Post by Aslan Fan 4 Ever on Jun 15, 2010 11:07:04 GMT -8
Lucy Maud Montgomery was born in Clifton (now New London), Prince Edward Island on November 30, 1874. Her mother, Clara Woolner Macneill Montgomery, died of tuberculosis when Maud was 21 months old. Stricken with grief over his wife’s death, Hugh Montgomery gave custody over to Montgomery’s maternal grandparents. Later he moved to Saskatchewan when Montgomery was seven years old. She went to live with her maternal grandparents, Alexander Marquis Macneill and Lucy Woolner Macneill, in the nearby community of Cavendish and was raised by them in a strict and unforgiving manner. Montgomery’s early life in Cavendish was very lonely. Despite having relations nearby much of her childhood was spent alone. Montgomery credits this time of her life, in which she created many imaginary friends and worlds to cope with her loneliness, as what developed her creative mind.
In November 1890, Montgomery had her first work published in the Charlottetown paper, Daily Patriot. She was as excited about this as she was about her return to her beloved Prince Edward Island, in 1891. The return ‘home’ was a great relief to her. Her home life was an unhappy one due to the fact that Montgomery and her stepmother, Mary Ann McRae, did not get along and because by, “... Maud’s account, her father’s marriage was not a happy one.” In 1893, following the completion of her grade school education in Cavendish, she attended Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown. Completing a two-year program in one year, she obtained her teaching certificate. In 1895 and 1896 she studied literature at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.