Lucy Maud Montgomery's character Anne Shirley was a hopeful and
inspired orphaned girl, gifted with a cheerful outlook and vivid
imagination. Over the course of six Montgomery novels, Anne evolves
into a spirited, strong and determined adult woman grounded in her
values, morals and zest for life.
Since the release of the first Anne of Green Gables over 100 years
ago, she is a character Canadians have grown to love, and for that,
we have loved and cherished her author.
In the through and rich biography, "Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift
of Wings," by long-time Montgomery biographer Mary Henley Rubio, we
can find out that in youth Montgomery was very much like the
legendary character she created. Orphaned as a young child, she was
a hopeful young girl with dreams, wit and imagination, who longed
for romance, bosom friendship, a passion for writing and the desire
to grow roots in her beloved Prince Edward Island.
But in adulthood, Motgomery's life would not parallel that of Anne.
The novel explores many troubled decades which included the scars
of abandonment from her father, marriage to a man with mental
illness, numerous legal problems and the struggle to be seen as a
relevant Canadian writer in the early 20th century. She would age
to be a very lonely woman with incredible anxiety and a constant
struggle to hold together what she knew would be a very public
image.
Rubio's biography of Montgomery spans her birth and childhood in
Prince Edward Island, young adulthood in the Maritimes, marriage,
motherhood and building a life in Ontario. The book is a result of
decades of research and interviews with hundreds of people tied to
Montgomery and her family. The result is a rich, compelling,
surprising and sometimes sad account of a Canadian literary icon we
have cherished but never really knew.