Lucy Maud Montgomery

author of "Anne of Green Gables" and many more

• Ref: Wikipedia: Lucy Maud Montgomery

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From Wikipedia:

Lucy Maud Montgomery, (always called "Maud" by family and friends) and publicly known as L. M. Montgomery, (November 30, 1874–April 24, 1942) was a Canadian author, best known for a series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables.

Lucy Maud Montgomery was born in Clifton (now New London), Prince Edward Island on November 30 1874. Her mother, Clara Woolner Macneill Montgomery, died when she was 21 months old. Her father, Hugh John Montgomery, left the province after his wife’s death and eventually settled in the western territories of Canada. She went to live with her maternal grandparents, Alexander Marquis Macneill and Lucy Woolner Macneill, in the nearby community of Cavendish and was raised by them in a strict and unforgiving manner. In 1890, Montgomery was sent to live in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan with her father and stepmother, however after one year she returned to Prince Edward Island and the home of her grandparents.

In 1893, following the completion of her grade school education in Cavendish, she attended Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown. Completing a two year program in one year, she obtained her teaching certificate. In 1895 and 1896 she studied literature at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

After working as a teacher in various island schools, in 1898 Montgomery moved back to Cavendish to live with her widowed grandmother. For a short time in 1901 and 1902 she worked in Halifax for the newspapers Chronicle and Echo. She returned to live with and care for her grandmother in 1902. Montgomery was inspired to write her first books during this time on Prince Edward Island. In 1908, she published her first book, Anne of Green Gables. Three years later, shortly after her grandmother's death, she married Ewan Macdonald (1870 - 1943), a Presbyterian Minister, and moved to Ontario where he had taken the position of minister of St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Leaskdale in present-day Uxbridge Township, also affiliated with the congregation in nearby Zephyr.

The couple had three sons, Chester Cameron Macdonald (1912-1964), (Ewan) Stuart Macdonald (1915-1982) and Hugh Alexander, who died at birth in 1914.

Montgomery wrote her next eleven books from the Leaskdale manse. The structure was subsequently sold by the congregation and is now the Lucy Maud Montgomery Leaskdale Manse Museum. In 1926, the family moved in to the Norval Presbyterian Charge, in present-day Halton Hills, Ontario, where today the Lucy Maud Montgomery Memorial Garden can be seen from Highway 7.

Montgomery died in Toronto in 1942, and was buried at the Cavendish Community Cemetery in Cavendish.

Her major collections are archived at the University of Guelph, while the L.M. Montgomery Institute at the University of Prince Edward Island coordinates most of the research and conferences surrounding her work. Beginning in the 1980s her complete journals, edited by Mary Rubio and Elizabeth Waterston, were published by the Oxford University Press.

Montgomery was born on the same day as British prime minister Sir Winston Churchill..

When Lucy was growing up, she lived in close proximity of her cousins, including Elizabeth Jane Matilda (Jenny) Biggar. As children, they played together and had a close bond. After the Biggar's moved out west, Lucy and Jenny wrote to each other during their lifetimes. The family story is, as Jenny’s cousin, Lucy Maud Montgomery, wrote and published her books, she sent a signed copy of each of the books to Jenny. In one of the books, Lucy wrote "I miss you so much". We are told, there were 12 sets of books that Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote in, and Jenny had one of those sets. The two girls had a close bond with each other until the end of Lucy’s life. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/montgomery_lucy_maud_17E.html