House of Dreams by Liz Rosenberg

Lucy Maud Montgomery is perhaps best know for her  novel, Anne of Green Gables that told the story of a red-haired orphan, Anne Shirley who is adopted by  siblings, Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert. Published in 1908, the novel is set in the fictional town of Avonlea in Prince Edward Island during the late 1800's. Based on many events in her life, the novel was immediately popular. L.M. Montgomery went on to author many other novels, including Emily of New Moon, The Blue Castle and The Tangled Web and a large number of poems and short stories.

In House of Dreams, Liz Rosenberg delves into the life of Maud as she preferred to be called. Maud was born in Clifton, Prince Edward Island on November 30, 1874. Her father, Hugh John Montgomery was the son of Senator Donald Montgomery and her mother was Clara Woolner Macneill, whose family was one of three founding families of Cavendish, P.E.I.

The Montgomerys and Macneills could not be two more different families. Maud's great-great-grandmother Mary Montgomery was responsible for the family settling on the island. As the story goes, profoundly sea-sick, Mary refused to return to their boat marking the end of their voyage. Maud's paternal grandfather, Donald Montgomery was a Conservative who served in the provincial legislature for over forty years, and had a career in the Senate too. In contrast, the Macneills were Liberals. Maud's maternal great-great-grandmother was not happy to be settled on Prince Edward Island. In protest, she refused to take of her bonnet.

Maud at age 6

Maud was born almost nine months after her parents married. Hugh John and Clara struggled to make a living from a small country store they operated. Neither were adept at managing a small business and the store failed. Clara soon became ill with tuberculosis, and John Hugh moved his family to Cavendish where the Macneills could care for their daughter. Sadly Clara died in September of 1876, when Maud was not quite two years old.

Although Maud worshiped her father, he struggled to support her and increasingly left her in the care of her strict Scottish grandparents, Alexander and Lucy Macneill who had a farm just outside of Cavendish, on the north shore. John Hugh eventually moved to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, abandoning Maud when she was just seven-years-old  and beginning a new life, remarrying later on and starting a new family. Instead of being angry with her father, Maud continued to adore him.

Maud's grandmother, Lucy Macneill was to play an important role in her life, advocating for her granddaughter, and paying for her education, when Alexander refused to support her.  The Macneills were staunch Scottish Presbyterians, who took few trips and kept to themselves. They did visit relatives at Park Corner, John and Annie Campbell. Maud's cousin Frede Campbell would become Maud's closest friend. The Macneill home was cold in the winter so Maud had to sleep downstairs but in the spring and summer, her favourite seasons, Maud was able to live upstairs. She had her own bedroom, and a den which "became her essential and cherished place to dream and work." Throughout Maud's life, her "moods soared or plummeted according to the seasons." It is likely Maud suffered from seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

Maud at age 28.

Rosenberg traces Maud's life through her youth, adult life and into old age. Maud was able to attend Prince of Wales College and earn a first class teacher's license. She also attended Dalhousie University in Halifax. Her adult life was filled with many troubles and much literary success. Maud seemed unlucky in love; she was courted by John Mustard whom she had no intention of marrying,  became engaged to her cousin Edwin Simpson whom she felt she could never marry, had a romantic relationship with the already engaged Herman Leard during this time, broke off her engagement and eventually married Ewan Macdonald, a minister who unbeknownst to Maud had serious mental health issues. However, in 1908, her novel Anne of Green Gables, which had been repeatedly rejected by publishers only a few years earlier was published by L.C. Page of Boston, Massachusetts. This marked the beginning of Maud's extensive literary career.

Sadly Maud's life was not always happy. She had a difficult marriage to Ewan Macdonald, who had serious mental health issues. Maud and Ewan moved to Toronto after their marriage where they had two children and a baby that was stillborn.  Her oldest son Chester was a difficult child and grew into a man with serious problems. Despite her many personal challenges, Maud continued to write. Her books were enjoyed around the world and her successful literary career allowed her to earn enough to live comfortably.

Lucy Maud Montgomery will be forever remember for Anne of Green Gables, but House of Dreams shows there was much more to her story than just this one novel.

Discussion

House of Dreams is Liz Rosenberg's revealing biography of Lucy Maud Montgomery presents many details of her life, gleaned from the extensive primary sources. Rosenberg used Maud's many journals, daybooks and letters to family and friends as her primary source material. Sadly almost all of Maud's early writings, poems and journal entries were destroyed before the age of fifteen by the author herself, something she later regretted. Despite this Rosenberg is able to piece together Maud's early life for her readers.

While some might know that L. M. Montgomery had an unsettled life, many probably did not know just how troubled her personal life was. Her journals paint a picture of a woman suffering from depression and anxiety, who may have had manic episodes and who was prone to debilitating bouts of deep despair.

Her youth and early adult life were certainly difficult as Maud had an intense desire to be a writer, but this dream was definitely not supported by her stiff-necked grandfather, Alexander Macneill. Maud was an excellent student but did not have the finances to fully achieve the education she desired. A good education would have allowed her to support herself and write. Instead her grandfather refused to help in any way refusing both money and transportation and it was her grandmother who gave Maud the necessary money to attend school. Maud showed resiliency and determination, often taking two years course load in one because she did not have the financial means to attend for two years.

Green Gables Heritage- farmhouse

Rosenberg demonstrates that many events and people in Maud's life were the germ for the characters in her novels. "Everything in Maud's early life led to the writing of that book, but she had to overcome a hundred obstacles to achieve it."

Maud grew up in a family of storytellers so it's not surprising she felt compelled to write her own. Her grandfather Alexander and her great-aunt Mary Lawson were especially influential as they had reputations a great storytellers. Anne was also influenced by one of her teachers, Miss Hattie Gordon who encouraged her Cavendish students to write.

Maud took everyday events of her life and worked them into her most famous novel, Anne of Green Gables. The novel grew out of an idea Maud had had a few years earlier about an elderly couple who decide to adopt a boy but end up with a girl instead. Maud "...transformed her own history of abandonment into a story of rescue. Maud put herself into the fictional Anne: her own vivid imagination; a passionate love of nature; her habit of naming inanimate objects; the imaginary cupboard friends; her hungry affection for books; her own vanity, pride, stubbornness; and a deep, abiding attachment to those she loves."

The fictional Avonlea was based on Cavendish, the Lake of Shining Waters was the pond at her cousin's home in Park Corner. Rosenberg writes that "Anne's house, Green Gable, was loosely based on a house belonging to two other cousins, David and Margaret Macneill."  Maud took some of the characteristics of her father John Hugh and her grandmother, Lucy Macneill for Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert. However, although Matthew Cuthbert shared John Hugh's shy disposition, he was a devoted father to Anne, unlike Maud's own father. And Marilla's "keen sense of humour and understanding" was very different from Maud's grandmother.

"Anne of Green Gables is a book about creating lasting family. It is a celebration of place, a story about belonging.No one but Maud Montgomery, with all her checkered history and heart-hungry longing, could have created it."

Although modern readers mostly focus on the love story between Anne and Gilbert in Anne of Green Gables, it is as Rosenberg points out and as Canadian author Margaret Laurence has stated,  really the growing love between Marilla and Anne that dominates this first novel. Anne and Gilbert's relationship blossoms into love in a later novel.


House of Dreams will appeal to keen fans of Anne of Green Gables. Reading Liz Rosenberg's biography will give readers a true sense of L. M. Montgomery's life and how her own story shaped those she created. Julie Morstad has produced lovely line drawings done in ink which can be found at the beginning of each chapter.What this books lacks are photographs of Anne and her family, and perhaps  Nevertheless, House of Dreams is well written, definitively researched and engaging. Rosenberg includes an Epilogue in which she explores the circumstances surrounding Maud's death. There is also a Time Line of L.M. Montgomery's life, Source Notes and a Bibliography.

Fans interested in further exploring the life and writings of Lucy Maud Montgomery are encouraged to check out the University of Prince Edward Island's  L.M. Montgomery Institute.

The Canadian Encyclopedia has a detailed entry on Lucy Maud Montgomery.

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography entry on Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Images of Lucy Maud Montgomery are from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
Green Gables Heritage Park - farmhouse image: http://cavendishbeachpei.com/members-operators/green-gables-heritage-place/

Book Details:

House of Dreams: The Life of L.M. Montgomery by Liz Rosenberg
Somerville, Massachusetts: Candlewick Press   2018
339 pp.