Lucy Maud Montgomery

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Lucy Maud Montgomery, known professionally as L.M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for her 'Anne Shirley' series. She was born at Clifton, Prince Edward Island on November 30, 1874. In 1893, following the completion of her grade school education in Cavendish, she attended Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown where she obtained her teaching certificate. In 1895 and 1896, she studied literature at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. On July 11, 1911 she married the Reverend Ewen Macdonald in Prince Edward Island, and together they came to live at Leaskdale, north of Uxbridge Ontario, where their three children were later born. Throughout her career, she published almost 40 volumes, including novels, poetry and two autobiographies. Montgomery died in Toronto April 24, 1942 and was buried at Cavendish, Prince Edward Island.

Author's Comment: There is such a place as fairyland - but only children can find the way to it. And they do not know that it is fairyland until they have grown so old that they forget the way. One bitter day, when they seek it and cannot find it, they realize what they have lost; and that is the tragedy of life. On that day the gates of Eden are shut behind them and the age of gold is over. Henceforth they must dwell in the common light of common day. Only a few, who remain children at heart, can ever find that fair, lost path again; and blessed are they above mortals. They, and only they, can bring us tidings from that dear country where we once sojourned and from which we must evermore be exiles. The world calls them its singers and poets and artists and story-tellers; but they are just people who have never forgotten the way to fairyland.

Nationality: Canadian