If you know nothing else of Canada, you have probably heard of Anne of Green Gables. A precocious red-head wandering around Prince Edward Island, constantly daydreaming and exploring her world. You might know of the author behind it, L.M. Montgomery, though that isn’t a given. She is a Canadian literary icon, and if you grow up in Canada, you tend to have read at least one of her books. (Or at least, you did if you were a girl, and you grew up in a time when the reading groups were largely assigned by gender…) She deserves a lot more of our attention, though. At a time when women’s roles were largely in the home as wife and mother, Montgomery established her own career. She bucked societal trends, and should be celebrated far more than she is. So to start L.M. Montgomery Month: who was L.M. Montgomery?
A quick note: Lucy Maud Montgomery went by Maud, not by Lucy. In childhood she was sometimes called Lucy-Maud or Maudie, but for her adult life, she was known as Maud. If you are searching for anything related, be on the lookout for Maud.
Why I Think You Should Know Lucy Maud Montgomery
Aside from general Canadian pride for her, I think that Maud is still very relevant in the twenty first century. In some ways, she had very traditional views. She was a dedicated Presbyterian, and her families’ strong stances were evident throughout her life. However, I also feel like we in 2021 have much in common with her. She struggled with mental health issues for much of her adult life (though they wouldn’t have been recognised as such then), and she made a public career for herself long before it was the norm for women. I think that all of us can learn something from her life, and it deserves far more attention.
Lucy Maud Montgomery- A Difficult Childhood
Maud was born in Clifton, PEI on 30 November 1874 to Clara Woolner Macneil Montgomery and Hugh John Montgomery. Both families were pillars in the community, with long established family dynamics and expectations. (You can see this in pretty much all of her works. For example, in the Emily trilogy, you have the Murrays and the Priests with Shakespearean levels of drama, both within the family and with the other.)
Maud’s mother died of tuberculosis shortly before she turned 2. Her father didn’t cope well with her death at all, and while he remained on the island, he left her in the care of her Macneil grandparents in Cavendish. In the early 1880s, he moved to Prince Albert, now in Saskatchewan. (If you are unfamiliar with Canadian geography, that’s more than half the way across Canada. Driving distances now are 4208km/2614miles, but obviously would have taken far longer then.) Despite having many relatives around, essentially all of the time, Maud’s childhood was rather lonely. To cope with everything, she came up with imaginary friends- this would be the basis for her writing career.
To The Prairies and Back
In 1890, Maud moved to Fort Albert to live with her father and stepmother. It was a long journey across the country, but she was able to reunite with her father. Unfortunately, it wasn’t too much of a home for her- she did not get along with her stepmother in the least. There was a positive to her time spent on the prairies, though. Her first published piece of work appeared in The Patriot, a Charlottetown newspaper. Another piece was published in the newspaper, detailing one of her visits to a First Nations camp there.
Given that her life in Prince Albert wasn’t a particularly happy one, she was ecstatic to return to Prince Edward Island. Though she had to wait some months before being able to rejoin the school, she finished her high school education. After high school, she completed her two year teaching certificate at the Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown. While she never loved teaching, it did allow her financial stability to continue writing. In 1895 and 1896, she was able to study literature at Dalhousie University.
Who Was Maud’s Gilbert Blythe?
Unlike Austen, we know who several of Maud’s beaus were. She grew incredibly close with Nate Lockhart in 1889, but it was only a friendship to her, and she refused his proposal of marriage. A few years later her teacher, John A. Mustard, also pursued her. Maud was largely unimpressed with his continual theological monologues, and declined his marriage proposal, as well. Will Pritchard, a brother of one of her friends, proposed, but she also saw him as only a friend. Edwin Simpson, a local student, proposed to her in 1897. She did accept his proposal, on the basis that she would need support and protection (like most women in the period). However, she eventually grew to dislike him and broke off the engagement.
Hermann Leard was the great love of Maud’s life. She was teaching in Lower Bedeque, and she lived in his family’s boarding house. Interesting, she was far more progressive than most women in the period (or what they would have you believe). While they didn’t fully consummate their relationship, they engaged in various sexual activities. Although she loved him, she ended the relationship due to her friends and families’ poor opinions of Leard.
Anne of Green Gables Appears
In 1898 Maud moved back to Cavendish to care for her grandmother. She continued to write for various Canadian, American, and British magazines and journals, and earned a substantial living for them. She wrote the first draft of the now famous Anne of Green Gables in 1905. Not quite happy with it, she put it away until 1907 when she reread and edited it, and sent it away for publishing. A Boston publisher, the Page Company, accepted it and Anne of Green Gables was published in 1908. It was immediately popular, and hasn’t really lagged to this day. In the first year alone, it went through six Canadian printings.
A Marriage and A Move
After her grandmother’s death in 1911, Maud married Ewan Macdonald. The two had secretly been engaged as early as 1906, but didn’t marry until July of 1911. Macdonald was a Presbyterian minister, and they moved to Leaksdale (now Uxbridge), Ontario. They lived in the Leaskdale Manse from 1911 to 1922, and Maud wrote her next eleven books while living there. (The Manse is now a historical museum that you can visit.)
It wasn’t a particularly happy marriage. Ewan had no interest in the literature or poetry that captivated Maud, and on a trip to England and Scotland, she was enthralled with the “Old Country” (Scotland) while he had no interest in either. Still, they had three children: Chester in 1912, Hugh in 1914 (stillborn), and Stuart in 1915. While women now talk about multi-tasking, Maud raised her children, helped Ewan with various pastoral duties, and continued on her own writing career.
The First World War and the Spanish Flu
Maud’s journals show a very sensitive and emotionally intelligent woman. The First World War was brutal for most of the world, with death and calamity dominating life. She intensely felt the pain of the war, and saw it as necessary to save society. She continued to write for papers, urging Canadian men to join the military and for those left at home to buy victory bonds and anything else possible to help. Her journals show that for much of the war, it consumed much of her waking hours.
Maud suffered from depression for much of her adult life. The First World War, coupled with the death of her second son and her husband’s religious melancholia, took a toll on her.
In 1918, like so many people, she caught the Spanish Flu. She was incredibly sick (as were many people), and her husband was so fixated on whether or not he was one of “the Elect” (God’s chosen few people destined for heaven) that he paid no attention to her. Maud regretted her marriage and admitted in her journal that she wished she had never married him. However, she was a dedicated Christian and decided against divorce. They had moved to Norval, Ontario in 1922 but moved again, to Toronto, in 1935, to be closer to their sons.
Death and Legacy
On 24 April 1942, Maud was found dead in her bed. Her death certificate stated “coronary thrombosis” as the cause of death, but this was contested later. Her granddaughter, Kate Macdonald Butler, shared that her grandmother had battled with depression and may have died by suicide.
In 1935, King George V named Maud to the Order of the British Empire- she was said to be incredibly proud of her OBE. She was also named to the Royal Society of Arts, and in 1943 was made a Person of National Historic Significance by the Canadian Government. She was celebrated at several different literary festivals throughout her life; given how important her writing was to her, these were meaningful.
Her literary legacy is still strong. One factor is her surviving collection: we have most of her journals and personal papers in a few different university collections. (The University of Prince Edward Island has the LM Montgomery Institute; a post of LMM resources will be published in the next few weeks.)
Maud’s Anne series is enduringly popular around the globe. It was translated into several different languages, and although it is a particularly Canadian series, it remains popular in several different countries. Different films and television series have only added to their popularity, and continue to introduce new generations to Green Gables.
Further Readings on L.M. Montgomery
Rubio, Mary. Lucy Maud Montgomery: the Gift of Wings. Toronto, Ont.: Doubleday Canada, 2008.
The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery.
Were you familiar with L.M. Montgomery before today?
Cheers,
The Historian
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