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New books celebrating Anne of Green Gables 100th anniversary. Left: Before Green Gables, a prequel to Anne of Green Gables, by Budge Wilson. Centre: Imagining Anne, a study of Lucy Maud Montgomery's scrapbooks. Right: The centennial edition of Anne of Green Gables. Montgomery's granddaughter, Kate Macdonald Butler, will talk about Montgomery and her famous characters this Saturday at LE Shore Memorial Library.
She will always be the little girl with the red pigtails, but Anne of Green Gables is celebrating her 100th birthday this year.
Lucy Maud Montgomery's story of life in Prince Edward Island is a classic that has entertained generations of readers. And not all of those readers are young in years, says Montgomery's granddaughter, Kate Macdonald Butler.
Butler will be the special guest for a celebration of 100 Years of Anne at the L.E. Shore Memorial Library, Saturday, April 26, at 1 p.m.
She oversees the company, Heirs of L.M. Montgomery Inc., that supervises licencing of various items, from souvenirs to literary works, related to Anne of Green Gables and Montgomery's other characters and novels. They work in partnership with the Prince Edward Island government, as well, to protect one of the island's most famous personalities.
To mark the centennial of the publishing of the first edition of Anne of Green Gables, Penguin Books have published three new books with the support of Montgomery's heirs.
The first is called Imagining Anne, The Island Scrapbooks of L.M. Montgomery. Hard-core Montgomery fans will find it a fascinating look inside the life and mind of Montgomery.
There's also a special centennial edition of Anne of Green Gables, designed to look just like the first edition published in 1908.
And there's a new Anne of Green Gables story. Entitled Before Green Gables, it's an effort to tell the story of Anne's first years before her arrival at the now-famous house. Before Green Gables was written by Budge Wilson, a well-known and popular Maritimes writer who was hand-picked by Montgomery's heirs.
All three books are available at Jessica's Book Nook, the Thornbury store which is sponsoring Butler's visit to the Library this Saturday.
Butler said, in a recent interview, that her family had been approached several times about a ìprequelî. Butler said the family was always reluctant in the past, uncertain that a modern writer could capture the heart and soul of Montgomery's story. But Anne is such a fascinating character that many Anne of Green Gables fans would be interested in knowing how she came to be the person she was.
Penguin Books approached them with an interesting offer that included letting the family oversee the choice of writer, the story and the tone. They wanted it to be true to Montgomery and as well-written as the series of Anne novels written by Montgomery.
The family chose Wilson, who wrote the story in her own way rather than attempting to emulate Montgomery's style.
ìShe's a wonderful writer,îButler said of Wilson. ìShe writes for adults and young adults and she has that East Coast sensibility.î
Wilson wrote a short treatment of the book and the family loved it.
One important point, Butler said, is that Wilson didn't try to write a sugary-sweet story. It's clear from the many hints, in Montgomery's books, that the little girl had a difficult beginning. Thus, the story in Before Green Gables is often dark and sad. Anne's parents, a loving couple who had a happy home life, both died young. With no one else to take her in, the infant Anne goes to live with a very unhappy couple. There are few joys in her life, but she finds happiness where she can and develops her unique understanding of the world.
ìThe clues that Montgomery left about Anne's early life were truly grim,îButler said. îAnne came from a very dismal beginning. That's what makes Anne of Green Gables such a happy place. Before Green Gables is quite dark, although there are some shining moments. Budge took the approach of asking how this wonderful little human being came to be.î
Lucy Maud Montgomery's life was often sad, too. Born in 1874 on Prince Edward Island, she was raised by her grandparents. Her mother died young, of tuberculosis and her father, soon thereafter, moved to western Canada to start a new life.
She had a large circle of friends, and yet her journals and scrapbooks, as well as her writings, reveal she was often lonely and unhappy throughout her life.
Montgomery remained in PEI, caring for her grandmother, until 1911 when, at age 37, she finally married. Although she'd had many suitors, her biographers say, she accepted the hand of Rev. Ewan Macdonald, a Presbyterian minister. The couple soon moved to Ontario, where they raised two sons. (A third child was stillborn).
Although the marriage was not an especially happy one, Montgomery and her husband built a life together.
Imagining Anne presents the many sides of L.M. Montgomery. Often playful, often sad and lonely.
Butler never knew her grandmother first-hand. Montgomery died in 1942, 15 years before Butler was born. All the same, Butler says, she feels blessed to have so much information available to her through her grandmother's writings and through the work of Epperly, one of the leading experts on Montgomery and Anne, and other students of Montgomery's work and life.
ìElizabeth is probably one of the most knowledgable people on L.M. Montgomery and Anne of Green Gables in the world. There's just not much she doesn't know,îButler said.
But Butler says her personal connection to her grandmother came via her father, Ewan, Lucy Maud's youngest son. She and her father passed many hours talking, often about Lucy Maud Montgomery.
ìThey were really close,îButler said. ìThey were very fond of each other. She was very proud of him.î
Butler's strongest impressions of her grandmother, as related by Butler's father, are of her sense of humour that often came through despite her inner sadness, and of her strong work ethic. Montgomery was famous during her lifetime, among the most popular authors of her day. But she was certainly no pampered celebrity. She produced a prolific volume of work, including more than 500 short stories, hundreds of poems along with her novels. And she was a minister's wife, charged with a variety of responsibilities to assist her husband and the congregation.
Montgomery did most of her writing, by hand, very early in the morning before the rest of the house was awake, often by candlelight.
No doubt, Butler says, writing offered Montgomery some joy and solace, a chance to bring her imagination to life.
Anne of Green Gables remains one of the world's most popular literary characters. More than 50 million copies of Montgomery's book are in print, translated into dozens of languages.
Every generation has discovered Anne, something that intrigues Butler who now has a 19-year old daughter.
ìI don't really get it because Anne isn't 'cool', but we know the young people and teens do read it,î Butler said. Perhaps one of the greatest strengths of Montgomery's writing, she says, is the fact that people often re-read her books, later in life, and find the stories appeal to them in a different way. Older people, for example, find the bits of humour that they missed when they read the books for the first time as children or teens.
Butler can't even remember how many adaptations have been written for stage, screen, or television. A new one, just authorized by the family, is called The Nine Lives of Lucy Maud Montgomery and will examine Montgomery's life through interaction with the characters she created.
Another book is also coming soon. It's called Looking For Anne, by Irene Gammell, and is a study of how Montgomery created her characters and stories. It's known that she had clear ideas about them. It's known that when she wrote about Anne, she kept a picture of the then-famous actress Evelyn Nesbitt close by to serve as the physical model for the character.
Not surprisingly, Butler is seeing a resurgance of interest in Montgomery and Anne in this centennial year of Anne's first literary appearance. She even jokes that she finds herself on something of a speaking tour as libraries and literary groups mark the occasion.
Her visit here is partly for that reason and partly to spend some time with a long-time friend, Shelagh Mitchell and her family, who live near Heathcote.
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