Fans and critics who are familiar with L. M. Montgomery’s life often marvel at contrast between the “sweetness and light” in her fiction, and the melancholia in her daily reality. This section explores what might have influenced the creation of her stories, through her personal comments in her journals, her original manuscripts, the people she chose to dedicate her stories to, and the real-life incidents she incorporated into her novels or the previously written stories she reworked into the plot.

Here is a brief overview of various stages in Montgomery’s life. Click on each book to find out more.

1908 - 1911

Cavendish, PEI

After attending college at Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown and Dalhousie University in Halifax, and working as a schoolteacher, L. M. Montgomery returned to her hometown Cavendish to care for her aging grandmother. She remained in Cavendish from 1898 - 1911. During this period, she ran the local post office, began lifelong correspondences with penpals Ephraim Weber and G. B. MacMillan, and became engaged to Rev. Ewan MacDonald. She wrote and published her first book, “Anne of Green Gables”.

• Anne of Green Gables (1908)
• Anne of Avonlea (1909)
  
• Kilmeny of the Orchard (1910)
• The Story Girl (1911)

1912 - 1926

Leaskdale, Ontario

L. M. Montgomery married Rev. Ewan MacDonald in 1911 and moved to Leaskdale, Ontario. She gave birth to three sons, Chester, Hugh Alexander (stillborn), and Stuart. She was filled with anxiety throughout the years of the First World War, and saddened by her friends’ death in the influenza epidemic that followed. Lawsuits with her publisher as well as with a neighbour added to her stress. She continued to write prolifically alongside her duties as a minister’s wife and mother.

• Chronicles of Avonlea (1912)
  
• The Golden Road (1913)
  
• Anne of the Island (1915)
  
• Anne’s House of Dreams (1917)
  
• Rainbow Valley (1919)
  
• Rilla of Ingleside (1920)
  
• Further Chronicles of Avonlea (1920)
  
• Emily of New Moon (1923)
  
• Emily Climbs (1925)
  
• The Blue Castle (1926)

1926 - 1935

Norval, Ontario

The MacDonald family moved to Norval, Ontario in 1926. With her teenage sons away at boarding school, and convenient public transport to Toronto, L. M. Montgomery connected with old friends and fellow Canadian authors. However, she became troubled by her husband’s increasing mental illness, her sons’ relationships, and financial difficulties in the Great Depression. She wrote, both out of reaction to the “modern” age, and for lucrative enterprise.

• Emily’s Quest (1927)
  
• Magic for Marigold (1929)
  
• A Tangled Web (1931)
  
• Pat of Silver Bush (1933)
  
• Mistress Pat (1935)

1935 - 1942

Toronto, Ontario

After her husband’s retirement, L. M. Montgomery purchased her own home in West Toronto where the Macdonald family lived until her death in 1942. She suffered nervous breakdowns and her physical health failed, increased by family problems, financial struggles and anxiety over the oncoming World War Two. She struggled to write

• Anne of Windy Polars (1936)
  
• Jane of Lantern Hill (1937)
• Anne of Ingleside (1939)
  
• The Road to Yesterday (1974)