The Life and Work of L.M. Montgomery
The Life and Work of L.M. Montgomery
Emily Woster
Montgomery's pocketwatch from B & H.B. Kent, Yonge Street, Toronto. A gift of Ruth Macdonald (L.M.M.'s daughter-in-law) to the L.M. Montgomery Institute.
“I cannot remember the time when I was not writing, or when I did not mean to be an author.”
- L.M. Montgomery, The Alpine Path, 1917
Books Published in Her Lifetime
1908 Anne of Green Gables
1909 Anne of Avonlea
1910 Kilmeny of the Orchard
1911 The Story Girl
1912 Chronicles of Avonlea
1913 The Golden Road
1915 Anne of the Island
1916 The Watchman and Other Poems
1917 Anne’s House of Dreams
1919 Rainbow Valley
1920 Further Chronicles of Avonlea
1921 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
1934 Courageous Women
1935 Mistress Pat
1936 Anne of Windy Poplars
1937 Jane of Lantern Hill
1939 Anne of Ingleside
Life and Times
In 2018, Historica Canada created a “Heritage Minute” about L.M. Montgomery (01:00)
using text from her journals and images from P.E.I.
1874
Lucy Maud Montgomery (called Maud) is born on November 30 on Prince Edward Island. Maud’s mother Clara dies of tuberculosis just 21 months later, so the family decides that Maud will be raised by her Macneill grandparents in Cavendish, P.E.I.
1889
Montgomery burns her childhood diaries and begins what she calls "a new kind of diary" that would later become, according to Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston, "the most vivid and detailed memoir in Canadian letters." She keeps, edits, and re-copies this journal throughout her life.
A page from Montgomery's journal from November 9, 1934, including a photo of Evelyn Nesbit.
Click image to enlarge.
1890-91
Maud travels to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and spends a year living with her father and stepmother. Montgomery’s first publication, the poem “On Cape Le Force,” appears in the Charlottetown Daily Patriot, and, soon after, she publishes three essays in other newspapers: “The Wreck of the Marco Polo,” “A Western Eden,” and “From Prince Albert to P.E. Island.”
The ship Marco Polo, once the fastest in the world, wrecked off the North Shore of P.E.I. in 1883. The captain of the ship boarded with the Macneills in Cavendish, and eight-year-old Montgomery enjoyed hearing many of his seafaring tales. When he left Cavendish, he presented this platter to Maud's grandmother Lucy.
1894
Montgomery graduates from Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown with a First Class Teachers License and takes a teaching post in rural Bideford, P.E.I.
Interior of Masonic Hall, the Opera House, 1894, where Montgomery graduated from Prince of Wales College.
1895
Montgomery took selected undergraduate courses, mostly in English literature at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She also publishes the story "A Baking of Gingersnaps" in The Ladies’ Journal (Toronto). Her studies last only one year due to lack of funds, so in 1896, Montgomery takes up a second teaching post in Belmont, P.E.I.
A clipping from Montgomery's scrapbook (p. 61 of her "Blue Scrapbook") featuring the Forrest Building at Dalhousie. The caption reads, "Dalhousie College, Halifax, the doors of which are wide open to
women" (see Imagining Anne, p. 75).
1898
Grandfather Alexander Macneill dies in Cavendish, so Montgomery gives up her final teaching position in Lower Bedeque, P.E.I. and returns home to care for her grandmother.
One of Montgomery's many photographs of the winding paths through Cavendish's Lover's Lane
1901
Montgomery takes a short-term job on the staff of the Halifax Daily Echo, writing a column called “Around the Table” under the pen name “Cynthia,” before returning home once again to stay with Grandmother Macneill.
The regular header for Montgomery's column, "Around the Table."
1902
She begins a lifelong correspondence with Canadian writer and teacher, Ephraim Weber and, one year later, with Scottish journalist and author, George Boyd MacMillan.
One of Montgomery's postcards to "Mr. George B. MacMillan, 34 Castle St. Alloa, Scotland" that reads "This is a spot not far from here. Your letter received yesterday. We are having just as cold and damp a season as you. Don't thin the poppies out. L.M.M."
1906
Montgomery becomes secretly engaged to Reverend Ewan Macdonald, Presbyterian minister .
Montgomery's diamond solitaire engagement ring.
Ewan Macdonald, circa 1900.
1907
Montgomery signs a contract for the publication of Anne of Green Gables with L.C. Page and Co. in Boston. This contract will change Montgomery’s life.
Click images to explore!
1908
Anne of Green Gables is published in April (though officially in June), going through six printings by December. Montgomery writes the lyrics for the "Island Hymn," a project conceived by a professor at the Charlottetown School of Music. The song was made the official provincial anthem of P.E.I. in 2012. Since 1890, she has written and published another 200 short stories and over 100 poems.
The Cavendish Choir sings the "Island Hymn" (1999 - 01:41).
Words and music to the "Island Hymn."
1909
Anne of Green Gables is published in Sweden and titled, Anne på Grönkulla ("Anne on Green Hill”), the first of some 40 translations of Anne.
Scholar Gabriella Åhmansson explains how her grandmother first purchased this copy of the novel in 1909. (00:54)
1911
After the death of her Grandmother Macneill, Montgomery marries Reverend Ewan Macdonald on July 5, at Park Corner. After a honeymoon trip to England and Scotland, the Macdonalds settle together in Leaskdale, Ontario. By now, she has published four novels, approximately 400 poems, over 400 short stories, and 52 other sketches and essays.
George and Maureen Campbell on the Campbell Home at Park Corner, P.E.I.
Hear the organ that played at the Macdonalds' wedding. (01:05)
Montgomery's photo of the Leaskdale Manse.
1912
Son Chester Cameron Macdonald is born.
Chester as a toddler in the garden at Leaskdale.
1914
Montgomery’s second son, baby Hugh, is stillborn. The First World War begins. Its daily stress profoundly affects Montgomery, and she later dedicates Rainbow Valley (1919) to three local soldiers who died overseas and writes Rilla of Ingleside (1921), a novel of the Canadian homefront.
A parade of young soldiers moves through Leaskdale before shipping overseas in 1916.
1915
Son Ewan Stuart Macdonald is born.
Stuart, at 10 months old, in the garden at Leaskdale.
1919
The first (silent) film version of Anne of Green Gables is released. Ewan suffers his first bout of depression and illness in their marriage that would recur throughout his life. Montgomery’s dearest cousin and friend Frederica Campbell dies, and Montgomery begins recopying her journals into uniform volumes.
The cover to the sheet music that was sent to movie houses to be played along with screenings of Anne of Green Gables. The cover features the young star, Mary Miles Minter, and proclaims that "This song has the official and exclusive approval and acceptance of Mary Miles Minter and 'RealArt Pictures Corporation' for use in connection with their photoplay 'Anne of Green Gables.'"
1920-28
Montgomery begins and endures a prolonged series of lawsuits and appeals with her first publisher, L.C. Page, after he publishes Further Chronicles of Avonlea without her permission. Page appeals all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court (his appeal was denied), but the cases don’t fully resolve, in Montgomery’s favour, until 1928.
The 1920 cover of Further Chronicles of Avonlea, assembled and published against Montgomery's wishes from old versions of stories she had prepared for Chronicles of Avonlea (1912).
1922
The Macdonalds visit the Muskoka lakes region of Ontario, a visit that would inspire Montgomery’s only novel set entirely outside of P.E.I., The Blue Castle.
Montgomery in a canoe on one of the Muskoka lakes, Bala, Ontario in 1922.
Montgomery's The Blue Castle (1926).
1926
The Macdonalds move to Norval, Ontario, to a beautiful brick manse (Montgomery's first home with electricity) tucked into the woods near the Credit River.
The Norval Manse, in winter.
1934
The second film adaptation of Anne of Green Gables is released, starring a young Dawn O’Day, who would later change her name to Anne Shirley. Montgomery co-writes, with Marion Keith and Mabel Burns McKinley, Courageous Women, a collection of “inspiring biographies of girls who grew to be women of courage and achievement.”
A "lobby card" for the 1934 film, featuring the dates of future screenings and calling the movie "as beautiful as 'Little Women.'"
Click image to enlarge.
The first dust jacket of Courageous Women.
1935
The Macdonalds retire to the Swansea area of Toronto, near where their sons were engaged in law and medical school. Montgomery named their Tudor-style house on Riverside Drive, "Journey's End." Montgomery is named an officer of the Order of the British Empire.
A newspaper clipping about the Macdonald's move to Toronto that Montgomery pasted into her scrapbook.
The miniature version of Montgomery's OBE medal, called "the badge," to be worn on the left side of the chest on special occasions. The ribbon was once purple, though it has faded to gray. The full-sized medal is in Archival & Special Collections at the University of Guelph.
1936
The Dominion Parks Branch tour the Island and eventually decide that the Cavendish shore and some farmlands, including, in particular, the house known as Green Gables, will become part of a National Park.
Paragraphs from an article in the Charlottetown Guardian, September 18, 1936, discussing the final decision of the Parks Branch.
One of Montgomery's photos of the dunes near Cavendish.
1937
Montgomery’s beloved cat, Lucky, dies, and she writes a lengthy journal entry about him and dedicates Jane of Lantern Hill (1937) to him. Montgomery was passionately fond of cats all her life.
Left: One of Montgomery's many photos of Lucky.
Right: Her last scrapbook entry is also from 1937. It is a clipping of a Glaswegian, whisky-drinking film-star cat "Matthew of Greengables," that Montgomery had seen in a silent film. The caption says, "The cats had their day in Glasgow yesterday when a Cat Show was held in the City Hall. Here is Mrs. Sargent Stowe with 'Mathew of Greengables.' This pretty puss is a film star, having appeared in 'Abdul Hamid.'"
1939
Montgomery contributes the Prince Edward Island portion of the souvenir book, The Spirit of Canada: Dominion and Provinces, a Souvenir of Welcome to H.M. King George VI and H.M. Queen Elizabeth, prepared in advance of the Royal tour of Canada.
The title page to The Spirit of Canada collection.
1942
L.M. Montgomery dies in Toronto on April 24, after submitting a final "Anne"-related collection of sketches and poems, The Blythes Are Quoted, to her publisher. She lies in state at Green Gables before burial in the Cavendish cemetery.
