L. M. Montgomery

Lucy Maud Montgomery (1874-1942) grew up in Prince Edward Island, raised by her grandparents after her mother’s death, and drew on that landscape for Anne of Green Gables in 1908. The book was rejected by five publishers before it was accepted. Anne’s optimism is regularly quoted as though it came naturally to her; in the novel it is closer to a technique, deliberately applied by a child with very little security. Montgomery’s own life was considerably harder than her books, a fact worth holding alongside them. Quotes are cited by chapter.