Lucy Maud Montgomery, called Maud by her friends, wrote more than twenty books for young adults, the most famous of which are Anne of Green Gables and its sequels. She designed the Anne series for teen-age girls, and she drew many of Anne Shirley's experiences from her own life.

Montgomery was a native of Prince Edward Island, Canada, born in Clifton on November 30, 1874, to Hugh John and Clara Woolner Macneill Montgomery. A few months before Montgomery's second birthday, her mother died, and she was sent to live with her maternal grandparents on a farm much like Green Gables. After her father moved to Saskatchewan, Montgomery experienced the kind of extreme loneliness Anne describes having felt in early childhood.

At the age of twelve, she went to live with her father and new stepmother, and devoted much time to helping with her half-brother and half-sister...