Maud's House of Dreams: The Life of Lucy Maud Montgomery

by Janet Lunn

An engaging, highly moving young adult biography of Lucy Maud Montgomery, the beloved author of Anne of Green Gables, the Emily series, and many more treasured stories. This year, 2002, marks the 60th anniversary of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s death.

Maud Montgomery was not yet two years old when she saw her mother for the last time. The journey from that day to the day Maud signed “Lucy Maud Montgomery” at the end of her first published story was long and often painful.

In this compelling portrait of one of Canada’s best-loved writers for young people, another beloved, award-winning young-adult author, Janet Lunn, vividly brings to life the spirit that was Lucy Maud Montgomery.

Lunn shows us Montgomery’s strict and lonely upbringing in rural Prince Edward Island, her eventual marriage to a man she did not love but who was deemed an ideal match, and her hard-won successes after many years of self-doubt and rejection. Throughout her life, Maud never stopped writing her journals and stories.

L.M. Montgomery is undoubtedly Canada’s most famous author. Today, sixty years after her death her books have been translated into nearly every language, and dozens of plays, musical plays, films and made-for-television series of her works have been produced. In 1975, a Canadian Anne of Green Gables postage stamp was issued, and in Japan, where her stories are hugely popular, there are two Anne theme parks. At the end of 1999, when lists of the last century’s favourite writers were being compiled, the name Lucy Maud Montgomery led all others.

Genres: Biography

151 pages, Hardcover

First published October 8, 2002

About the author

Janet was born Janet Louise Swoboda on December 28, 1928 in Dallas, Texas, U.S.A, moved to Vermont when she was two and lived there until she was ten when the family moved to the outskirts of New York City. She came to Canada in 1946 to go to Notre Dame College in Ottawa and then to Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. There she met and married Richard Lunn, a fellow student. She has lived in Canada ever since. Janet has five children, ten grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. Her husband died in 1987.

"Those," she says, "are the bare bones of my life story. The part that's interesting to readers has to do with reading, writing and daydreaming which are all, in my case, one and the same." She calls herself a dedicated daydreamer and says she has been that, "almost from the moment I was born. Even before I could read I was dreaming up stories. The sound of the wind in the ancient pine tree outside my window in our old farmhouse accompanied all my childhood imaginings. When I was in my teens and living far from that beloved home, I began writing stories with the sound of that tree still singing in my head."

Years later, in Canada, when her children were in their school years, the Lunn family went to live in an old farmhouse at the edge of a bay on the north shore of Lake Ontario. "I loved that house, too, she says, "and I began writing stories about it and the people who might once have lived in it. The stories I made up about the Vermont house have long since vanished but the ones I wrote about the Ontario-house families are The Root Cellar, Shadow in Hawthorn Bay and The Hollow Tree."

Janet lives in Ottawa now in a small city house but, chances are, her stories will still reflect her love of the countryside and those old farmhouses.

Reviews

[VJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fairly straightforward young-adult biography of LM Montgomery, providing a concise look at her life and progress as a writer. Mongtomery married late by our standards (36) and was most unhappy that so many of her male friends wanted to be her keeper instead of her friend. The story of her teaching and the conditions she endured to be independent and dedicate herself to her writing is inspiring.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book because I found out that it was the 100th yr anniversary of Anne of Green Gables and I knew little about the author. I love Anne when I grew up and re-read the books several times. More than Laura Ingalls Wilder or Elsie Dinsmore, I loved Anne. Janet Lunn takes the joy and imagination that is a part of L.M. Montgomery's works and weaves it into her own narrative. While it is a young adult biography, it is very informative and brief. Lunn points out the parallelisms between Montgomery's life and that of her characters. She also quotes extensively from Montgomery's own journals. This book will capture the attention of any reader who fell in love with the Anne of Green Gables books. And I only want to read more.

[Chloe Angeles · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wish I could’ve finished this book but Everand took it off before I could!! So bummed