Editing Lucy Maud Montgomery (section)

===Marriage and family===

In 1908, Montgomery published her first book, ''[[Anne of Green Gables]]''. An immediate success, it established Montgomery's career, and she wrote and published material, including numerous sequels to ''Anne'', for the rest of her life. ''Anne of Green Gables'' was published in June 1908 and by November 1909 had gone through six printings.{{sfn|Brennan|1995|p=247}} A sequel was published the following year.{{citation needed|date=January 2024}} The Canadian press made much of Montgomery's roots on Prince Edward Island, which was portrayed as a charming part of Canada where the people retained old-fashioned values and everything moved at a much slower pace.{{sfn|Hammill|2006|p=660}} The American press suggested that all of Canada was backward and slow, arguing that a book like ''Anne of Green Gables'' was only possible in a rustic country like Canada, where the people were nowhere near as advanced as in the U.S.{{sfn|Hammill|2006|p=660}} Typical of the American coverage of Montgomery was a 1911 newspaper article in [[Boston]], which asserted:<blockquote>Recently a new and exceedingly brilliant star arose on the literacy horizon in the person of a previously unknown writer of "heart interest" stories, Miss Lucy M. Montgomery, and presently the astronomers located her in the latitude of Prince Edward Island. No one would ever imagine that such a remote and unassertive speck on the map would ever produce such a writer whose first three books should one and all be included in the "six best sellers." But it was on this unemotional island that ''Anne of Green Gables'' was born ... This story was the work of a modest young school teacher, who was doubtless as surprised as any of her neighbors when she found her sweetly simple tale of childish joys and sorrows of a diminutive red-haired girl who had made the literary hit of the season with the American public ...{{sfn|Hammill|2006|pp=660–661}}</blockquote>

Despite the success of the first two ''Anne'' novels, Montgomery did not have any desire to write more featuring the character, writing in a 1910 letter:<blockquote>I have been flooded with letters entreating me to write a third ''Anne'' book ... but I feel as if I simply could not do it. The freshness has gone out of the ''Anne'' idea. It may return some day. But unless it does I shall never throw any further light on Anne's career.<ref>{{cite book	|last1= Montgomery |first1= Lucy Maud |editor-last1= Bolger |editor-first1= Francis W. P. |editor-last2= Epperly |editor-first2= Elizabeth R. |date = 1980 |title = My Dear Mr. M: Letters to G. B. MacMillan	|location = Toronto |publisher = McGraw-Hill Ryerson |page = 50	|isbn = 0-07-092399-X
}}</ref></blockquote> Despite her feeling the story of Anne Shirley had run its course, in 1912 she would publish a short story collection set in Avonlea (with Anne featured in one), ''[[Chronicles of Avonlea]]'', then in 1915 a third novel in the series, ''[[Anne of the Island]]'', followed by numerous others over the remainder of her life.

In contrast to this publisher's ideal image of her, Montgomery wrote in a letter to a friend: "I am frankly in literature to make a living out of it."{{sfn|Brennan|1995|p=251}} The British scholar [[Faye Hammill]] noted that in the books Anne is a tall girl and Montgomery was 37 at the time, which hardly made for a "young school teacher".{{sfn|Hammill|2006|p=661}} Hammill also noted that the author of the piece chose to present Montgomery as the idealized female author, who was happiest in a domestic/rural environment and disliked fame and celebrity, which was seen at the time as conflicting with femininity.{{sfn|Hammill|2006|p=661}} In emphasizing Montgomery's modesty and desire to remain anonymous, the author was portraying her as the ideal woman writer, who wanted to preserve her femininity by not embarking on a professional career, writing only a part-time job at best.{{sfn|Hammill|2006|p=661}} At the same time, Hammill noted that the author was using the anachronistic French name for Prince Edward Island, to add to the picture of a romantic, mist-shrouded fantasy island where the old ways of life continued "unspoiled", just as Montgomery was portrayed as an "unspoiled" woman.{{sfn|Hammill|2006|p=661}}

Shortly after her grandmother's death in 1911, Montgomery married Ewen (spelled in her notes and letters as "Ewan"<ref>{{cite conference |first=Akiko |last=Uchiyama |title=What Japanese Girls Read |conference=Asia Examined: Proceedings of the 15th Biennial Conference of the ASAA, 2004, Canberra, Australia |page=4 |publisher=Asian Studies Association of Australia (ASAA) & Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies (RSPAS), The Australian National University |year=2004 |editor-last=Cribb |editor-first=Robert |location=Canberra, Australia |url=http://coombs.anu.edu.au/SpecialProj/ASAA/biennial-conference/2004/Uchiyama-A-ASAA2004.pdf |isbn=0-9580837-1-1 |access-date=January 8, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110705165836/http://coombs.anu.edu.au/SpecialProj/ASAA/biennial-conference/2004/Uchiyama-A-ASAA2004.pdf |archive-date=July 5, 2011}}</ref>) Macdonald (1870–1943), a [[Presbyterian Church in Canada|Presbyterian minister]],<ref name= lmbio/> and they moved to [[Ontario]], where he had taken the position of minister of [[St. Paul's Presbyterian Church, Leaskdale]] in present-day [[Uxbridge, Ontario|Uxbridge Township]], also affiliated with the congregation in nearby [[Zephyr, Ontario|Zephyr]]. Montgomery wrote her next 11 books from the [[Leaskdale Manse|Leaskdale manse]] that she complained had neither a bathroom nor a toilet.{{sfn|Brennan|1995|p=253}} The congregation later sold the structure, which is now the [[Leaskdale Manse National Historic Site]]. Macdonald was not especially intelligent, nor was he interested in literature.{{sfn|Brennan|1995|p=253}} Montgomery wrote in her diary: "I would not want him for a lover but I hope at first that I might find a friend in him."{{sfn|Brennan|1995|p=253}} After their marriage, she took her honeymoon in England and Scotland, the latter a particular point of interest to her, as it was for her the "Old Country"—the romantic land of castles, rugged mountains, shining glens, lakes and waterfalls that was her ancestral homeland.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|p=153}}

By contrast, Macdonald's parents had come to Canada after being evicted in the [[Highland Clearances]], and he had no desire to visit the "Old Country". His wife had to drag him to the [[Isle of Skye]], the home of the [[Clan MacDonald|Clan Macdonald]], where the Macdonalds had once reigned as the Lords of the Isles.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|p=153}} The Macdonalds had been [[Scots-Gaelic]]-speaking [[Scottish Highlands|Highlander]]s, while the Montgomerys and Macneil had been English-speaking Lowlanders, which might explain the differing attitudes the couple held toward Scotland, as Montgomery was more proud of her Scottish heritage than her husband.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|p=156}} In England, Montgomery visited places associated with her favorite writers, going to the [[Lake District]] made famous by [[William Wordsworth]], to [[William Shakespeare]]'s house in [[Stratford-upon-Avon]], and to the [[Brontë Parsonage Museum|Haworth house]] in the Yorkshire moors where the Brontës ([[Anne Brontë|Anne]], [[Charlotte Brontë|Charlotte]], [[Emily Brontë|Emily]] and [[Branwell Brontë|Branwell]]) had lived.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|p=156}}

The Macdonalds had three sons; the second was stillborn. Montgomery believed it was her duty as a woman to make her marriage work, though, during a visit to Scotland, she quipped to a reporter, "Those women whom God wanted to destroy He would make into the wives of ministers."{{sfn|Brennan|1995|p=253}} The great increase of Montgomery's writings in Leaskdale is the result of her need to escape the hardships of real life.{{Sfn|McLeod|1983|p=87}} In 1909–10, Montgomery drew upon her [[Scottish-Canadian]] heritage and her memories of her teenage years to write her 1911 novel ''[[The Story Girl]]''.{{sfn|Waterston|2008|p=41}} Her youth had been spent among a Scottish-Canadian family where Scottish tales, myths, and legends had often been recounted, and Montgomery used this background to create the character of 14-year-old Sara Stanley, a skilled storyteller who was an "idealized" version of her adolescent self.{{sfn|Waterston|2008|p=41}} The character of Peter Craig in ''The Story Girl'' very much resembles Herman Leard, the great love of Montgomery's life, the man she wished she had married, but did not, right down to having blond curly hair.{{sfn|Waterston|2008|p=44}} As with her relationship with Leard, the other characters object to the lower-class Craig as not "good enough", but Felicity King chooses him anyway.{{sfn|Waterston|2008|p=44}}