Resort Municipality PEI

Stanley Bridge, Hope River, Bayview, Cavendish & North Rustico

History & Culture

Lucy Maude MontgomeryIt is with good reason that we have so many stories to tell. Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables and many more stories is our best known story teller.

Maud came here as a tiny child to live with her maternal grandparents Alexander and Lucy Macneill, when her mother Clara Macneill Montgomery died of tuberculosis. This was her home from 1876 to 1911.

During her years in Cavendish, Maud wrote and sent off numerous poems, stories, and serials to Canadian, British, and American magazines. Despite many rejections, she eventually commanded a comfortable income from her writing. In 1899, she earned $96.88 – not much by today’s standards but a nice sum at the turn of the century. Her earnings from her writing increased to $500 in 1903.

Anne of Green Gables – In 1905, she wrote her first and most famous novel, Anne of Green Gables. She sent the manuscript to several publishers, but, after receiving rejections from all of them, she put it away in a hat box. In 1907, she found the manuscript again, re-read it, and decided to try again to have it published. Anne of Green Gables was accepted by the Page Company of Boston, Massachusetts and published in 1908. An immediate best-seller, the book marked the beginning of Montgomery’s successful career as a novelist.

After Montgomery’s death in 1942, the National Sites and Historic Board of Canada declared her a person of national historic significance. In 1999, she was voted one of the top 20 Canadian heroes in a Dominion Institute and the Council for Canadian Unity internet survey. In the same year, CBC held a millennium poll and Montgomery was voted the most influential Canadian writer of the twentieth century. In 2000, L.M. Montgomery was chosen by Maclean’s magazine as one of twenty-five Canadians who inspired the world.

Anne of Green Gables stampOn May 15, 1975, Canada Post issued a stamp to “Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables” designed by Peter Swan and typographed by Bernard N. J. Reilander. The 8¢ stamps are perforated 13 and were printed by Ashton-Potter Limited.

Anne-stamp

A pair of stamps was issued in 2008 by Canada Post, marking the centennial of the publication of Montgomery’s classic first novel.