Have you ever read the Anne of Green Gables books? I hadn’t until I downloaded them and started reading before we came here. I can understand why they are loved by young girls, but I was more a Nancy Drew reader when I was younger. However, reading the first couple of chapters gave me a wonderful, first look at Anne when she came to PEI. Today we start at the Anne of Green Gables Museum at Silver Bush.
This map shows the middle third of the Island. We’re at the top, darker colored section. It’s called Anne’s Land.
Our first visit to Anne’s land was to the author’s uncle and aunt’s home that became Silver Bush in her books. We’re only a 1/2 mile away from where the author lived with her grandparents.
Inside the house/museum was this blue chest that was a sad story in The Story Girl book.
The story in the book is based on a true romance that happened in the Campbell home in 1847. Eliza Montgomery was a distant cousin of the author and was going to be married in this home. On the wedding day, the bridegroom didn’t show.
When the author got permission from her cousin to open the chest, it revealed some of the items in the showcase we saw. Here’s is one of the items.
When we thought about coming to this area of PEI, I never thought that what we’d see, in addition to the family buildings described in her books, was so much information about the author, L.M Montgomery, that’s highlighted in the Anne of Green Gables Museum.
When she was 21 months old, Montgomery’s mother dies and her father moves to Western Canada. Her mother’s parents raised her in their Cavendish (local town) home. So she knew what it was like to be orphaned at an early age, just like Anne (even though she did stay in touch with her father at least a little bit).
Montgomery finishes a 2-year teaching program in just 1 year in Charlottetown (center of the Island at the southern side—across the harbor from our campground). She later studies literature and other courses in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
While helping her aging grandmother run the post office from her kitchen, Montgomery continues developing her writing. Loneliness led her to correspond and connect with other writers. With easy access to the mailbag, she sends out submissions, and hundreds of poems and short stories are published all over Canada and the United States.
After her grandmother dies, Montgomery marries the Reverend Ewan Macdonald, a Presbyterian minister; they had been secretly engaged for 5 years. They move to north of Toronto, and she loves being a mother to her 2 sons as she continues writing.
Montgomery’s fame is growing. She wins a major copyright lawsuit against one of her publishers and continues to write and publish. The family moves to the outskirts of Toronto. Her husband’s recurrent bouts of “religious melancholia” also strains her health. Trying to keep her husband’s condition secret adds more stress to her other worries over her sons and her finances.
The family moves to a new home in Toronto that she names “Journey’s End.” She continues to write even as she deals with deteriorating physical and mental health, horror over another world war, and grief over family matters.
the writing process
Growing up in Cavendish and living with her grandparents, Montgomery forged deep connections with her community that are reflected in her books.
The homestead we’ll be looking at in the next post belonged to Montgomery’s cousins, brother and sister David and Margaret Macneill. Interesting that Anne also lived with a brother and sister, Matthew and Marilla.
As Montgomery worked toward her dream of writing a book, she developed a process for planning, composing, editing, and polishing her writing. She spent time “brooking up” characters, taking long walks alone to talk out scenes and conversations. Then she took time to outline details of the plot and dialogue. She knew exactly how a story would unfold before writing it all down. What a smart way to write.
A new typewriter!
It took all of her experience, imagination, and discipline to finish her first novel. Based on an idea she had jotted down years before and inspired by a picture of a girl in a magazine, Montgomery began crafting her most famous book.
Getting her first novel published required as much determination as writing it. She tried and tried with publishers, but none were interested. After 5 attempts, she gave up and put away the typed pages in a hatbox. Months later she re-read the story and decided to try again.
Over the years her books have been translated into these 45 languages.
Recognize this scene of Anne and Matthew from the first book?
Before going to the house, we decided to take a little break and sat with Jeff and Lorraine from Wales. They were on a cruise, and we had a great time talking with them.
In the gift shop, the books are even marketing Raspberry Cordial that is highlighted in one of the stories.
Barney found this recipe for bread pudding that we just have to try since it’s one of his favorite desserts.
What a great background for these books. In the next post, we’ll walk through Green Gables!
