L. M. Montgomery

Lucy Maud Montgomery was one of Canada’s most beloved and successful authors. Before Montgomery was two years old, her mother Clara died of tuberculosis. Her father Hugh soon remarried, and Montgomery was raised by her grandparents, the MacNeills, in nearby Cavendish. (Cavendish later became the basis for Avonlea in Montgomery’s fiction.) Montgomery’s childhood was lonely, and she found comfort in her imagination; she published her first poem at age 15. In 1894, she earned a teaching license and taught for one year, then studied at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. At the time, it was relatively rare for women to attend university. In 1901–2, she worked for the Daily Echo newspaper in Halifax. In 1909, Anne of Green Gables, which had originally been published as a Sunday School serial, became a bestseller, quickly garnering an international following. Montgomery followed it up with Anne of Avonlea and Kilmeny of the Orchard before marrying the Reverend Ewan Macdonald in 1911. They settled in Ontario, where Montgomery had three sons, Chester, Hugh, and Ewan. Their life could be difficult because both she and her husband struggled with depression. Despite her unhappiness, writing was Montgomery’s solace, and she wrote prolifically—six more Anne novels, the Emily of New Moon trilogy, nine other novels, and more than 500 short stories. Montgomery received numerous honors during her lifetime, including Officer of the Order of the British Empire. She died a year before her husband, and both are buried in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island.