In the garden of the Historic Leaskdale Church (the former St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church) stands the life-size bronze statue of the famous Canadian author, Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942).
Montgomery came to live with her grandparents at Prince Eduard Island after her mother passed away when she was almost two years old. From a young age, she loved to read and write, and by 16 years of age, she started publishing her poetry and short stories in the local newspapers. Montgomery became a teacher and studied literature at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1908 she published her first novel, Anne of Green Gables. At its center is a young red-haired orphan girl, Anne Shirley, who gets adopted by elderly siblings and comes to live on Prince Eduard Island. It quickly became a best-seller, translated to over 36 languages, and adapted into dozens of movies, TV series, films, radio, stage, and web productions, making Montgomery and Prince Eduard Island famous.
In 1911, she married Ewen Macdonald, a Presbyterian minister, and left Prince Eduard Island following his assignment at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Leaskdale. There she wrote her 11 books from the Leaskdale manse and raised her children. In 1926, they moved to a new congregation in Norval, Ontario, and nine years later to Toronto. Her final resting place is in the Cavendish Cemetery on Prince Edward Island.
During her lifetime, she became one of the most popular authors in the world and published 20 novels, 500 poems, 530 short stories, and 30 essays.
In 2006, The Lucy Maud Montgomery Society of Ontario, which operates the Leaskdale Manse National Historic Site at Montgomery house, purchased the St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church to preserve and establish it as the L.M. Montgomery National Historic Site.
In 2012, L.M.M.S.O launched the project to place a life-size bronze statue of Montgomery on the church grounds. The first statue of her in the world. They managed the fundraising and chose the local artist, Wynn Walters, to create it.
On June 20th, 2015, the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, Elizabeth Dowdeswell, unveiled the sculpture in a special ceremony. In her statue, Montgomery sits on a bench in the garden, looking across the fields she loved, holding a book.
After visiting the statue, explore the exhibition about Montgomery inside the church and pay a visit to Leaskdale Manse, Lucy Maud Montgomery Home, which nowadays is a museum dedicated to her legacy and showcases her life while living in Leaskdale.
Who is L.M. Montgomery?
This is the unlikely story of a young girl born on a rural island in the far reaches of eastern Canada at the end of the nineteenth century. That young girl would go on to become a Canadian icon, international bestseller, and beloved creator of Anne of Green Gables.
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WANT TO LEARN MORE ABOUT L.M. MONTGOMERY?
Visit the University of Prince Edward Island’s L.M. Montgomery Institute http://lmmontgomery.ca
Read about L.M. Montgomery’s life in Mary Rubio’s Lucy Maud Montgomery: The Gift of Wings. Published by Anchor Canada (Random House Canada), 2008.
Experience L.M. Montgomery’s creativity beyond the written word in Imagining Anne: Elizabeth Rollins Epperly presents L.M. Montgomery’s Island Scrapbooks. Published by Nimbus Publishing, 2019.
CREDITS
Scrapbook images:
L.M. Montgomery is a trademark of Heirs of L.M. Montgomery Inc.
“Anne of Green Gables” and other indicia of “Anne” are trademarks and official marks of the Anne of Green Gables Licensing Authority Inc.
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Blue Album, 1890
Paper Scrapbook Album
Confederation Centre Art Gallery
CM 67.5.15
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Red Album, 1890s-mid-1910
Paper Scrapbook Album
Confederation Centre Art Gallery
CM 67.5.12
Photographs:
LMM Age 6, Cavendish, 1880
Courtesy of Archival and Special Collections, University of Guelph. LM Montgomery Collection, XZ1 MS A097017, Box 3, Image 82.
LMM Age 8, Cavendish, 1882
Courtesy of Archival and Special Collections, University of Guelph. LM Montgomery Collection, XZ1 MS A097017, Box 3, Image 83.
Passengers disembarking boat, Honeymoon, 1911
Courtesy of Archival and Special Collections, University of Guelph. LM Montgomery Collection, XZ1 MS A097045, Box 5, Image 786.
Melrose Abbey, Scotland, 1911
Courtesy of Archival and Special Collections, University of Guelph. LM Montgomery Collection, XZ1 MS A097045, Box 5, Image 794.
L.M. Montgomery, 1909
Courtesy of the L.M. Montgomery Institute Ryrie-Campbell Collection, University of Prince Edward Island. 909 SI LMM BNM.
Signed portrait of L.M. Montgomery, ca. 1935
Courtesy of the L.M. Montgomery Institute Ryrie-Campbell Collection, University of Prince Edward Island. 946 SI Photograph ca. 1935.
Anne of Green Gables, 1908
Courtesy of the L.M. Montgomery Institute Ryrie-Campbell Collection, University of Prince Edward Island. 911 AGG-PG-1ST Brown
Video clips:
Anne of Green Gables. Film directed by George Nicholls, Jr., based on the novel, Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery, RKO Pictures, 1934.
Anne of Green Gables (赤毛のアン, Akage no An, Red-haired Anne). TV series directed by Isao Takahata, based on the novel, Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery, Nippon Animation, 1979.
Green Gables Fables. Vlog series directed by Mandy Harmon and Marie Trotter, based on the novel, Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery, 2014-16. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO_zDxEu4FA1vdpcB2WPSJg
Anne with an E. TV series written and produced by Moira Walley-Beckett, based on the novel, Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery, CBC/Netflix, 2018-20.
Anne’s Alphabet. By Kelly Hill, based on the novel, Anne of Green Gables, by L. M. Montgomery, Tundra Books, 2019.
Selection of Anne-related books. Amazon.ca, 2020.
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