Author: Harry Bruce
Country: USA/Canada
Publisher: Seal Bantam Books (New York/Toronto)
Date: 1992
Pagination: x + 166 pp.
Format: Jacketed hardcover
Trim: 5.75” x 8.5”
ISBN: 0-553-08770-3 (USA), 0-7704-2459-7 (Canada)
Maud: The Life of L.M. Montgomery is a book-length biography by Harry Bruce, published simultaneously in the United States and Canada by Seal Bantam Books in 1992. The book was reissued, with chapters reorganized, by Nimbus Publishing in 2003 as Maud: The Early Years of L.M. Montgomery.
From the Dust Jacket
Born November 30, 1874, L.M. Montgomery spent her childhood in a rural farmhouse, like her beloved character Anne of Green Gables. Raised by strict, elderly guardians, she had an early life full of loneliness and struggle; however, Maud had a secret dream: to become a writer.
In fascinating, authentic detail, this biography follows life on turn-of-the-century Prince Edward Island, the setting for nearly all of Maud’s stories. Readers discover the island’s haunting beauty and its idiosyncrasies: the Automobile Abolition Society that kept it free of cars; its tiny capital, Charlottetown, where streetlamps went unlit during full moons; and its Scottish inhabitants who feared God, revered hard work, and loved learning.
The town of Cavendish, so much like the Avonlea of the Anne books, is where Maud began writing, at the age of nine. In Cavendish she grew into a vibrant young woman who was so attractive to men that she was pursued and proposed to frequently. Yet Maud Montgomery never wed the one man she truly desired; when she finally did marry, at the age of thirty-five, it was to someone she respected but did not love.
Maud explores the passionate nature and irrepressible imagination of Maud Montgomery that she tried to conceal from those she lived with. Whether teaching in a one-room schoolhouse, becoming one of the first Canadian women journalists, or, finally, trapped in her hometown taking care of her aging grandmother and running the local post office, she was not only the responsible individual who accepted her fate but also a woman of stormy moods and unshakable ambition.
Drawn extensively from L.M. Montgomery’s own journals, this colorful biography vividly portrays a woman ahead of her time, a remarkable author who gave the world a unique character named Anne of Green Gables.
Contents
1. Wooed but Not Won (1–8)
2. The Love of Her Life (9–16)
3. Rooted in Family History (17–24)
4. The Loneliness of a Small Outsider (25–37)
5. In the Kingdom of Dreams (38–47)
6. Work, Save, Pray—and Behave Yourself (48–56)
7. Maud Tries Her Wings (57–64)
8. Schoolyard Love (65–72)
9. Way Out West (73–80)
10. At Last, Her Name in Print (81–87)
11. Back Home, and Off to College (88–95)
12. Our Miss Montgomery: Schoolmarm (96–103)
13. Writing for Dollars (104–10)
14. A Newspaperwoman Goes Home (111–20)
15. Trapped (121–26)
16. A Wedding on Hold (127–35)
17. Hello, Anne (136–40)
18. The Anne Shirley Inside Maud (141–48)
19. After Anne (149–56)
Index (157–66)