Chronology: 1908 to 1942
1908 Anne of Green Gables printed in April, but officially published in June; goes through 7 printings between release and December 1908, selling 19,000 copies in first 5 months; evokes praise from reviewers and letters from admirers including Mark Twain.
An early promotional photograph of L.M. Montgomery, c. 1907.
1909 Anne of Avonlea (about Anne as a young teacher) published as well as over 50 stories and poems. Anne of Green Gables translated into Swedish.
1910 Rev. Ewan Macdonald moves to the Presbyterian church in the small rural village of Leaskdale, Ontario, Canada. Kilmeny of the Orchard (a romance set in PEI) is published. Canada’s Governor-General Earl Grey asks to meet Montgomery in Charlottetown, PEI. Travels to Boston to visit publisher L.C. Page. Anne of Green Gables is translated into Dutch.
1911 Grandmother dies, aged 87, in March. Publishes The Story Girl (a group of PEI cousins welcomes two boys from Toronto; all relish stories told by Sara Stanley) in May. July 5 LMM marries the Rev. Ewan Macdonald in Park Corner, the home of her Campbell cousins. After two months’ honeymoon (paid for from her royalties) in Scotland and England, where LMM meets George B. Macmillan, the Macdonalds settle into Presbyterian manse at Leaskdale, 60 miles north-east of Toronto.
1912 Publishes Chronicles of Avonlea (older stories revised to include references to Anne). First child Chester Cameron Macdonald born 7 July. Anne of Green Gables translated into Polish.
1913 Finishes The Golden Road (sequel to The Story Girl) first of her novels composed in Ontario. Summer visit to PEI. Begins work on her third “Anne” book.
1914 Second son Hugh Alexander born and dies 13 August. Canada joins World War I on 5 August. Celebrates her 40th birthday in November. L. C. Page sells cheap reprint rights to Grosset and Dunlap, angering LMM.
1915 Publishes Anne of the Island (about Anne’s college days). Gives birth to youngest son Ewan Stuart Macdonald 7 October. Experiences pressures as a minister’s wife in a parish devastated by wartime casualties.
1916 Publishes The Watchman, and Other Poems (13 new poems plus 50 others published since 1899). Events lead LMM to change publishers, from L.C. Page of Boston to McClelland, Goodchild and Stewart of Toronto.
1917 Publishes Anne’s House of Dreams (about Anne’s early days of marriage and motherhood) and “The Alpine Path,” an autobiographical essay, in Toronto Everywoman’s World.
1918 Lawsuit against L. C. Page Company over their shortchanging in royalties, unauthorized selling of reprint rights, and proposal to publish Further Chronicles of Avonlea without her permission. Anne of Green Gables translated into Norwegian.
1919 Her dear cousin Frederica Campbell dies of influenza. Wins first case against Page in Boston; assigns right to her seven early works to him in return for a cash settlement of $17,880, not knowing he is negotiating film rights. Anne of Green Gables made into a Hollywood film: the $40,000 from the sale of rights all goes to Page. Ewan Macdonald suffers nervous breakdown. Publishes Rainbow Valley (Anne’s children befriend the motherless children of a minister).
1920 Further Chronicles of Avonlea is published, with unauthorized revisions of her stories; LMM sues Page, who brings a counter-suit for malicious litigation. Anne of Green Gables translated into Finnish. Mary Miles Minter silent movie edition of Anne published (49th impression, April 1920, 349th thousand).
1921 Rilla of Ingleside (Anne’s children as young adults in World War I) published. The Macdonalds travel to PEI with Ewan’s longtime friend Edwin Smith and his wife and cousins.
1921-22 Involved in a car accident that results in acrimonious lawsuit in Toronto, brought by a man against Ewan in a nearby village (Zephyr, Ontario). The Macdonalds enjoy a brief holiday in Muskoka cottage country. Loses lawsuit in Toronto court.
1923 Wins her case against Page in American courts, but Page retains rights to early books. Publishes Emily of New Moon (a new heroine, again in a PEI setting). Becomes first Canadian woman to be elected member of British Royal Society of Arts.
1925 Publishes Emily Climbs (Emily strives to become a writer). Elder son Chester leaves for boarding school north of Toronto. The Macdonalds work to prevent Church Union (Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists), but the United Church of Canada is established by vote in June. Anne of Green Gables translated into French. The original 1908 plates for Anne are worn out, and two separate (and different) new editions are reset and published: the 1925 Page edition, with new illustrations by Elizabeth Withington, and the 1925 British Harrap edition.
In 1925 L.M. Montgomery’s Emily Climbs was published.
1926 Ewan Macdonald accepts a call to a continuing Presbyterian Church in Norval, Ontario, 30 miles west of Toronto, with a second charge in the Union Presbyterian Church outside Glen Williams, Ontario; the Macdonalds move into the Norval manse. Publishes The Blue Castle (adult romance set in Muskoka area of Northern Ontario, a lake district). In February 1926, Page’s 59th printing of Anne reads “403rd Thousand.”
1927 Publishes Emily’s Quest. Invited to meet Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) in Toronto. British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin writes a fan letter from 10 Downing Street. Summer trip to PEI. Wins another round of lawsuits against Page.
1928-29 Publishes Magic for Marigold in 1929 (focused on a pre-school child). Meets longtime correspondent Ephraim Weber. Autumn visit to PEI. Younger son Stuart leaves for boarding school. Reunion with Nora Lefurgey Campbell, now living in Toronto. Lawsuits against publisher Page brought to successful conclusion.
1930 On a speaking tour through the Canadian west, renews friendship with Laura Pritchard Agnew and visits Ephraim Weber.
1931 Publishes A Tangled Web (adult novel set in PEI). Elder son Chester enters University of Toronto as an engineering student.
1932 Directs play for Norval amateur group. Chester, having failed his year, repeats his first year courses.
1933 Publishes Pat of Silver Bush (focused on a home like the Campbell farmhouse in Park Corner). Anne of Green Gables translated into Icelandic. Second son Stuart enters University of Toronto to study medicine. Chester fails his second year, withdraws from engineering; reveals his secret marriage to a young Norval woman, Luella Reid.
1934 In company with two other Canadian novelists, publishes Courageous Women (biographies of notable women). Second Hollywood film version of Anne of Green Gables; as in 1919, her legal settlement with L.C. Page means that the profits from the film go to him. First grandchild, Luella Macdonald, born; Chester begins studies in Law. Ewan spends four months in Guelph’s Homewood sanatorium for private mental patients. Stock-market reverses contribute to LMM’s six-week breakdown of nerves and general health.
1935 Publishes Mistress Pat (a lonely woman loses her home but finds romance). Ewan Macdonald retires from the ministry under pressure of some members of the congregation. Macdonald family buys a house in west-end Toronto on Riverside Drive and moves there. Sons Chester and Stuart board at home while in university, and Luella continues keeping house for her widowed father in Norval. Awarded the Order of the British Empire as part of King George V’s Jubilee Honours list. Elected to the Literary and Artistic Institute of France.
1936 Publishes Anne of Windy Poplars (Anne as a young school principal). Birth of second grandchild, Cameron Macdonald. Distress over Chester’s infatuation with Ida Birrell (later his second wife, and mother of two more children, David and Catherine). Part of Cavendish designated by Canadian government as a national “Green Gables” park.
1937 Publishes Jane of Lantern Hill (a young girl leaves Toronto for happiness in PEI). LMM’s mental health breaks down under stress of worry over Ewan, loss of her beloved cat “Good Luck,” Chester’s behaviour, and Stuart’s affection for a young woman in Norval.
1938 Nervous collapse brought on by many concerns over her own and her husband’s health, other family and financial concerns, including the failure of friends and relations to repay loans. Continues work on her final “Anne” book.
Anne of Ingleside, published in 1939, was the last novel published by L.M.
Montgomery in her lifetime.
1939 Last visit to PEI. Island scenes reappear in Anne of Ingleside (Anne’s early days of marriage and motherhood), the last work published in LMM’s lifetime. Chester called to the bar in June; Stuart finishes 5th and final year of medicine. Depression deepens with outbreak of Word War II in September. Discontinues regular entries in the journal kept since 1889.
1940 Chester turned down for military service; Stuart put on deferred list until the end of his medical internship finishes. Damaged arm resulting from a fall contributes to another bout of nervous depression. Chester’s marriage dissolves. Work proceeds on a final collection of Anne stories called The Blythes are Quoted (published 1974 as The Road to Yesterday).
1941 Continues to send post cards to friends like George B. Macmillan in Scotland. Her final letters to friends reveal worry over the war, Ewan’s mental deterioration, her own health, her income and her ability to write, and the future of her sons.
1942 First Canadian edition of Anne of Green Gables published by Ryerson of Toronto. Lucy Maud Montgomery Macdonald dies in her Toronto home, 24 April. Buried in Cavendish, PEI. The Rev. Ewan Macdonald dies the following year.