A fascinating account of the life of Lucy Maud Montgomery (Maud) chronicles her difficult childhood and far more difficult adulthood. Raised by stern grandparents, Maud, unlike her literary hero Anne, was not openly cherished, although her grandmother quietly defied her grandfather and supported Maud’s education. As an adult, Maud was much admired by a number of suitors, but the man she fell passionately in love with was engaged to someone else. She was already a published author, caring for her aging grandmother, when she met the minister whom she would marry—a man she liked but did not love. Maud struggled with depression. Her husband suffered from mental illness that became incapacitating. Maud endured, raising their children while also taking her original publisher to court when she discovered he’d been cheating her—a protracted battle she eventually won. Occasional, judicious parallels between people in Maud’s early life and characters in Anne come up, but it is Montgomery’s own life that leaves a lasting impression, on its own, and in contrast to the idyllic account of girlhood and young womanhood she created. (Age 14 and older)

An affecting biography of the author of Anne of Green Gables is the first for young readers to include revelations about her last days and to encompass the complexity of a brilliant and sometimes troubled life.

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Maud who adored stories. When she was fourteen years old, Maud wrote in her journal, “I love books. I hope when I grow up to be able to have lots of them.” Not only did Maud grow up to own lots of books, she wrote twenty-four of them herself as L. M. Montgomery, the world-renowned author of Anne of Green Gables. For many years, not a great deal was known about Maud’s personal life. Her childhood was spent with strict, undemonstrative grandparents, and her reflections on writing, her lifelong struggles with anxiety and depression, her “year of mad passion,” and her difficult married life remained locked away, buried deep within her unpublished personal journals. Through this revealing and deeply moving biography, kindred spirits of all ages who, like Maud, never gave up “the substance of things hoped for” will be captivated anew by the words of this remarkable woman.