L. M. (Lucy Maud) Montgomery

Born in Clifton, Prince Edward Island, on November 30, 1874, Lucy Maud Montgomery became one of Canada’s most widely read authors. She was raised largely by her maternal grandparents in Cavendish after her mother died, and the landscapes and community life of the island later helped shape the world readers know from her fiction.

Her first novel, Anne of Green Gables, was published in 1908 and became an immediate success. Montgomery went on to write many more novels, along with short stories, essays, journals, and poems, building a body of work that reached readers far beyond Canada.

She spent part of her adult life in Ontario, where she continued to write while raising a family. Montgomery died in Toronto on April 24, 1942, but her work has remained continually in print, and Anne Shirley has become one of the most enduring characters in children’s literature.