Celebrating L.M. Montgomery with Kindred Spirits

For several years now, I've wanted to pay a little tribute to Lucy Maud Montgomery, one of my long-time favourite authors. And what better date than today, for it's Miss Montgomery's birthday. Born in Prince Edward Island, Canada, on November 30, 1874, she is undoubtedly one of Canada's most famous authors, and she is certainly most known for her creation of Anne of Green Gables, first published in 1908.

I love the Anne books, but I have also enjoyed reading L.M.M.'s published journals and letters, and various biographies about her life and work. Over my lifetime she has been an inspiration to me in more ways than one.

As you know from past posts, I'm seriously getting into the spirit of Christmas these days. I've been dusting off my small collection of seasonal books and stories in anticipation of some cozy and thoughtful fireside and bedtime reading. I found my copy of  Christmas with Anne and Other Holiday Stories -- it was originally meant as a gift for someone a long time ago, but somehow it stayed on my own shelves. Funny thing that...

"We have sent for a lot of new books for our Literary Society library here and when they come I’m simply going on a spree. I shall read all night and all day. I’m a book-drunkard, sad to say, and though I earnestly try to curb my appetite for reading I never met with much success." ~ L.M. Montgomery, March 1905 letter

This collection has 16 seasonal short stories, most of them originally written by L.M.M. for publication in various magazines. Happily, two favourite chapters from the Anne novels are included: Matthew Insists on Puffed Sleeves (Anne of Green Gables) and Katherine Brooke Comes to Green Gables (Anne of Windy Poplars). I just read these two and enjoyed them all over again.

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 Last year I was invited by the editor of FellowScript, a writer's magazine published by Canadian writer's organization InScribe, to write a short piece about the impact L.M. Montgomery had on my life growing up and beyond. The article was published in the August 2014 issue.

Today I'm delighted to share that article with you as we mark the day and offer gratitude for the life of this gifted woman. She touched so many with her writings and outlook on life. And I'm so grateful for what she gave to our world ... and to me through her writings.

University of Guelph Library, Archival and Special Collections

 

How Lucy Maud Montgomery Touched My Life

by Brenda Leyland
originally published in FellowScript, August 2014

In 1908, when Lucy Maud Montgomery published her first novel, she couldn’t possibly have known that nearly sixty years later, a nine-year-old girl would sit enraptured as she listened to her fourth grade teacher read it aloud to the class. She couldn’t possibly have known that as the story unfolded, seeds were being planted in this girl’s heart and mind. Indeed, how could she possibly know that I am that girl and that, after all these years, the story of Anne of Green Gables remains as fresh to me as it was the first time I heard it? Certainly, Miss Montgomery couldn’t know, but nonetheless that delightful story still resonates for me. And, not for me alone, as millions of readers world-wide are just as captivated; children and adults alike are drawn to Anne spelled with an ‘e’. Even Mark Twain called her “the dearest, most lovable child in fiction since the immortal Alice (in Wonderland)”.

Lucy Maud Montgomery (affectionately known to me as LMM) lived in an era quite different to the times we live in today. But the themes of her writing have proved to be timeless. They are full of the details of life that transcend time and space: love, faith, family, relationships, career, health, and the desire to find happiness. The life experiences that shaped her writing career are familiar to us as readers, and her stories resound again and again as each new generation discovers them. Anne lives on, never grows old, and never ceases to be an inspiration. She has become a voice, giving sound to thoughts and yearnings of the heart that might otherwise remain silent.

As a nine-year-old, I was truly captivated by this red-haired, imaginative girl. Like Anne, I longed for a bosom friend. I, too, wanted interesting adventures. The vivid descriptions of cherry orchards and lakes of shining waters fueled my own imagination, and I longed to be transported from my little prairie farm in Alberta to the sea and red dirt of Prince Edward Island. As I grew and matured into a young woman, the kinship I felt with Anne also progressed. I became curious about Anne’s creator, and began to read everything I could put my hands on that was written by her and about her. Envision my delight to discover LMM and I shared common life experiences such as growing up in small agricultural communities where church life was the centre of spiritual and social activity, working as young career girls, and then marrying later in life. These served to deepen my affinity both with Anne and LMM. But more than the common experiences, I found the themes in her life and writings began to provide me with answers and insights to the issues and concerns of my own young heart. So often I would find in her writings the same things I’d been pondering about. She taught me to appreciate the joy and beauty of my world, regardless of happy or unhappy circumstances. And, how can I ever forget the way God brought me through a time of inner healing by using her stories to reveal the wound in my heart.

Now as a mature woman, a writer by choice, I look back to my younger self, and I’m so grateful for LMM’s influence and her faithfulness to her calling to write. Whether I’m pursuing the art of letter-writing inspired by reading her own published correspondence, or I’m writing articles or working on a memoir, there she is … a mentor from afar. I remember sitting, pen and paper in hand, trying to capture something of the twilight beauty of a long ago summer evening, and becoming aware that I wanted to write, and that I wanted to write just like Lucy Maud Montgomery. She changed my life.

 

Wishing you a beautiful last day of November,

Brenda

xox

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