Just like any young girl growing up, I became fascinated with the Anne of Green Gables series by L.M. Montgomery. All but one of her twenty novels took place on her beloved Prince Edward Island in eastern Canada. Although Lucy Maud suffered hardships, she overcame them and wrote the most beautiful novels about love, life, and nature.
Lucy Maud Montgomery was born in Prince Edward Island on November 1874. When she was just 21 months old, her mother died of tuberculosis and was then sent to live with her maternal grandparents. Her father moved to western Canada and remarried. Lucy loved Prince Edward Island. It was where she became immersed in the nature around her and began writing. It wasn’t until she was taking English literature courses at a university in Nova Scotia that she received her first payments for her writing.
After her grandfather died in 1898, Lucy moved back in with her grandmother to take care of her. She lived with her grandmother for the next thirteen years. It was during this time that Lucy began sending poems, short stories, and serials to Canadian, British, and American magazines. It wasn’t until 1907 that she published her first novel, Anne of Green Gables, and became a bestseller.
She went on to write five more Anne of Green Gables novels and one novel about Anne’s eldest daughter, Rilla. L.M. is also known for her Emily of New Moon books, of which there are three. Although I love the Anne of Green Gables series, there is another book that is dear to my heart. The Blue Castle was published in 1926 when she was fifty-two. This book is about a woman in her early thirties that is tired of being stifled by her family and ends up married to mysterious stranger because she thinks she’s dying. The book is called the Blue Castle since that is the young woman’s fantasy house when she daydreams to escape her day-to-day life. Filled with drama, romance, and lots of laughter, this book is a must read.
Besides novels, she wrote several short stories. Quite a few of them center around Anne of Green Gables. But my favorite of these is entitled, At the Altar: Matrimonial Tales. This is just a collection of short stories about marriage proposals set in Prince Edward Island. It is perfect for the romantic at heart. L.M. Montgomery never lived on Prince Edward Island again after her marriage to Reverend Macdonald in 1911. Despite suffering from several personal and world events, she continued to write and express her love for the people, community, and nature of Prince Edward Island.