Editing Lucy Maud Montgomery (section)

===Publishing disputes and films===

Starting in 1917, Montgomery was engaged in five bitter, costly, and burdensome lawsuits with [[Louis Coues Page]], owner of the publishing house [[L.C. Page & Company]], that continued until she finally won in 1928.{{sfn|Bourgoin|1998|p=137}} Page had a well-deserved reputation as one of the most tyrannical figures in American publishing, a bully with a ferocious temper who signed his authors to exploitative contracts and liked to humiliate his subordinates, including his mild-mannered younger brother George, in public.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|pp=223–225}} Montgomery received 7 cents on the dollar on the sale of every one of the ''Anne'' books, instead of the 19 cents on the dollar that she was entitled to, which led her to switch publishers in 1917 when she finally discovered that Page was cheating her.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|pp=224–225}} When Montgomery left the firm of L.C. Page & Company, Page demanded she sign over the American rights to ''Anne's House of Dreams'', and when she refused he cut off the royalties from the earlier ''Anne'' books.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|p=226}} Even though he did not own the U.S. rights to ''Anne's House of Dreams'', Page sold those rights to the disreputable publishing house of [[Grosset & Dunlap]], as a way of creating more pressure on Montgomery to capitulate. Instead, Montgomery sued Grosset & Dunlap.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|p=225}} Page was counting on the fact that he was a millionaire and Montgomery was not, and that the prospect of having to spend thousands in legal fees would force her to give in.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|p=225}} Much to his surprise, she did not. Montgomery hired a lawyer in Boston and sued Page in the [[Massachusetts]] [[Court of Equity]] for illegally withholding royalties due her and for selling the U.S. rights to ''Anne's House of Dreams'', which he did not possess.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|p=227}}

In 1920, the house where Montgomery grew up in Cavendish was torn down by her uncle, who complained that too many tourists were coming on to the property to see the house that inspired the house in which Anne was depicted as growing up.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|pp=286–287}} Montgomery was very sentimental about that house, and the news of its destruction caused her great pain.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|pp=286–287}} Between May and July 1920, Montgomery was in Boston to attend court sessions with Page, who taunted her by telling her the ''Anne'' books were still selling well, making him millions.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|p=287}}

In 1920, Montgomery was infuriated with the [[Anne of Green Gables (1919 film)|1919 film version]] of ''Anne of Green Gables'' for changing Anne from a Canadian to an American, writing in her diary: <blockquote>It was a pretty little play well photographed, but I think if I hadn't already known it was from my book, that I would never have recognized it. The landscape and folks were 'New England', never P.E. Island ... A skunk and an American flag were introduced—both equally unknown in PE Island. I could have shrieked with rage over the latter. Such crass, blatant Yankeeism!{{sfn|Hammill|2006|p=666}}</blockquote> Reporting on the film's premiere in [[Los Angeles]], one American journalist described ''Anne of Green Gables'' as written by a "Mr. Montgomery", who is only mentioned in passing two-thirds into the article with the major focus being on the film's star [[Mary Miles Minter]], who was presented as the true embodiment of Anne.{{sfn|Hammill|2006|p=664}} Montgomery disapproved of Minter's performance, writing she portrayed "a sweet, sugary heroine utterly unlike my gingerly Anne" and complained about a scene in the film where Anne used a shotgun to threaten people with, writing that her Anne would never do such a thing.{{sfn|Hammill|2006|p=667}} Montgomery had no say in either the 1919 or [[Anne of Green Gables (1934 film)|1934 versions]] of ''Anne of Green Gables'' as the publisher, L.C. Page had acquired the film rights to the story in 1908, and as such, all of the royalties paid by [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] for both versions of ''Anne of Green Gables'' went to him, not Montgomery.{{sfn|Hammill|2006|p=667}} Montgomery stopped writing about Anne in about 1920, writing in her journal that she had tired of the character. By February 1921, Montgomery estimated that she had made about $100,000 from the sales of the Anne books while declaring in her diary: "It's a pity it doesn't buy happiness."{{sfn|Brennan|1995|p=252}} She preferred instead to create books about other young, female characters, feeling that her strength was writing about characters who were either very young or very old. Other series written by Montgomery include the "Emily" and "Pat" books, which, while successful, did not reach the same level of public acceptance as the "Anne" volumes. She also wrote a number of stand-alone novels, which were also generally successful, if not as successful as her Anne books.

On August 20, 1921, Montgomery started writing what became the novel ''Emily of New Moon'', as she planned to replace Anne with Emily as the star of a new series of novels.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|p=290}} The character Emily was partly autobiographical, as Emily's dream was to be a writer when she grew up.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|pp=290–291}} Unlike Anne, who does not have clear goals about what she wants to be when she grows up, Emily Starr knows she wants to be a writer, a characteristic she shared with Montgomery.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|pp=290–291}} One aspect that Emily, Anne and Montgomery all shared was "the flash"&mdash;the mystical power that Montgomery called in ''Emily of New Moon'' "the wonderful moment when the soul seemed to cast aside the bonds of the flesh and spring upward towards the stars," allowing the soul to see "behind the veil" to a transcendent beauty.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|p=292}}

In 1925, a Massachusetts court ruled in favour of Montgomery against her publisher, Louis Coues Page, as the judge found that he had systemically cheated her out of the profits from the ''Anne'' books since 1908.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|pp=378–379}} Page used every conceivable excuse to avoid paying Montgomery what he owed her and, after his brother George died of a heart attack in 1927, accused Montgomery of causing his brother's death by suing him for shares of the royalties.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|p=379}} In fact, Louis Page was not close to George, who had just left the firm of L.C. Page & Company to get away from his abrasive and arrogant brother before he died of a heart attack, at age 52.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|p=379}} In October 1928, Montgomery finally won while Page, continued to insist in public that she had caused the death of his brother, which he used as a reason why he should not have to pay Montgomery anything.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|pp=379–380}} Page waged a campaign of harassment against Montgomery, sending her telegrams accusing her of causing his brother's death and the subsequent mental breakdown of his widow by defeating him in court, asking her if she was pleased with what she had allegedly done.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|pp=379–380}} Page's behavior badly damaged his business, as no author chose to go with a publisher who had revealed himself to be both dishonest and vindictive, and after the 1920s Page's publishing house largely depended upon reissuing older books rather than new ones as authors took their business elsewhere.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|p=380}} On November 7, 1928, Montgomery received a cheque for the $15,000 US dollars, the amount that the  auditors established Page had cheated her.{{sfn|Rubio|2008|p=381}}

In terms of sales, both in her lifetime and since, Montgomery was the most successful Canadian author of all time, but because her books were seen as children's books and as women's books, she was often dismissed by the critics, who saw Montgomery as merely a writer for schoolgirls, and not as a serious writer.{{sfn|Hammill|2006|p=662}} In 1924, the ''Maple Leaf'' magazine asked its readers to nominate the 14 greatest living Canadians, and all of the winners were men.{{sfn|Hammill|2006|p=662}} Montgomery only made the runners-up, coming in at 16.{{sfn|Hammill|2006|p=663}} However, Montgomery did make it onto another list of the 12&nbsp;greatest living Canadian women.{{sfn|Hammill|2006|p=663}} Hammill argued that Montgomery was successful at managing her fame, but the media's fixation on presenting her as the idealised woman writer, together with her desire to hide her unhappy home life with her husband, meant that her creation Anne, whose "life" was more "knowable" and easier to relate to, overshadowed her both in her lifetime and after.{{sfn|Hammill|2006|pp=669–670}}