Remembering Lucy Maud Montgomery

Elisabeth Anne MacDonald-Murray is an assistant professor of English at
the University of Western Ontario.

Alexandra Heilbron, the former editor of The Avonlea Traditions
Chronicle, has devoted much of her career to writing about L.M.
Montgomery. This portrait of Montgomery goes beyond the usual
examination of the author’s literary career. Through extensive
interviews with 32 friends, relatives, and neighbors, Heilbron has
provided a broad and well-rounded depiction of Montgomery’s life and
work, not only as a writer, but also as a minister’s wife, a mother, a
grandmother, and an employer.

Through the collected memories of the interviewees, Montgomery is
revealed as these people knew her. As Heilbron notes, the publication of
Montgomery’s personal journals in the 1980s surprised many readers
with the darkness and even anguish of the entries, which contrasted so
strongly with the optimism and positive energy of her published works.
Yet, neither aspect of Montgomery’s writings, either public or
private, reflects the author’s true nature; just as Montgomery
consciously chose to write uplifting and hopeful stories and novels, so
too, she used her journals to vent her own darker emotions in the course
of a life that was often difficult and unhappy. It is for this reason
that Heilbron chose to look to those people who actually knew Montgomery
to achieve an understanding of the woman who could produce two such
disparate literary products. Some of the interviewees only knew
Montgomery when they were children, and the portrait that is drawn of
the author is far from definitive, yet it presents a well-known life in
a new and interesting light.

The volume concludes with a series of 10 articles about Montgomery that
appeared in such diverse publications as Chatelaine, Maclean’s, The
Toronto Star Weekly, and The Island Patriot between 1909 and 1942. These
articles present an interesting juxtaposition of Montgomery’s public
life and persona to the personal perspective of the interviewees. As a
result, Heilbron’s portrait of L.M. Montgomery reveals a life and
personality that is far more complex than critics have formerly
acknowledged.