Lucy Maud Montgomery and Her Life Beyond Anne
If there is one thing PEI is known for it is Anne of Green Gables. Anne with an E is the focus of books, plays, movies, and television shows. Japan even recreated the Anne of Green Gables home in Cavendish in their Canadian World theme park in Ashibetsu. In its hay-day, the early 1990's, this park could attract 40,000 visitors per day. But, it fell on hard times during the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Its location, over 1,200 kilometres from Toyko, didn't help. But when it was popular, that would have been a much more affordable trip than coming to PEI.
Recently, a new Heritage Minute was released about Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables' author, and her battle with mental health. This Heritage Minute inspired me to look a little deeper into L.M. Montgomery's life. Beyond Anne of Green Gables!
Montgomery was born on November 30, 1874. Two years later, her mother, Clara Woolner Macneil Montgomery died of tuberculosis at the young age of 23. In her 1919 autobiography, The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career, she wrote about how her earliest memory was of her mother in her coffin.
Montgomery kept writing and carrying on her duties at home. In numerous interviews and in some of her writings, however, she made it clear of the importance of motherhood.
Sources
Bradley, Brian. "Author Lucy Maud Montgomery's troubled years in Toronto". Toronto Star. March 1, 2018. From https://www.thestar.com/yourtoronto/once-upon-a-city-archives/2018/03/01/author-lucy-maud-montgomerys-troubled-years-in-toronto.html
Dictionary of Canadian Biography. From http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/montgomery_lucy_maud_17E.html
Heilbron, Alexandra. Remembering Lucy Maud Montgomery. Dundurn Press: Toronto. 2001.
L.M. Montgomery suicide revealed". CBC News: Prince Edward Island. September 22, 2008. From http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/l-m-montgomery-suicide-revealed-1.723426
"Lucy Maud Montgomery Heritage Minute highlights triumph over sexism and rejection". CTV News. March 9, 2018. From https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/
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| Canadian World at Ashibetsu, Japan. Photo credit: Atlas Obscura |
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| Recreation of Green Gables from Cavendish at Canadian World, Ashibetsu, Japan Photo credit: Atlas Obscura |
Recently, a new Heritage Minute was released about Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables' author, and her battle with mental health. This Heritage Minute inspired me to look a little deeper into L.M. Montgomery's life. Beyond Anne of Green Gables!
Montgomery was born on November 30, 1874. Two years later, her mother, Clara Woolner Macneil Montgomery died of tuberculosis at the young age of 23. In her 1919 autobiography, The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career, she wrote about how her earliest memory was of her mother in her coffin.
"I did not feel any sorrow, for I knew nothing of what it meant. I was only vaguely troubled. Why was mother so still? And why was father crying? I reached down and laid my baby hand against Mother's cheek. Even yet I can feel the coldness of that touch."
Her father, Hugh John Montgomery, left her with her maternal grandparents and moved to Prince Albert, North-West Territories - now Saskatchewan. In 1890, she went to live with her father and his new wife, but she and her new step-mother developed a strained relationship. In 1891, just one year later, she returned to PEI and her grandparents.
Her home life in PEI was not a happy one either. She received little affection from her grandparents and her childhood was pretty lonely and isolated. She used her imagination to escape and wrote. . . a lot.
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| L.M. Montgomery's maternal grandparents, Alexander and Lucy Macneil. Photo Credit: Site of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Cavendish Home. |
Her home life in PEI was not a happy one either. She received little affection from her grandparents and her childhood was pretty lonely and isolated. She used her imagination to escape and wrote. . . a lot.
Montgomery started keeping journals at age 9 and writing short-stories in her mid-teens. Her first publication, a poem called "On Cape Le Force", was printed in the Charlottetown Patriot, on November 26, 1890, when she was only 15 years old.
In her early (teenage) career she used the pseudonyms Maud Cavendish or Joyce Cavendish. She eventually settled on L.M. Montgomery to hide her gender. Because, as she herself once wrote, "They say women shouldn't write". Glad to say we have come a long way since then.
In 1894, she earned her First Class Teacher's licence from Prince of Wales College. She went to the Halifax Ladies' College at Dalhousie College (now Dalhousie University) to study literature. Unfortunately, she was only able to attend for one year due to financial issues. But, during that time, she also got a taste of what it was like to be paid for her writing!
She returned to PEI and taught at schools in Belmont and Lower Bedeque. By 1898, she was earning enough from her writing that she was able to move back in with her grandmother when her grandfather died.
On July 5, 1911, she married Ewan Macdonald, a Presbyterian minister, to whom she had been secretly engaged to since 1906 when he went to Scotland to study. They moved to Leaskdale, Ontario in 1911. They had three sons, Chester was born in 1912, Hugh was born stillborn in 1914, and Stuart was born in 1915. In 1926, they moved to Norval. Then in 1935, they moved to Toronto.
Her married life was not a happy one, she later wrote that she regretted her marriage to Ewan.
Both she and Ewan suffered from mental illness. In 1919, her husband, who had a history of depression, was diagnosed with the mood disorder melancholia. Melancholia caused erratic behaviour and extreme mood swings. This led to Ewan staying at the Homewood Sanatorium in Guelph for three months in 1934.
While Montgomery worried for herself and her children, mental issues were not talked about back then. They were very taboo. So she tried to hide these issues. When they moved to Toronto in 1935, things started to look up. They lived in an upscale neighbourhood, she had free time to write and was invited to give speeches and readings of her works as she was now well-known! But her son Chester was troubled (lying, cheating on his wife, lost jobs. . . ) and Ewan's mental health was deteriorating. Ewan was having periods where he heard voices, had delusions, and raved.
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| L.M. Montgomery's home in Toronto. Photo Credit: Brian Bradley, Toronto Star |
Montgomery kept writing and carrying on her duties at home. In numerous interviews and in some of her writings, however, she made it clear of the importance of motherhood.
Her issues continued into her professional life. She joined the Canadian Authors Association, only to discover the other members did not respect her work as they saw her as merely a children's author.
As stated earlier, L.M. Montgomery suffered from mental illness. People who knew her knew she had issues with depression. Her journals during these years became vague. As a well-known author, she knew the journals would likely be studied and her depression likely contributed to this vagueness as well.
There are no journals for 1940 and her 1941 journal only had one entry, "Oh God, such an end to life. Such suffering and wretchedness."
Letters written near the time of her death allude to the depths of her mental illness:
"Remember me as I used to be, not as I am now."
"I envy those who die in their sleep. I have a horrible fear that I'll die by inches."
Her final known journal entry is from March 23, 1942.
"My life has been hell, hell, hell. My mind is gone - everything in the world I lived for has gone - the world has gone mad. I shall be driven to end my life. Oh God, forgive me. Nobody dreams what my awful position is."
She died April 24, 1942. She was found in her home, in her bed. At the time, the official diagnosis was that she died of heart failure. However, in 2008, her granddaughter disclosed that a note was found with Montgomery and her family believed it was a suicide note. Some Montgomery scholars were not shocked by this news as they had insights into the depths of her depression.
Professor Mary Rubio of the University of Guelph is a leading authority on Montgomery. After examining the note, Rubio believes it cannot conclusively be deemed a suicide note as it could be from one of her journals -
"I have lost my mind by spells and I do not dare think what I may do in those spells. May God forgive me and I hope everyone else will forgive me even if they cannot understand. My position is too awful to endure and nobody realizes it. What an end to a life in which I tried always to do my best in spite of many mistakes."Rubio also states that Montgomery was dealing with a lot of psychological pain and had a dependency on barbiturates. But, Rubio does agree that the evidence does support the theory of suicide by drug overdose.
Montgomery's family released this information to try to help lift the stigma surrounding mental health. The Canadian Mental Health Association in PEI, like many others, applauded the move as it shows that mental health is not a new issue.
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| L.M. Montgomery and her two sons, Chester (the oldest) and Stuart (the youngest). Photo Credit: Dictionary of Canadian Biography and the University of Guelph. |
For literature lovers, L.M. Montgomery left behind a large legacy. Her honours include:
- 1923 - First Canadian woman to be a member of the British Royal Society of Arts
- 1924 - Named one of Toronto Star's "Twelve Greatest Women in Canada"
- 1935 - Named to the Order of the British Empire
- 1935 - Literary and Artistic Institute of France
- 1943 - Named a Person of Historical Significance by the Government of Canada
- 1975 and 2008 - Canada Post issued Anne of Green Gables Stamps
- 2016 - One of 12 candidates the Bank of Canada considered for the new $10 bill, where a Canadian woman would be featured alone on the bill.
Her novels include:
The Anne of Green Gables series
1908 - Anne of Green Gables
1909 - Anne of Avonlea
1915 - Anne of the Island
1917 - Anne's House of Dreams
1919 - Rainbow Valley
1921 - Rilla of Ingleside
1936 - Anne of Windy Poplars
1939 - Anne of Ingleside
2009 (published after her death) - The Blythes Are Quoted
Emily Trilogy
1923 - Emily of New Moon
1925 - Emily Climbs
1927 - Emily's Quest
Pat of Silver Bush Series
1933 - Pat of the Silver Bush
1935 - Mistress Pat
The Story Girl Series
1911 - The Story Girl
1913 - The Golden Road
Other Novels (some were published after her death)
1913 - Chronicles of Avonlea
1920 - Further Chronicles of Avonlea
1974 - The Road to Yesterday
1979 - The Doctor's Sweetheart and Other Stories
1988 - Akin to Anne: Tales of Other Orphans
1989 - Along the Shore: Tales by the Sea
1990 - Among the Shadows: Tales from the Darker Side
1991 - After Many Days: Tales of Times Passed
1993 - Against the Odds: Tales of Achievement
1994 - At the Altar: Matrimonial Tales
1995 - Across the Miles: Tales of Correspondence
1995 - Christmas with Anne and Other Holiday Stories
Poetry
1916 - The Watchman and Other Poems
1987 - The Poetry of Lucy Maud Montgomery
Journals, Letters, and Essays
1960 - The Green Gables Letters from L.M. Montgomery to Ephraim Weber, 1905-1909
1917;1974 - The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career
1980 - My Dear Mr. M: Letters to G.B. MacMillian from L.M. Montgomery
1985-2004 - The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery
2012 - The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1889-1900
2013 - The Complete Journals of L.M. Montgomery: The PEI Years, 1901-1911
2013 - The L.M. Montgomery Reader, Volume 1: A Life in Print
2016 - L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1911-1917
2017 - L.M. Montgomery's Complete Journals: The Ontario Years, 1918-1921
Non-fiction
1934 - Courageous Women
Sources
Boekhoff, Iain. "Heritage Minute shows the hidden side of Lucy Maud Montgomery's life." CBC News Prince Edward Island. March 8, 2018. From http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/
Bradley, Brian. "Author Lucy Maud Montgomery's troubled years in Toronto". Toronto Star. March 1, 2018. From https://www.thestar.com/yourtoronto/once-upon-a-city-archives/2018/03/01/author-lucy-maud-montgomerys-troubled-years-in-toronto.html
Devereux, Cicily and Andrew McIntosh. "Lucy Maud Montgomery". Historica Canada. June 29, 2017. From http://www.
Dictionary of Canadian Biography. From http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/montgomery_lucy_maud_17E.html
Heilbron, Alexandra. Remembering Lucy Maud Montgomery. Dundurn Press: Toronto. 2001.
Jacobson, Molly McBride. "Canadian World". Atlas Obscura. From https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/canadian-world
L.M. Montgomery suicide revealed". CBC News: Prince Edward Island. September 22, 2008. From http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/l-m-montgomery-suicide-revealed-1.723426
"Lucy Maud Montgomery Heritage Minute highlights triumph over sexism and rejection". CTV News. March 9, 2018. From https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/
Russell, Nancy. "Abandoned Avonlea: Anne theme park in Japan now like a ghost town. CBC News: Prince Edward Island. April 24, 2017. From http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/prince-edward-island/pei-abandoned-avonlea-1.4080511
Site of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Cavendish Home. From http://www.peisland.com/lmm/index.shtml
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