Difference between revisions of "Lucy Maud Montgomery" - New World Encyclopedia
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==Childhood== | ==Childhood== | ||
| − | Even though Lucy Maud Montgomery has captured the world over with her descriptions of idyllic life in Prince Edward Island, her | + | Even though Lucy Maud Montgomery has captured the world over with her descriptions of idyllic life in Prince Edward Island, her childhood was far from ideal. Montgomery was born on November 30, 1874 to Clara Woolner Macneill Montgomery and Hugh John Montgomery. The family lived in the small town of [[Clifton, Prince Edward Island|Clifton]] (now [[New London, Prince Edward Island|New London]]), [[Prince Edward Island]]. By the time Maud was two years old, she had lost both her mother and her father. Her mother died after suffering from a bout of tuberculosis. Her father was unable to deal with the grief he felt and trying to raise a daughter alone. Hugh decided to move and settle in the western territories of Canada, where he remarried a lady named Mary McRae. Hugh Montgomery left his small daughter with Clara's parents, Alexander and Lucy Macneill (for whom Lucy Maud was named for), in the small community of [[Cavendish]], Prince Edward Island. Maud had a difficult and lonely upbringing with only two elderly people for company. In fact, many of her ideas for stories came to her as she had to invent and imagine playmates and parents. She lived through her imagination, beginning to write poetry and stories at a very young age. She also found comfort and solace in the beautiful island that was her home. She often walked along the sea shores and strolled through forests with her journal. At this time she also became an avid reader, often living vicariously through the novels she read. The only alleviation to the loneliness she felt were sporadic visits to Silver Bush, the farmhouse of her Uncle John and Aunt Annie Campbell and their children. Maud reveled in these visits with her cousins, desiring to make them last as long as possible. |
| − | At the age of six, it was time to begin her education in a small schoolhouse located in the heart of Cavendish. | + | At the age of six, it was time to begin her education in a small schoolhouse located in the heart of Cavendish. Maud completed several years here, except for the year 1890-1891, when she went to live with her father and his new wife in [[Prince Albert, Saskatchewan|Prince Albert]], [[Saskatchewan]]. Nothing much is known about that year with her father, except that her first writing success was to come from her time in Prince Albert. Maud's poem, "On Cape LeForce", was published in the local newspaper ''The Patriot''. It is assumed that the relation between Maud, her father, and new stepmother was not happy, and Maud was sent back to Cavendish to live with her grandparents once again. She arrived too late to begin the school year, and had to take her tenth grade course the following year. However, Maud was a quick learner and a dedicated student. She surpassed many of her classmates and was accepted to [[Prince of Wales College]] in Charlottetown. She made up for the missed year of school by completing the two year teacher's course in just one year and graduating with honors. |
==Career== | ==Career== | ||
| − | After her successful graduation from Prince of Wales College, | + | After her successful graduation from Prince of Wales College, Maud began her career as a teacher, teaching for three years at three different schools on Prince Edward Island: Bideford, Belmont, and Lower Bedeque. During these stints as a teacher, Maud took a year to pursue higher education, something that was very unconventional for a woman to do at that time. She studied English at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia|Halifax, Nova Scotia. As she studied, she continued to pursue a writing career and received her first payments for her work while attending Dalhousie. |
| − | + | Maud completed a year at the University, and then returned to teaching. It was while she was teaching at Lower Bedeque in 1898, that her grandfather passed away. Leaving her post immediately, Maud returned to Cavendish. Her grandmother, now a widow, was all alone and faced the predicament of finding a new place to live. Maud wouldn't hear of this, and returned to live with her grandmother, taking over the household duties and finances. Maud was very selfless, caring for her grandmother for the next thirteen years of her life. There was a brief period of time in 1901 and 1902 where Maud did leave Cavendish, with her grandmother's urgings. Maud was offered a job working for ''The Daily Echo'' in Halifax. After nine months, however, she saw that her grandmother's needs were greater than her career, and she returned to Cavendish. | |
| − | These long and often lonely years with her grandmother would prove to be just the solitude | + | These long and often lonely years with her grandmother would prove to be just the solitude Maud needed to give total dedication to her writings. She spent most of her day's writing poetry and short-stories, trying to get them published. Maud expanded her horizons and began sending work to publishers in Canada, American, and Britain. She, like most writers, faced a great amount of rejection. But, finally, she found a small audience for her work and started earning an income. It is estimated that in 1899 Maud brought home $96.88, which was a nice sum for that time period. |
| − | + | The milestone in Lucy Maud Montgomery's life came in 1905 when she wrote her first novel. It was a charming and heart-warming story about a red-headed orphan girl named Anne (with an 'e') Shirley. It took Maud two years to find a publisher, but finally in 1907, The Page Company of Boston, Massachusetts found the book delightful, and published it in 1908. [[''Anne of Green Gables'']] was an immediate success and put Maud on the map as a successful new novelist. She published the book under her pen name, L.M. Montgomery. All but one of her twenty novels were set in her beloved Prince Edward Island. A tiny and insignificant place to most of the world, Prince Edward Island has now drawn in more tourists than could have been imagined. Dedicated fans of Montgomery's novels frequent the island to see the places and people that Maud so lovingly and accurately brought to life. | |
| − | + | ==Married Life== | |
| − | + | In 1911, Maud was to leave the Island she loved so much. Following the death of her grandmother, she married Ewan Macdonald, whom she had secretly been engaged to since 1906. Maud did not have many romantic suitors, only two that she recollects in her journals, and she was often considered a spinster by the town. Needless to say, it was a shock to many when, at the age of 37, she finally married. Ewan was a [[Presbyterian Church in Canada|Presbyterian Minister]]. Soon after the wedding the couple moved to Leaskdale, [[Ontario]] where Ewan had taken the position of minister of [[St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Leaskdale]] in present-day [[Uxbridge, Ontario|Uxbridge Township]]. This marked the last time that Montgomery would ever live on Prince Edward Island, however, she revisited it often in her writings. | |
| − | + | The couple soon became a family as Maud gave birth to a son, Chester Cameron Macdonald in 1912. In 1914, Maud gave birth to another son, Hugh Alexander Macdonald, who died at birth. This was a tragedy in Maud's life, one that she never quite recovered from. She threw herself into the duties of a minister's wife, often giving care and service to congregation members, and taking none for herself. The very next year, 1915, Maud gave birth to her final child (Ewan) Stuart Macdonald. Besides being a very attentive and active mother, Maud also helped her husband in his many duties, organized charity events, and still continued to write novel after novel. In all, Maud wrote eleven books while living in the Leaskdale Manse in Ontario. The manse was sold by the church to the city and is now the site of a very popular tourist attraction, The Lucy Maud Montgomery Leaskdale Manse Museum. | |
| − | + | In 1926, the family moved out of the Manse and into the [[Norval Presbyterian Charge]], in present-day [[Halton Hills, Ontario|Halton Hills]], Ontario. This too, has been set up as a memorial to Montgomery and is the present day site of the Lucy Maud Montgomery Memorial Garden. Maud was an avid writer of letters as well as books, and her friends, family, and fans were impressed at the correspondence she kept up with all of them. She also diligently wrote in her journal. Recording her depression at the death of her son, her political and emotional thoughts and feelings concerning World War I, and most of all, her relationship with her husband and sons. | |
| − | + | Married life was not always blissful for Maud, as Ewan suffered greatly from various types of moody depression. In her journals she wrote down all her feelings and difficult moments that influenced and afflicted her life, and in her novels she recorded all her memories of beauty, nature, peace, and humor of Prince Edward Island. | |
| + | |||
| + | After Ewan's retirement, the couple moved to [[Toronto]] to be close to their children. Lucy Maud Montgomery died in Toronto on April 24, 1942. At her request she was taken back once again to Prince Edward Island to be buried at the [[Cavendish Community Cemetery]] in Cavendish, close to the site of her childhood home. Her husband died one year later. | ||
| + | |||
| + | The [[Lucy Maud Montgomery Institute]] at the [[University of Prince Edward Island]] is dedicated to the publication, appreciation, and information concerning Montgomery's works. | ||
==Novels== | ==Novels== | ||
| − | |||
*1908 - ''[[Anne of Green Gables]]'' | *1908 - ''[[Anne of Green Gables]]'' | ||
*1909 - ''Anne of Avonlea'' | *1909 - ''Anne of Avonlea'' | ||
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*1939 - ''Anne of Ingleside'' | *1939 - ''Anne of Ingleside'' | ||
| − | ==Short | + | ==Short-Stories== |
*1912 - ''Chronicles of Avonlea'' | *1912 - ''Chronicles of Avonlea'' | ||
*1920 - ''Further Chronicles of Avonlea'' | *1920 - ''Further Chronicles of Avonlea'' | ||
| Line 71: | Line 74: | ||
==Non-fiction== | ==Non-fiction== | ||
*1934 - ''Courageous Women'' (with Marian Keith and Mabel Burns McKinley) | *1934 - ''Courageous Women'' (with Marian Keith and Mabel Burns McKinley) | ||
| − | |||
| − | |||
*1974 - ''The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career'' | *1974 - ''The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career'' | ||
Revision as of 18:36, 17 July 2006
Lucy Maud Montgomery, or "Maud" as she was known to all who were close to her, is one of Canada's most beloved authors. A writer of poetry, short-stories, and over twenty novels, she is most famously known for her series of books that brought to life spunky orphan, Anne Shirley. Anne of Green Gables was the first of seven novels that deal with Anne's adventurous youth, her marriage, and finally, motherhood.
Childhood
Even though Lucy Maud Montgomery has captured the world over with her descriptions of idyllic life in Prince Edward Island, her childhood was far from ideal. Montgomery was born on November 30, 1874 to Clara Woolner Macneill Montgomery and Hugh John Montgomery. The family lived in the small town of Clifton (now New London), Prince Edward Island. By the time Maud was two years old, she had lost both her mother and her father. Her mother died after suffering from a bout of tuberculosis. Her father was unable to deal with the grief he felt and trying to raise a daughter alone. Hugh decided to move and settle in the western territories of Canada, where he remarried a lady named Mary McRae. Hugh Montgomery left his small daughter with Clara's parents, Alexander and Lucy Macneill (for whom Lucy Maud was named for), in the small community of Cavendish, Prince Edward Island. Maud had a difficult and lonely upbringing with only two elderly people for company. In fact, many of her ideas for stories came to her as she had to invent and imagine playmates and parents. She lived through her imagination, beginning to write poetry and stories at a very young age. She also found comfort and solace in the beautiful island that was her home. She often walked along the sea shores and strolled through forests with her journal. At this time she also became an avid reader, often living vicariously through the novels she read. The only alleviation to the loneliness she felt were sporadic visits to Silver Bush, the farmhouse of her Uncle John and Aunt Annie Campbell and their children. Maud reveled in these visits with her cousins, desiring to make them last as long as possible.
At the age of six, it was time to begin her education in a small schoolhouse located in the heart of Cavendish. Maud completed several years here, except for the year 1890-1891, when she went to live with her father and his new wife in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Nothing much is known about that year with her father, except that her first writing success was to come from her time in Prince Albert. Maud's poem, "On Cape LeForce", was published in the local newspaper The Patriot. It is assumed that the relation between Maud, her father, and new stepmother was not happy, and Maud was sent back to Cavendish to live with her grandparents once again. She arrived too late to begin the school year, and had to take her tenth grade course the following year. However, Maud was a quick learner and a dedicated student. She surpassed many of her classmates and was accepted to Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown. She made up for the missed year of school by completing the two year teacher's course in just one year and graduating with honors.
Career
After her successful graduation from Prince of Wales College, Maud began her career as a teacher, teaching for three years at three different schools on Prince Edward Island: Bideford, Belmont, and Lower Bedeque. During these stints as a teacher, Maud took a year to pursue higher education, something that was very unconventional for a woman to do at that time. She studied English at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia|Halifax, Nova Scotia. As she studied, she continued to pursue a writing career and received her first payments for her work while attending Dalhousie.
Maud completed a year at the University, and then returned to teaching. It was while she was teaching at Lower Bedeque in 1898, that her grandfather passed away. Leaving her post immediately, Maud returned to Cavendish. Her grandmother, now a widow, was all alone and faced the predicament of finding a new place to live. Maud wouldn't hear of this, and returned to live with her grandmother, taking over the household duties and finances. Maud was very selfless, caring for her grandmother for the next thirteen years of her life. There was a brief period of time in 1901 and 1902 where Maud did leave Cavendish, with her grandmother's urgings. Maud was offered a job working for The Daily Echo in Halifax. After nine months, however, she saw that her grandmother's needs were greater than her career, and she returned to Cavendish.
These long and often lonely years with her grandmother would prove to be just the solitude Maud needed to give total dedication to her writings. She spent most of her day's writing poetry and short-stories, trying to get them published. Maud expanded her horizons and began sending work to publishers in Canada, American, and Britain. She, like most writers, faced a great amount of rejection. But, finally, she found a small audience for her work and started earning an income. It is estimated that in 1899 Maud brought home $96.88, which was a nice sum for that time period.
The milestone in Lucy Maud Montgomery's life came in 1905 when she wrote her first novel. It was a charming and heart-warming story about a red-headed orphan girl named Anne (with an 'e') Shirley. It took Maud two years to find a publisher, but finally in 1907, The Page Company of Boston, Massachusetts found the book delightful, and published it in 1908. ''Anne of Green Gables'' was an immediate success and put Maud on the map as a successful new novelist. She published the book under her pen name, L.M. Montgomery. All but one of her twenty novels were set in her beloved Prince Edward Island. A tiny and insignificant place to most of the world, Prince Edward Island has now drawn in more tourists than could have been imagined. Dedicated fans of Montgomery's novels frequent the island to see the places and people that Maud so lovingly and accurately brought to life.
Married Life
In 1911, Maud was to leave the Island she loved so much. Following the death of her grandmother, she married Ewan Macdonald, whom she had secretly been engaged to since 1906. Maud did not have many romantic suitors, only two that she recollects in her journals, and she was often considered a spinster by the town. Needless to say, it was a shock to many when, at the age of 37, she finally married. Ewan was a Presbyterian Minister. Soon after the wedding the couple moved to Leaskdale, Ontario where Ewan had taken the position of minister of St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Leaskdale in present-day Uxbridge Township. This marked the last time that Montgomery would ever live on Prince Edward Island, however, she revisited it often in her writings.
The couple soon became a family as Maud gave birth to a son, Chester Cameron Macdonald in 1912. In 1914, Maud gave birth to another son, Hugh Alexander Macdonald, who died at birth. This was a tragedy in Maud's life, one that she never quite recovered from. She threw herself into the duties of a minister's wife, often giving care and service to congregation members, and taking none for herself. The very next year, 1915, Maud gave birth to her final child (Ewan) Stuart Macdonald. Besides being a very attentive and active mother, Maud also helped her husband in his many duties, organized charity events, and still continued to write novel after novel. In all, Maud wrote eleven books while living in the Leaskdale Manse in Ontario. The manse was sold by the church to the city and is now the site of a very popular tourist attraction, The Lucy Maud Montgomery Leaskdale Manse Museum.
In 1926, the family moved out of the Manse and into the Norval Presbyterian Charge, in present-day Halton Hills, Ontario. This too, has been set up as a memorial to Montgomery and is the present day site of the Lucy Maud Montgomery Memorial Garden. Maud was an avid writer of letters as well as books, and her friends, family, and fans were impressed at the correspondence she kept up with all of them. She also diligently wrote in her journal. Recording her depression at the death of her son, her political and emotional thoughts and feelings concerning World War I, and most of all, her relationship with her husband and sons.
Married life was not always blissful for Maud, as Ewan suffered greatly from various types of moody depression. In her journals she wrote down all her feelings and difficult moments that influenced and afflicted her life, and in her novels she recorded all her memories of beauty, nature, peace, and humor of Prince Edward Island.
After Ewan's retirement, the couple moved to Toronto to be close to their children. Lucy Maud Montgomery died in Toronto on April 24, 1942. At her request she was taken back once again to Prince Edward Island to be buried at the Cavendish Community Cemetery in Cavendish, close to the site of her childhood home. Her husband died one year later.
The Lucy Maud Montgomery Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island is dedicated to the publication, appreciation, and information concerning Montgomery's works.
Novels
- 1908 - Anne of Green Gables
- 1909 - Anne of Avonlea
- 1910 - Kilmeny of the Orchard
- 1911 - The Story Girl
- 1913 - The Golden Road (sequel to The Story Girl)
- 1915 - Anne of the Island
- 1917 - Anne's House of Dreams
- 1919 - Rainbow Valley
- 1920 - Rilla of Ingleside
- 1923 - Emily of New Moon
- 1925 - Emily Climbs
- 1926 - The Blue Castle
- 1927 - Emily's Quest
- 1929 - Magic for Marigold
- 1931 - A Tangled Web
- 1933 - Pat of Silver Bush
- 1935 - Mistress Pat (sequel to Pat of Silver Bush)
- 1936 - Anne of Windy Poplars
- 1937 - Jane of Lantern Hill
- 1939 - Anne of Ingleside
Short-Stories
- 1912 - Chronicles of Avonlea
- 1920 - Further Chronicles of Avonlea
- 1974 - The Road to Yesterday
- 1979 - The Doctor's Sweetheart
- 1988 - Akin to Anne: Tales of Other Orphans
- 1989 - Along the Shore: Tales by the Sea
- 1990 - Among the Shadows: Tales from the Darker Side
- 1991 - After Many Days: Tales of Time Passed
- 1993 - Against the Odds: Tales of Achievement
- 1994 - At the Altar: Matrimonial Tales
- 1995 - Across the Miles: Tales of Correspondence
- 1995 - Christmas with Anne and Other Holiday Stories
Poetry
- 1916 - The Watchman & Other Poems
- 1987 - The Poetry of Lucy Maud Montgomery
Non-fiction
- 1934 - Courageous Women (with Marian Keith and Mabel Burns McKinley)
- 1974 - The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career
External links
- Works by Lucy Maud Montgomery. Project Gutenberg
- Picturing A Canadian Life: L.M. Montgomery's Personal Scrapbooks and Book Covers
- Lucy Maud Montgomery Institute
- An L.M. Montgomery Resource Page is an excellent collection.
- Little More Montgomery has information on the author's life in Ontario
- Anne in Japan FAQ 1.0 provides basic information as to Montgomery's popularity in Japan.
- Representative Poetry Online
- Famous Canadians
- Anne3.com Home of the Sullivan Anne of Green Gables trilogy with info on the movies and the Avonlea Message Boards
- Lucy Maud Montgomery Leaskdale Manse Museum Website
- Ontario Historical Site Marker at Leasksdale
- Interesting essay on the connections between LM Montgomery's life and her fiction
- L.M. Montgomery Collection at the University of Guelph Library, Archival and Special Collections, contains her personal journals, scrapbooks, and more than 800 items
- CBC Digital Archives - Beyond Green Gables: The Life of Lucy Maud Montgomery
- Avonlea Treasures - fansite
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