L. M. Montgomery Literary Icon

Celebrating L. M. Montgomery: Canada's Literary Icon

Not many Canadian authors have captured the hearts and imaginations of readers quite like L. M. Montgomery. Through her beloved stories and characters, the creator of the internationally-acclaimed Anne of Green Gables has transported millions of readers, over many generations, to the little province she called home.

One of Canada’s most enduring and endearing cultural figures, Montgomery is an icon who continues to impart a lasting impression. This year, we honour her brilliant imagination and exceptional talent with a commemorative $1 circulation coin—a tribute to her life’s work.

”I cannot remember the time when I was not writing, or when I did not mean to be an author.“

– L. M. Montgomery, The Alpine Path, 1917

BEHIND THE DESIGN

L. M. Montgomery Commemorative Circulation Coin

Discover the design details on our L. M. Montgomery $1 coin. An ode to creativity and boundless imagination, it’s the first Canadian circulation coin to celebrate an author.

From P.E.I. to the World

Anne of Green Gables is, without a doubt, L. M. Montgomery’s most critically-acclaimed and widely-known work. Montgomery achieved lasting fame thanks to her beloved character, Anne Shirley: an outgoing, red-haired orphan with big feelings, a big imagination, and who loves P.E.I. passionately.

Montgomery’s love for her hometown of Cavendish, joyfully captured on the pages of Anne of Green Gables, shines a spotlight on Canada’s smallest province. To this day, hundreds of thousands of people travel from all around the world to experience the island, and its literary landmarks, for themselves.

Despite its massive success, Anne of Green Gables was initially rejected by several publishers. Discouraged, Montgomery stored the manuscript away in a hatbox for years. Later, upon re-reading it, she decided to send the novel out for publication one last time. Thankfully, it paid off. L.C. Page & Company published the novel in 1908, forever changing the trajectory of Montgomery’s life and career.

Anne of Green Gables was an immediate bestseller and has been in print since its initial run. With more than 50 million copies sold, and countless adaptations, it is one of Canada’s most famous literary works, and an international phenomenon. The novel has been translated into more than 35 languages, including braille, and is hugely popular outside of Canada, particularly in Japan and Poland. With various film, television, and theatrical productions of Anne of Green Gables over the past 100 years, new generations can continue to reinterpret and enjoy Anne’s story for themselves.

Did You Know? L. M. Montgomery’s Writing Process

When writing a novel, Montgomery took copious notes and created detailed outlines. She called this signature writing method “spade work.” She would later type up her revised handwritten manuscripts.

Anne of Green Gables manuscript – ca. 1905 (published 1908) | Purchased, 1967 | Collection of Confederation Centre Art Gallery, CM 67.5.1 | Photographer: Jean-Sébastion Duchesne

More than just an author, Montgomery practiced her artistry in many forms. An avid documentarian, she began journaling and writing poems at the tender age of nine, recounting the trials and tribulations of her youth. She carried on with her detailed journals and accompanying scrapbooks, letters, and photography up until the final years of her life. A prolific writer, she published her first poem at 16 years old. She then went on to compose hundreds of short stories for magazines and newspapers across North America as a teenager and young adult. Her career continued to flourish from that point on.

However, despite her success, Montgomery lived with depression throughout her adult life, particularly in the wake of personal tragedies and challenges. Her marriage to Ewan Macdonald saw her coping with his chronic mental illness, her second son Hugh was stillborn, and her beloved cousin Frederica died young of the Spanish Flu. Though she was suffering, Montgomery continued to write, endlessly chronicling her life journey through a lens brimming with beauty and humour. In the end, she published hundreds of short stories and poems in addition to 20 novels—including the internationally-beloved Anne of Green Gables.

Lucy Maud Montgomery—called Maud by friends and family—is born on November 30, 1874 in Clifton (now New London), Prince Edward Island. Her mother passes away just 21 months after Montgomery’s birth, so she is raised by her maternal grandparents in Cavendish.
As a teenager, Montgomery spends a year in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan living with her father and stepmother. During this time, her first publication (a poem titled “On Cape Le Force”) appears in the Charlottetown Daily Patriot, and three of her essays are published in other newspapers.
Montgomery graduates with a Teacher’s License from Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown. To help pay for her undergraduate studies in English Literature at Dalhousie University, she teaches at rural schoolhouses. She was one of the few women of her time to seek post-secondary education.
When her maternal grandfather dies in 1898, Montgomery stops teaching and returns home to Cavendish to care for her grandmother. In 1901, she left home for a brief period to take a job as a proofreader at the Halifax Daily Echo, where she also writes her own column (under the pen name “Cynthia”—one of many pseudonyms she used).
In 1907, Montgomery signs a contract for the publication of Anne of Green Gables, a contract that will change the course of her career. Officially published in June of 1908, Anne of Green Gables goes through six printings by December of that year. At this point in her life, Montgomery has already written and published some 200 short stories and over 100 poems.
After her grandmother passes away in 1911, Montgomery marries Reverend Ewan Macdonald after being secretly engaged to him for five years. They honeymoon in England and Scotland, eventually settling down in Leaskdale, Ontario. By now, she has published four novels, about 400 poems, over 400 short stories, and 52 other sketches and essays. At Leaskdale, she publishes an additional seven novels and more short stories and poetry.
Montgomery gives birth to three sons: Chester Cameron Macdonald is born in 1912, her second son, Hugh, is stillborn in 1914, and her third son Ewan Stuart Macdonald is born in 1915.
Montgomery enters a series of lawsuits and appeals with her first publisher over the unauthorized publication of Further Chronicles of Avonlea. Although eventually resolved in Montgomery’s favour in 1928, the case makes it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Montgomery and her family move to Norval, Ontario in 1926 (Montgomery’s first home with electricity), before retiring in 1935 to the Swansea area of Toronto. She named her Toronto house “Journey’s End” and, fittingly, it was her last place of residence.
The Canadian government declares Green Gables and the surrounding Cavendish area a national park. Montgomery is involved in its development and visits the park once before her death.
Montgomery passes away on April 24, 1942 in Toronto. Though experiencing depression and ill health, she mails a final collection of Anne-related sketches and poems, The Blythes Are Quoted, to her publisher the day before she died. This collection is not published in its entirety until 2009. After lying in state at Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery is laid to rest in the Cavendish cemetery—a final return to the island she so cherished.
  • Membership to the Canadian Author’s Association
  • Membership to the Canadian Women’s Press Club
  • 1923: First Canadian woman to become a member of the British Royal Society of Arts
  • 1924: Named one of the “Twelve Greatest Women in Canada” by the Toronto Star
  • 1935: Named to the Order of the British Empire
  • 1935: Named to the Literary and Artistic Institute of France
  • 1943: Named a Person of National Historic Significance by the Government of Canada
  • 1999: Voted the most influential Canadian writer of the 20ᵗʰ century by a CBC poll
  • 2000: Named one of 25 Canadians who inspired the world by Maclean’s magazine

A Tribute to the Power of Imagination

Pen to paper, thoughts to words, L. M. Montgomery’s beloved stories and unforgettable characters carry on in our collective consciousness. Her incisive wit and celebration of daily life continues to have a resounding impact on generations of readers around the world.

This year, we honour the brilliant mind and limitless artistry of L. M. Montgomery with a commemorative $1 circulation coin—a lasting tribute to a Canadian literary icon and to the power of imagination.

”Because when you are imagining, you might as well imagine something worth while.“

– L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, 1908.

The L. M. Montgomery Collection

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2024 $1 150th Anniversary of the Birth of L. M. 
Montgomery Colourized Special Wrap Roll

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2024 $1 150th Anniversary of the Birth of L. M. 
Montgomery Non-colourized Special Wrap Roll

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The 2024 Special Wrap Roll Commemorative Collection

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Thank You

L.M. Montgomery and L.M. Montgomery’s signature and cat motif are trademarks of Heirs of L.M. Montgomery Inc.

    

COLLAGE #1 – CHARACTER (left to right)

John Sylvester/Tourism PEI

Anne of Green Gables manuscript, 1905 (published 1908) |Purchased, 1967 | Collection of Confederation Centre Art Gallery, CM 67.5.1| Photographer: Jean-Sébastion Duchesne

Anne with Gables, Cavendish P.E.I. | Scott Munn / ©Parks Canada / Green Gables Heritage Place

  

COLLAGE #2 – AUTHOR (left to right)

L. M. Montgomery portrait, age 61, Norval – ca. 1935 | Courtesy of Archival & Special Collections, University of Guelph. L. M. Montgomery Collection, XZ1 MS A097 017 0103

L. M. Montgomery’s cat Daffy, Leaskdate, ON – ca. 1925 | Courtesy of Archival & Special Collections, University of Guelph. L. M. Montgomery Collection, XZ1 MS A097040

John Sylvester/Tourism PEI

Anne of Green Gables manuscript, 1905 (published 1908) | Purchased, 1967 | Collection of Confederation Centre Art Gallery, CM 67.5.1 | Photographer: Jean-Sébastion Duchesne

Image from Imagining Anne: L. M. Montgomery’s Island Scrapbooks edited by Elizabeth Rollins Epperly | Reprinted with permission from Nimbus Publishing | Copyright © 2008, 2019 Elizabeth Rollins Epperly and Heirs of L. M. Montgomery Inc.

L. M. Montgomery, age 34 (at time of publication of Anne of Green Gables – ca. 1908 | Courtesy of Archival & Special Collections, University of Guelph. L. M. Montgomery Collection, XZ1 MS A097057

L.M. Montgomery and L.M. Montgomery’s signature and cat motif are trademarks of Heirs of L.M. Montgomery Inc.

  

COLLAGE #3 – REGION (left to right)

Green Gables House, Cavendish P.E.I. | Scott Munn / ©Parks Canada / Green Gables Heritage Place

Anne, Balsam Hollow Trail_Fall2021 | Stephen DesRoches / ©Parks Canada / Green Gables Heritage Place