I never really read Anne of Green Gables as a child. I knew the story and knew so many who had loved it. You may have seen an earlier post about us listening to the audio book in the car and we finished it just before we boarded the ferry to PEI. Rose loved the book and even visited 30 years ago with her parents who happened to be with us again this time! We all loved it and consistently commented on how descriptive Lucy Maud Montgomery’s writing was. We could picture the lake of shinning waters, lovers lane and the babbling brook in our heads and couldn’t wait to see it. Great conversations with Finley and Grace about descriptive writing and story telling surrounded our experience over 10 hours of listening in the car. What I didn’t know was the impact of this book and the back story behind the authors life and journey.

Lets start with the fact that Green Gables gets 2000-2500 visitors per day in the summer…How does an author from the early 20th century attract millions of visitors to this site over decades? I didn’t know that the house she describes in the book, was actually based on her cousins house, where she spent much of her time growing up. She lived just over a kilometer away with her grandparents who raised her, as her mother passed away when she was very young. I never knew how much ‘Anne with an E,’ was just like Lucy. The site did not disappoint as we saw the house and all that surrounded it so beautifully described in the book. The kids got to take part in a stay telling session where Finley played the role of Gilbert Blyth and Grace played Anne. We learned that Lucy Maud Montgomery was incredibly resilient; a strong female role model for generations to come, as in those times women were not meant to do such things.

Did you know that she was turned down by publishers five times in 1905? She put the manuscript away in a hat box and didn’t find it again until she was cleaning in 1908 and decided to try again to get it published.

 

It’s a good thing she did as it has become an international phenomenon. It has been translated to over 40 languages and is even in national curriculums around the world. Throngs of Asian visitors flock to PEI to see this national treasure of a site. After Japan was devastated  by WWII a missionary from New Brunswick was there trying to help and had a copy of the book. She left it with a Japanese friend who went about translating it, illegally, as it was not allowed by the emperor at the time. It became a national treasure in Japan, it was in school curriculum as a mandatory read and to this day holds Anne of Green Gables as a national folk hero.

A small town orphan writing a story about a small town orphan and who knew what an impact it would have. What stories or memories do you have of Anne of Green Gables?