THIS WEEK'S FEATURE ARTICLES

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Behind the green gables
Many people have loved the stories of Anne of Green Gables (Anne with an “e”, don’t forget). The books about Anne, who was an orphan, brought Lucy Maud Montgomery, born in 1874, an international following. The books have been translated into at least 36 languages, as well as
into Braille.
The first novel, Anne of Green Gables, was written in 1908. Written for all ages, it has been considered a classic children’s novel since the mid-20th century. Set in the late 19th century, the novel recounts the adventures of 11-year-old Anne Shirley, who was sent by mistake to two middle-aged siblings, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, who had originally intended to adopt
a boy to help them on their farm in the fictional town of Avonlea on Prince Edward Island in Canada.
The novel follows Anne as she makes her way through life with the Cuthberts, in school, and within the town.
The stories of Anne so resonated with the public that they spawned further books, audio books, films, TV series, plays and musicals.
An authorised prequel, Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson, was published on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the series.
Montgomery drew from her own life for the Anne books. Montgomery’s mother died of TB when she was not yet two. Montgomery wrote about seeing her
dead mother.
“It was a sweet face, albeit worn and wasted by months of suffering. My mother had been beautiful, and Death, so cruel in all else, had spared the delicate outline of feature, the long silken lashes brushing the hollow cheek, and the smooth masses of golden-brown hair.”
Unable to cope by himself, Montgomery’s grieving father sent her to live with her mother’s parents. Her grandfather Alexander Mcneill was the postmaster of Cavendish, a town on Prince Edward Island. Montgomery attended school in Cavendish and was an exemplary student.
Montgomery’s father moved west to Prince Albert and eventually married again and had other children. It wasn’t until late in 1890 that Maud joined the family there. She attended high school in Prince Albert but felt homesick. She was also expected to tend to her new brother and, subsequently, was kept home from school. It was during this year, however, that some of her poems and articles were first published. She returned to her grandparents on Prince Edward Island in August 1891.
It wasn’t until 1905 that Montgomery began Anne of Green Gables. The book was rejected by four publishers, so Montgomery put it away in a hatbox. In 1907, she revised the manuscript, submitted it, and it was accepted. When it was published in 1908, it went through six editions and sold 19,000 copies in six months.
Montgomery continued to write while studying to become a teacher. But when her grandfather died, she returned home to help her grandmother as post mistress until her grandmother’s death in 1911. During this time Montgomery continued writing, becoming a newspaperwoman, proofreader, and columnist.
“It was from my mother’s family, the Macneills, that I inherited my knack of writing and my literary tastes,” Montgomery wrote.
Soon afterwards Montgomery married Reverend Ewen MacDonald, a Presbyterian minister, in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. In spite of having four children she continued writing and went on to publish 20 novels, as well as 500 short stories, poems and essays. Since the late 1970s – and especially after the publication of Akin to Anne: Tales of Other Orphans in 1988 – 19 short stories have been rediscovered and collected into themed volumes. Many of these stories were originally printed just once in early 20th-century magazines and then remained out of circulation for decades. In addition, Montgomery left diaries and letters that have been read and studied by scholars and readers worldwide.
Marian Hearn



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