Lucy Maude Montgomery the Life

Lucy Maude Montgomery

The Life and Works of Lucy Maud Montgomery

Since the publication of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables in 1908, millions and millions of young readers around the world have been transported to the author's idyllic childhood home of Prince Edward Island where she lived much of her life. The popularity of this first book resulted in several sequels and other books, but Montgomery was also a prolific contributor to other publications as well. This paper provides a review of the peer-reviewed, scholarly and popular literature to develop a biography of the author, an overview of her major works, and what influence she has had on modern Canadian literature. A summary of the research and salient findings are presented in the conclusion.

Review and Discussion

Lucy Maud Montgomery (born November 30, 1874, died 1942), was a Canadian author who is most popularly known as the author of Anne of Green Gables (1908) (Bloom, 1998; Merriman, 2007). According to this biographer, "Montgomery was born into a long line of Scots-Canadian ancestors who first settled in Prince Edward Island [PEI] in the late 1770s. Among their numbers were successful farmers, businessmen, and politicians. Lucy Maud was born on 30 November 1874 in the village of Clifton (now New London), Prince Edward Island, Canada (Merriman). Her birthplace is now preserved as it was in her time" (Merriman, p. 2). "Maud," as she was called by her friends, was the only daughter of Hugh John Montgomery (1841-1900) and Clara 'Tillie' Woolner Macneill (1853-1876); her mother died of tuberculosis before Maud turned 2 years old (Merriman) and her father traveled west in search of better opportunities (Bloom). These were formative experiences in the author's life and these early years would be influenced primarily by her maternal grandparents. According to Merriman, "The newly orphaned Maud subsequently lived with her maternal grandparents Alexander Marquis Macneill (1820-1898) and Lucy Ann Woolner Macneill (1824-1911), staunch Presbyterians who maintained the Post Office for Cavendish, on PEI's north shore. Their rambling farm was the inspiration for 'Green Gables,' now part of the Prince Edward Island Provincial Park, established in 1937" (Merriman, p. 3).

By contrast, according to Bloom (1998), Montgomery was raised on the small seaside settlement of Cavendish on Prince Edward Island. This biographer agrees that when she was less than two years old, her mother, Clara MacNeill Montgomery, died of tuberculosis and notes that her father, previously a shopkeeper, left Maud in the care of her maternal grandparents and "went west" (p. 82). According to this biographer, "Lucy and Alexander MacNeill were of old Scotts stock, severe in their Presbyterian beliefs, and Lucy Maud's sensitive, artistic temperament was antithetical to the ethos of her grandparents and their farming community. The natural beauty that surrounded her, however, and her pleasure in keeping a journal provided solace in her otherwise isolated childhood" (Bloom, p. 82). As Vaughan (1998) points out, this setting was indeed inspirational: "In this tranquil setting, Lucy Maude Montgomery invented Anne of Green Gables, and you would not be surprised to see Anne dancing through a field of flowers or kicking up the sand in the dunes" (p. 22).

Maud and her father were reunited years later, though. According to Bloom, Maud's father sent for her to join him and his new wife, and their two children in Saskatchewan in 1890. Nevertheless, this reunion was to be short-lived. As Bloom reports, "Despite her pleasure in being reunited with her father, her stay lasted only a year, for her stepmother exploited her as a wageless housekeeper and nanny. The publication of a poem and an article on the beauties of Saskatchewan in various newspapers during this time somewhat alleviated her frustration and her homesickness for the beauty of her island home" (p. 82). Following Maud's return to her childhood home of Cavendish, she enrolled in the Prince of Wales College, where she attained a teaching license (Bloom). Thereafter, Maud taught for a year in Bideford and used the money she made to further her education at Dalhousie College in Halifax (Bloom). According to Bloom, "Shortly thereafter, she fell in love with a farmer, but, despite the intensity of her sexual attraction to him, she felt that their class difference was too great to overcome. News of her grandfather's death gave her an escape from this dilemma, and she returned to Cavendish to care for her grandmother" (p. 82).

During the period from 1901 to 1911, Maud lived primarily with her grandmother; however, she left for short periods of time to work as a columnist and editor at the Halifax Daily Echo and to establish her career as a writer (Bloom). According to this biographer, "In 1906 she became engaged to Ewan MacDonald, a minister at the Cavendish Presbyterian church, despite her distaste for the life of a minister's wife and her lack of passion for Ewan; she convinced him to postpone the wedding until after her grandmother's death" (Bloom, p. 83). During this 5-year period, Maud was highly prolific and penned and then published her first and most popular novel, Anne of Green Gables (1908), along with three sequels (Bloom). For example, Anne of the Island (1915), was one of the sequels to Anne of Green Gables series that was set around 1900 (Garvey, 1996). Anne of Green Gables was an enormous success and the popularity of the series has contributed to the appeal of her childhood home of Prince Edward Island as an international tourist destination (Merriman). As this biographer enthuses, "Now almost a century later her works remain in print and continue to inspire stage, television, and film adaptations" (Merriman, 2007, p. 2).

Besides writing books, Montgomery was also a contributor to periodicals such as "The Delineator." During the period 1894 through 1926, this was a magazine of "American Fashion" for the world and one of the "Big Six" women's magazines at the turn of the 20th century (Endres & Lueck, 1995). According to these authors, "The Delineator not only featured fashion, homemaking, and child care but also brought plays, theater, opera, literature, and poetry into the lives of its readership. Regular articles in the magazine published plays that women's clubs could produce, synopses of popular operas, and reports of women's literary clubs. The publication also conducted writing contests for aspiring writers" (p. 64).

A list of books written by Montgomery is provided in Table 1 below.