Anne of Green Gables — The Life Behind the Literary Character
Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables remains to this day one of my favourite books of all time. It is the story of a sensitive, spirited orphan adopted by a stern, elderly brother and sister on Prince Edward Island, and of how the three shape each other’s lives through love. It is also the story of how a thoughtful, perceptive and sensitive child may become a writer.
As a young reader, I found myself in Anne, as so many young girls still do, and began to accept my own passions and preferences and quirks and oddities by loving hers.
As a girl, I didn’t think much about the writer behind the character. But as I’ve grown into my own life as a writer, I’ve often wondered what she was like and what circumstances led her to write the stories she did.
Toronto’s Globe & Mail recently ran a series on mental illness in an attempt to bring awareness to the issue and further dispel the stigma that still surrounds it. The series inspired Lucy Maud Montgomery’s granddaughter to come forward with a story about her famous and beloved grandmother.
As someone who has struggled with depression myself, and as someone who has researched the subject extensively and knows the extent to which it can affect the lives of so many (and a seemingly disproportionate number of writers and artists), this revelation came as a sad sort of “Ah-ha, of course.”
And of course, as so many writers (and artists — healers, all) have done, L.M. transformed her own pain into joy — for her character, and for all the millions who’ve loved her.