter, Kate Macdonald Butler, in September 2008 that Montgomery suffered from depression - possibly as a result of caring for her mentally ill husband for decades - and may have taken her own life via a drug overdose. But, there is another point of view. According to Mary Rubio, who wrote a biography of Montgomery Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings (2008), the message was intended to be a journal entry rather than a suicide note.
She was buried at the Cavendish Community Cemetery in Cavendish following her wake
in the Green Gables
farmhouse and funeral in the local Presbyterian church.
During her lifetime, Montgomery published 20 novels, over 500 short stories, an autobiography, and a book of poetry. Aware of her fame, by 1920 Montgomery began editing and recopying her journals, presenting her life as she wanted it remembered. In doing so certain episodes were changed or omitted.
Her major collections are archived at the University of Guelph
, while the L.M. Montgomery Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island
coordinates most of the research and conferences surrounding her work. The first biography of Montgomery was The Wheel of Things: A Biography of L.M. Montgomery, (1975) written by Mollie Gillen. Dr. Gillen also discovered over 40 of Montgomery's letters to her pen-friend George Boyd MacMillan in Scotland and used them as the basis for her work. Beginning in the 1980s, her complete journals, edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston, were published by the Oxford University Press
. From 1988-95, editor Rea Wilmshurst
collected and published numerous short stories by Montgomery.
Despite the fact that Montgomery published over twenty books, "she never felt she achieved her one 'great' book." Her readership, however, has always found her characters and stories to be among the best in fiction. Mark Twain said Montgomery’s Anne was “the dearest and most moving and delightful child since the immortal Alice". Montgomery was honoured by being the first female in Canada to be named a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in England and by being invested in the Order of the British Empire in 1935.
Her fame was not limited to Canadian audiences. Anne of Green Gables became a success worldwide. For example, every year, thousands of Japanese tourists "make a pilgrimage to a green-gabled Victorian farmhouse in the town of Cavendish on Prince Edward Island...." A national park was established near Mongomery's home in Cavendish in honour of her works.
Montgomery's home of Leaskdale Manse in Ontario and the area surrounding Green Gables and her Cavendish home in Prince Edward Island have both been designated National Historic Sites of Canada. Montgomery herself was designated a Person of National Historic Significance by the Government of Canada in 1943.
Her life's work does not only live on in print but in movies, television shows and cartoons that have become enduring favorites to fans who have never even read a word she has written.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(November 30, 1874 April 24, 1942), called "Maud" by family and friends and publicly known as L.M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Green Gables
Anne of Green Gables is a bestselling novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery published in 1908. Set in 1878, it was written as fiction for readers of all ages, but in recent decades has been considered a children's book...
, published in 1908. Anne of Green Gables was an immediate success. The central character, Anne, an orphaned girl, made Montgomery famous in her lifetime and gave her an international following. The first novel was followed by a series of sequels with Anne as the central character. Montgomery went on to publish 20 novels as well as 500 short stories and poems. Because many of the novels were set on Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...
, Canada and the Canadian province became literary landmarks. She was awarded Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1935.
Montgomery's work, diaries and letters have been read and studied by scholars and readers worldwide.
Early life
Clifton, Prince Edward Island
New London is a Canadian rural community located in Queens County, Prince Edward Island. Prince Edward island is named after Prince Edward Augustus...
(now New London), Prince Edward Island on November 30, 1874. Her mother, Clara Woolner Macneill Montgomery, died of tuberculosis when Montgomery was 21 months old (a year and 9 months). Stricken with grief over his wife’s death, Hugh John Montgomery gave custody over to Montgomery’s maternal grandparents. Later he moved to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan
Prince Albert, Saskatchewan
Prince Albert is the third-largest city in Saskatchewan, Canada. It is situated in the centre of the province on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River. The city is known as the "Gateway to the North" because it is the last major centre along the route to the resources of northern Saskatchewan...
when Montgomery was seven years old. She went to live with her maternal grandparents, Alexander Marquis Macneill and Lucy Woolner Macneill, in the nearby community of Cavendish
Cavendish, Prince Edward Island
Cavendish is a Canadian unincorporated rural area in the township of Lot 23, Queens County, Prince Edward Island. Its primary industries are tourism and agriculture. Cavendish is the largest seasonal resort area on Prince Edward Island...
and was raised by them in a strict and unforgiving manner. Montgomery’s early life in Cavendish was very lonely. Despite having relations nearby, much of her childhood was spent alone. Montgomery credits this time of her life, in which she created many imaginary friends and worlds to cope with her loneliness, as what developed her creative mind.
Montgomery completed her early education in Cavendish with the exception of one year (1890-1891) during which she was at Prince Albert with her father and her step-mother, Mary Ann McRae. In November 1890, while at Prince Albert, Montgomery had her first work published in the Charlottetown
Charlottetown
Charlottetown is a Canadian city. It is both the largest city on and the provincial capital of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County. Named after Queen Charlotte, the wife of George III, Charlottetown was first incorporated as a town in 1855 and designated as a city in 1885...
paper The Daily Patriot; a poem entitled "On Cape LeForce". She was as excited about this as she was about her return to her beloved Prince Edward Island in 1891. The return to Cavendish was a great relief to her. Her time in Prince Albert was unhappy due to the fact that Montgomery and McRae did not get along and because by, "... Maud’s account, her father's marriage was not a happy one." In 1893, following the completion of her grade school education in Cavendish, she attended Prince of Wales College
Prince of Wales College
Prince of Wales College is a former university college, which was located in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. PWC merged with St. Dunstan's University in 1969 to form the University of Prince Edward Island....
in Charlottetown for a teacher's license. Completing the two-year program in one year, she obtained her teaching certificate. In 1895 and 1896, she studied literature at Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University is a public research university located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university comprises eleven faculties including Schulich School of Law and Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine. It also includes the faculties of architecture, planning and engineering located at...
in Halifax, Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
.
Writing career, romantic interests, and family life
During her teaching years, Montgomery had numerous love interests. As a highly fashionable young woman, she enjoyed "slim, good looks," and she was the attention of several young men. In 1889, Montgomery began a relationship with a Cavendish boy named Nate Lockhart. To Montgomery, the relationship was merely a humorous and witty friendship. It ended abruptly when Montgomery refused his marriage proposal.
The early 1890s brought unwelcome advances from Mr. John A. Mustard and Will Pritchard. Mr. Mustard, her teacher, quickly became her suitor who tried to impress her with his knowledge of religious matters. His best topics of conversation were his thoughts on Predestination
Predestination
Predestination, in theology is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God. John Calvin interpreted biblical predestination to mean that God willed eternal damnation for some people and salvation for others...
and "other dry points of theology." He held little appeal for Montgomery. During the period when Mustard’s interest became more pronounced, Montgomery found a new interest in Will Pritchard, the brother of her friend Laura Pritchard. This friendship was more amiable; however, again, Montgomery felt less than her suitor did for her. When Pritchard sought to take their friendship further, Montgomery resisted. Montgomery refused marriage proposals from both because the former was narrow-minded and latter was merely a good chum. She ended the period of flirtation when she moved to Prince Edward Island. However, she and Pritchard did keep up correspondence over six years until Pritchard caught influenza and died in 1897.
In 1897, Montgomery accepted the proposal of Edwin Simpson, who was a student in French River near Cavendish. Montgomery wrote that she accepted his proposal out of a desire for "love and protection" and because she felt her prospects were rather low. While teaching in Lower Bedeque, she had a brief but passionate romantic attachment to Herman Leard, a member of the family with which she boarded. In 1898, after much unhappiness and disillusionment, Montgomery broke off her engagement to Simpson. Montgomery no longer sought romantic love.
In 1898, Montgomery moved back to Cavendish to live with her widowed grandmother. For a nine month period between 1901 and 1902, she worked in Halifax as a substitute proofreader for the newspapers Morning Chronicle and The Daily Echo. She returned to live with her grandmother in 1902. Montgomery was inspired to write her first books during this time on Prince Edward Island. Until her grandmother's death in March 1911, Montgomery stayed in Cavendish to take care of her. This coincided with period of considerable income from her publications. Although she enjoyed this income, she was aware that “marriage was a necessary choice for women in Canada.”
In 1908, Montgomery published her first book, Anne of Green Gables. Three years later, shortly after her grandmother's death, she married Ewan (found in Montgomery's notes and letters as "Ewan") Macdonald (1870–1943), a Presbyterian Minister
Presbyterian Church in Canada
The Presbyterian Church in Canada is the name of a Protestant Christian church, of presbyterian and reformed theology and polity, serving in Canada under this name since 1875, although the United Church of Canada claimed the right to the name from 1925 to 1939...
, and they moved to Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
where he had taken the position of minister of St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Leaskdale
St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Leaskdale
St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, 12251 Concession Road 7 is a Presbyterian Church in Canada congregation located in the community of Leaskdale, part of Uxbridge Township, Ontario Canada...
in present-day Uxbridge Township
Uxbridge, Ontario
Uxbridge is a township in south-central Ontario, Canada, in the Regional Municipality of Durham, in the Greater Toronto Area.The main centre in the township is the namesake community of Uxbridge...
, also affiliated with the congregation in nearby Zephyr. They had three sons, the second of whom was stillborn. The great increase of her writings in Leaskdale is the result of her need to escape the hardships of real life. Montgomery underwent several periods of depression while trying to cope with the duties of motherhood and church life and with her husband’s attacks of religious melancholia and deteriorating health: "For a woman who had given the world so much joy was mostly an unhappy one." For much of her life, writing was her one great solace. Also, during this time, Montgomery was engaged in a series of "acrimonious, expensive and trying lawsuits with the publisher L.C. Page, which dragged on until she finally won in 1929."
Manse
A manse is a house inhabited by, or formerly inhabited by, a minister, usually used in the context of a Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist or United Church...
. The structure was subsequently sold by the congregation and is now the Lucy Maud Montgomery Leaskdale Manse Museum. In 1926, the family moved in to the Norval
Norval, Ontario
Norval is an unincorporated community in the town of Halton Hills, Ontario, Canada. Situated on the Credit River, it is located approximately 55 km west of Toronto and is part of the Regional Municipality of Halton....
Presbyterian Charge, in present-day Halton Hills
Halton Hills, Ontario
Halton Hills is a town in the Regional Municipality of Halton, west of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located within the Greater Toronto Area....
, Ontario, where today the Lucy Maud Montgomery Memorial Garden can be seen from Highway 7
Highway 7 (Ontario)
King's Highway 7, commonly referred to as Highway 7 and historically as the Northern Highway, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario...
.
In 1935, upon her husband's retirement, Montgomery moved to Swansea
Swansea, Toronto
Swansea is a neighbourhood in the City of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, bounded on the west by the Humber River, on the north by Bloor Street, on the east by High Park and on the south by Lake Ontario...
, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, buying a house which she named Journey's End, situated on the Humber River
Humber River (Ontario)
The Humber River is one of two major rivers on either side of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the other being the Don River to the east. It was designated a Canadian Heritage River on September 24, 1999....
. Montgomery continued to write, publishing Anne of Windy Poplars
Anne of Windy Poplars
Anne of Windy Poplars, also published as Anne of Windy Willows in the UK, Australia and Japan, is an epistolary novel by L. M. Montgomery. First published in 1936 by McClelland and Stewart, it details Anne Shirley's experiences over three years teaching at a high school in Summerside, Prince Edward...
in 1936, Jane of Lantern Hill
Jane of Lantern Hill
Jane of Lantern Hill is a novel by Canadian author L. M. Montgomery. The book was adapted into a 1990 telefilm, Lantern Hill, by Sullivan Films, the producer of the highly popular Anne of Green Gables television miniseries and the television series Road to Avonlea.- Introduction :Montgomery began...
in 1937, and Anne of Ingleside
Anne of Ingleside
Anne of Ingleside is a children's novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. It was first published in August 1939 by George G. Harrap & Co Ltd. It is the sixth book in the chronology and the final book to be published....
in 1939.
In the last year of her life, Montgomery completed what she intended to be a ninth book featuring Anne, titled The Blythes Are Quoted
The Blythes Are Quoted
The Blythes Are Quoted is a book completed by L.M. Montgomery near the end of her life as the ninth book in her beloved Anne of Green Gables series...
. It included fifteen short stories (many of which were previously published) that she revised to include Anne and her family as mainly peripheral characters; forty-one poems (most of which were previously published) that she attributed to Anne and to her son Walter, who died as a soldier in the Great War; and vignettes featuring the Blythe family members discussing the poems. An abridged version, which shortened and reorganized the stories and omitted all the vignettes and all but one of the poems, was published as a collection of short stories The Road to Yesterday in 1974. A complete edition of The Blythes Are Quoted, edited by Benjamin Lefebvre, was published in its entirety by Viking Canada in October 2009.
Death and legacy
Coronary thrombosis
Coronary thrombosis is a form of thrombosis affecting the coronary circulation. It is associated with stenosis subsequent to clotting. The condition is considered as a type of ischaemic heart disease.It can lead to a myocardial infarction...
in Toronto. However, it was revealed by her granddaughter, Kate Macdonald Butler, in September 2008 that Montgomery suffered from depression - possibly as a result of caring for her mentally ill husband for decades - and may have taken her own life via a drug overdose. But, there is another point of view. According to Mary Rubio, who wrote a biography of Montgomery Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings (2008), the message was intended to be a journal entry rather than a suicide note.
She was buried at the Cavendish Community Cemetery in Cavendish following her wake
Wake (ceremony)
A wake is a ceremony associated with death. Traditionally, a wake takes place in the house of the deceased, with the body present; however, modern wakes are often performed at a funeral home. In the United States and Canada it is synonymous with a viewing...
in the Green Gables
Green Gables
Green Gables is the name of a circa-19th century farm in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island, Canada. It is one of the most notable literary landmarks in Canada. The Green Gables farm and its surroundings are the setting for the popular Anne of Green Gables novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery. The site is...
farmhouse and funeral in the local Presbyterian church.
During her lifetime, Montgomery published 20 novels, over 500 short stories, an autobiography, and a book of poetry. Aware of her fame, by 1920 Montgomery began editing and recopying her journals, presenting her life as she wanted it remembered. In doing so certain episodes were changed or omitted.
Her major collections are archived at the University of Guelph
University of Guelph
The University of Guelph, also known as U of G, is a comprehensive public research university in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1964 after the amalgamation of Ontario Agricultural College, the Macdonald Institute, and the Ontario Veterinary College...
, while the L.M. Montgomery Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island
University of Prince Edward Island
The University of Prince Edward Island is a public liberal arts university in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, and the sole university in the province. Founded in 1969, it traces its roots back to its two earlier predecessor organizations, St. Dunstan's University and Prince of Wales...
coordinates most of the research and conferences surrounding her work. The first biography of Montgomery was The Wheel of Things: A Biography of L.M. Montgomery, (1975) written by Mollie Gillen. Dr. Gillen also discovered over 40 of Montgomery's letters to her pen-friend George Boyd MacMillan in Scotland and used them as the basis for her work. Beginning in the 1980s, her complete journals, edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston, were published by the Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
. From 1988-95, editor Rea Wilmshurst
Rea Wilmshurst
Rea Wilmshurst graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in English in 1970. She went on to edit 8 volumes of Lucy Maud Montgomery's previously unknown short stories and publish them through McClelland & Stewart. In 1985, she published a bibliography of Montgomery's short stories,...
collected and published numerous short stories by Montgomery.
Despite the fact that Montgomery published over twenty books, "she never felt she achieved her one 'great' book." Her readership, however, has always found her characters and stories to be among the best in fiction. Mark Twain said Montgomery’s Anne was “the dearest and most moving and delightful child since the immortal Alice". Montgomery was honoured by being the first female in Canada to be named a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in England and by being invested in the Order of the British Empire in 1935.
Her fame was not limited to Canadian audiences. Anne of Green Gables became a success worldwide. For example, every year, thousands of Japanese tourists "make a pilgrimage to a green-gabled Victorian farmhouse in the town of Cavendish on Prince Edward Island...." A national park was established near Mongomery's home in Cavendish in honour of her works.
Montgomery's home of Leaskdale Manse in Ontario and the area surrounding Green Gables and her Cavendish home in Prince Edward Island have both been designated National Historic Sites of Canada. Montgomery herself was designated a Person of National Historic Significance by the Government of Canada in 1943.
Her life's work does not only live on in print but in movies, television shows and cartoons that have become enduring favorites to fans who have never even read a word she has written.
Novels
- Anne of Green GablesAnne of Green GablesAnne of Green Gables is a bestselling novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery published in 1908. Set in 1878, it was written as fiction for readers of all ages, but in recent decades has been considered a children's book...
(1908) - Anne of AvonleaAnne of Avonlea-Plot introduction:Following Anne of Green Gables , the book covers the second chapter in the life of Anne Shirley. This book follows Anne from the age of 16 to 18, during the two years that she teaches at Avonlea school. It includes many of the characters from Anne of Green Gables, as well as new...
(1909) (sequel to Anne of Green Gables) - Kilmeny of the OrchardKilmeny of the OrchardKilmeny of the Orchard is a novel by Lucy Maud Montgomery. It is the story of a young man named Eric Marshall who goes to teach a school on Prince Edward Island and meets Kilmeny, a mute girl who has perfect hearing. He sees her when he is walking in the woods and hears her playing the violin. He...
(1910) - The Story GirlThe Story GirlThe Story Girl is a 1911 novel by Canadian author L. M. Montgomery. It narrates the adventures of a group of young cousins and their friends who live in a rural community on Prince Edward Island, Canada....
(1911) - The Golden RoadThe Golden Road (1913 novel)The Golden Road is a 1913 novel by Canadian author L. M. Montgomery.-Background:As a child, Montgomery learned many stories from her great aunt Mary Lawson. She later used these in The Story Girl and The Golden Road....
(1913) (sequel to The Story Girl) - Anne of the IslandAnne of the IslandAnne of the Island is a the third book in the Anne of Green Gables series, written by Lucy Maud Montgomery about Anne Shirley.Anne of the Island was published in 1915, seven years after the bestselling Anne of Green Gables...
(1915) (sequel to Anne of Avonlea) - Anne's House of DreamsAnne's House of DreamsAnne's House of Dreams is a novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. It was first published in 1917 by McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart....
(1917) (sequel to Anne of Windy Poplars) - Rainbow ValleyRainbow ValleyRainbow Valley is the seventh book in the chronology of the Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery, although it was the fifth book published...
(1919) (sequel to Anne of Ingleside) - Rilla of InglesideRilla of InglesideRilla of Ingleside is the final book in the Anne of Green Gables series by Lucy Maud Montgomery, but was the sixth of the eight "Anne" novels she wrote. This book draws the focus back onto a single character, Anne and Gilbert's youngest daughter Bertha Marilla "Rilla" Blythe...
(1921) (sequel to Rainbow Valley) - Emily of New MoonEmily of New MoonEmily of New Moon is the first in a series of novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery about the development of a writer. It was first published in 1923.-Plot summary:...
(1923) - Emily ClimbsEmily ClimbsEmily Climbs is the second in a series of novels by Lucy Maud Montgomery. It was first published in 1925.While the legal battle with Montgomery's publishing company continued, Montgomery's husband Ewan MacDonald continued to suffer clinical depression. Montgomery, tired of writing the Anne...
(1925) (sequel to Emily of New Moon) - The Blue CastleThe Blue CastleThe Blue Castle is a 1926 novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery, best known for her novel Anne of Green Gables .The story takes place in the early 1920s in the fictional town of Deerwood, located in the Muskoka region of Ontario, Canada. Deerwood is based on Bala, Ontario, which Montgomery...
(1926) - Emily's QuestEmily's QuestEmily's Quest is a novel and the last of the Emily trilogy by Lucy Maud Montgomery. After finishing Emily Climbs, Montgomery suspended writing Emily's Quest and published The Blue Castle; she resumed writing and published in 1927....
(1927) (sequel to Emily Climbs) - Magic for MarigoldMagic for MarigoldMagic for Marigold is a novel written by L. M. Montgomery.-Synopsis:Marigold Lesley is an imaginative young girl whose father died before she was born, and subsequently grew up at her paternal relatives' estate, Cloud of Spruce...
(1929) - A Tangled WebA Tangled WebA Tangled Web is a novel by L. M. Montgomery. It is one of the few books she published that was written mainly for adults. It centers around a community consisting mainly of two families, the Penhallows and the Darks...
(1931) - Pat of Silver BushPat of Silver BushPat of Silver Bush is a novel written by Lucy Maud Montgomery, noted for her Anne of Green Gables series. It portrays a girl named Patricia Gardiner, who hates changes of any kind and loves her home, Silver Bush, more than anything else in the world...
(1933) - Mistress PatMistress PatMistress Pat is a novel written by L. M. Montgomery. It is the sequel to Pat of Silver Bush, and describes Patricia Gardiner's life in her twenties and early thirties, during which she remained single and took care of her beloved home, Silver Bush...
(1935) (sequel to Pat of Silver Bush) - Anne of Windy PoplarsAnne of Windy PoplarsAnne of Windy Poplars, also published as Anne of Windy Willows in the UK, Australia and Japan, is an epistolary novel by L. M. Montgomery. First published in 1936 by McClelland and Stewart, it details Anne Shirley's experiences over three years teaching at a high school in Summerside, Prince Edward...
(1936) (sequel to Anne of the Island) - Jane of Lantern HillJane of Lantern HillJane of Lantern Hill is a novel by Canadian author L. M. Montgomery. The book was adapted into a 1990 telefilm, Lantern Hill, by Sullivan Films, the producer of the highly popular Anne of Green Gables television miniseries and the television series Road to Avonlea.- Introduction :Montgomery began...
(1937) - Anne of InglesideAnne of InglesideAnne of Ingleside is a children's novel by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. It was first published in August 1939 by George G. Harrap & Co Ltd. It is the sixth book in the chronology and the final book to be published....
(1939) (sequel to Anne's House of Dreams) - The Blythes Are QuotedThe Blythes Are QuotedThe Blythes Are Quoted is a book completed by L.M. Montgomery near the end of her life as the ninth book in her beloved Anne of Green Gables series...
, edited by Benjamin Lefebvre (2009) (sequel to Rilla of Ingleside)
Short story collections
- Chronicles of AvonleaChronicles of AvonleaChronicles of Avonlea is a collection of short stories by L. M. Montgomery, related to the Anne of Green Gables series. It features an abundance of stories relating to the fictional Canadian village of Avonlea, and was first published in 1912....
(1912) - Further Chronicles of AvonleaFurther Chronicles of AvonleaFurther Chronicles of Avonlea is a collection of short stories by L. M. Montgomery and is a sequel to Chronicles of Avonlea. Published in 1920, it includes a number of stories relating to the inhabitants of the fictional Canadian village of Avonlea and its region, located on Prince Edward Island.-...
(1920) - The Road to Yesterday (1974)
- The Doctor's Sweetheart, selected by Catherine McLay (1979)
- Akin to Anne: Tales of Other Orphans, edited by Rea Wilmshurst (1988)
- Along the Shore: Tales by the Sea, edited by Rea Wilmshurst (1989)
- Among the Shadows: Tales from the Darker Side, edited by Rea Wilmshurst (1990)
- After Many Days: Tales of Time Passed, edited by Rea Wilmshurst (1991)
- Against the Odds: Tales of Achievement, edited by Rea Wilmshurst (1993)
- At the Altar: Matrimonial Tales, edited by Rea Wilmshurst (1994)
- Across the Miles: Tales of Correspondence, edited by Rea Wilmshurst (1995)
- Christmas with Anne and Other Holiday Stories, edited by Rea Wilmshurst (1995)
Short stories by chronological order
- Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories: 1896 to 1901 (2008) ISBN 978-1406565102
- Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories: 1902 to 1903 (2008) ISBN 978-1406565119
- Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories: 1904 (2008) ISBN 978-1406565126
- Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories: 1905 to 1906 (2008) ISBN 978-1406565133
- Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories: 1907 to 1908 (2008) ISBN 978-1406565140
- Lucy Maud Montgomery Short Stories: 1909 to 1922 (2008) ISBN 978-1406565157
Poetry
- The Watchman & Other Poems (1916)
- The Poetry of Lucy Maud Montgomery, selected by John Ferns and Kevin McCabe (1987)
Autobiography
- The Alpine Path: The Story of My CareerThe Alpine Path: The Story of My CareerThe Alpine Path is an autobiography of Lucy Maud Montgomery. Originally published as series of autobiographical essay in the Toronto magazine Everywoman's World from June to November in 1917, and later separately published in 1975.-External links:...
(1975; originally published in Everywoman's World in 1917) - The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery (5 vols.), edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston (1985–2004)
Texts, images and collections
- Works by L M Montgomery at Project Gutenberg Australia
- Picturing A Canadian Life: L.M. Montgomery's Personal Scrapbooks and Book Covers
- L.M. Montgomery Collection at the University of Guelph Library, Archival and Special Collections, contains her personal journals, scrapbooks, and more than 800 items
- Representative Poetry Online
- Lucy Maud Montgomery's contract for Anne of Green Gables, 1907
Organizations
- The L.M. Montgomery Literary Society This site includes information about Montgomery's works and life and research from the newsletter, The Shining Scroll.
- L.M. Montgomery Institute
- L.M. Montgomery Research Centre Highlights the extensive L.M. Montgomery collection at the University of Guelph Library Archival & Special Collections.
- Leaskdale Manse National Historic Site of Canada
- The L.M. Montgomery Research Group is a site that includes a blog, an extensive bibliography of reference materials, and a complete filmography of all adaptations of Montgomery texts.