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October 7, 2024 @ 12:00 am - November 30, 2024 @ 12:00 am
Maud of Green Gables is a timely and timeless book created to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of L. M. Montgomery on November 30th, 2024.
Why has Anne Shirley, the freckled red-headed orphan with a genius for calamities, enchanted the world so completely? And why has Anne of Green Gables, a 1908 publication with endearing characters and wholesome family values, been such a legendary success? Anne remains one of the
most loved and recognizable literary characters, but less is known about her creator, Lucy Maud Montgomery. Maud of Green Gables explores their intertwined legacies through commentary, archival photos, and moving and memorable quotes. But it is the full-page impressionist oil paintings that bring Maud and Anne to life, so the reader feels that they have met and have become kindred spirits and bosom friends.
Maud of Green Gables traces the story of LMM’s début novel from conception to publication and through its meteoric rise to becoming a beloved classic in Canada and internationally. Readers discover LMM’s writing process and her core belief that hard work and perseverance leads to success. Although her life was burdened with mental health challenges, tragedy, and gender discrimination, Montgomery kept her fiction rosy, celebrating unremarkable characters and revering the natural beauty found in rural settings. Although high-brow Canadian critics ridiculed this ‘sugary’ style, by the end of the the century LMM was voted Canada’s most influential writer; the L. M. Montgomery Institute was founded to study her life’s work. This biography was meticulously researched and is endorsed by the Montgomery heirs. The University of Guelph is exhibiting the book art and reference material from the L. M. Montgomery archives until November 30th .
Janet Wilson is the illustrator of over 50 books for children, including In Flanders Fields: The Story of the Poem by John McCrae (Linda Granfield) and the author of eight non-fiction books. She is also a fine artist. She lives in Eden Mills, Ontario.
The exhibition opens on Monday Oct. 7th on the main floor of the University of Guelph McLaughlin Library, 50 Stone Rd East.
It’s open during library hours: https://cal.lib.uoguelph.ca/hours
