Who is Lucy Maud Montgomery?

Lucy Maud Montgomery, also known as L.M. Montgomery, or Maud to friends, was born on 30 November 1874. She is a Canadian authoress best known for her Anne Shirley series of novels and her vivid portrayals of rural Canadian life.

Montgomery was born in the same Prince Edward Island of her stories on 30 November 1874. Her mother succumbed to tuberculosis when she was less than two years old. Her father then left for Canada's western territories, and she was sent to live in Cavendish with her maternal grandparents, who brought her up quite strictly. As a teen-ager, Montgomery moved briefly to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, to try out life with her father and his new wife. She went back to her grandparents' home after a year.

Montgomery worked as a teacher on the island for a few years before finally moving back to Cavendish to live with her widowed grandmother. It was during this time that inspiration hit and Montgomery took up the pen to write a novel based loosely on her own experiences. She published Anne of Green Gables, her first novel, in 1908.

The author married Ewan Macdonald, a minister, three years after her initial publication and shortly after her grandmother's death. The couple moved to Ontario so that Macdonald could assume his ministerial duties at St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Leaskdale (now Uxbridge Township).

The St. Paul manse eventually became the present-day Lucy Maud Montgomery Leaskdale Manse Museum, and bore witness to the birth of eleven more Montgomery books as well as three Macdonald children: Chester Cameron, Ewan Stuart, and Hugh Alexander. Sadly, Hugh Alexander died soon after he was born.

In 1926, the Macdonalds moved to Halton Hills, Ontario and took residence at the Norval Presbyterian Charge. After a rich life, Lucy Maud Montgomery passed away in Toronto, Canada, in 1942.

The author's best-loved works include Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Anne of Windy Poplars, Anne's House of Dreams, and Anne of Ingleside.