Facts
- Lucy Maud Montgomery is best known for her her first novel, Anne of Green Gables, written in 1905.
- The book was rejected by every publisher Montgomery sent it to, so she stored it away in a hat box – but when it finally found a publisher, it ended up selling 19,000 copies in its first five months.
- Montgomery’s other bestsellers include Emily of New Moon, Jane of Lantern Hill, Pat of Silver Bush, The Blue Castle and The Story Girl.
- Growing up, Montgomery had two imaginary friends who lived in a “fairy room” behind a bookcase in her grandparents’ sitting room. Maud saw her reflection in the bookcase’s glass doors and named the left reflection Katie Maurice and the right Lucy Gray.
- As a child, Montgomery was teased by a friend of her grandfather, who called her “Johnny”. It infuriated her and instilled a lifelong lesson: never tease a child.
- Montgomery grew up with a deep love for nature. When she was nine, Montgomery wrote a poem about her favourite tree, a birch that she referred to as “The Monarch of the Forest”. The poem began like this: “Around the poplar and the spruce, The fir and maple stood; But the old tree that I loved best, Grew in the Haunted wood.”
Quotes
- “Tomorrow is always fresh, with no mistakes in it.”“Next to trying and winning, the best thing is trying and failing.”“It’s been my experience that you can nearly always enjoy things if you make up your mind firmly that you will.”
“We should regret our mistakes and learn from them, but never carry them forward into the future with us.”
Declassified 08/06/2018
