Product Description

A loving look at the life of the best selling author of Anne of Green Gables by people who knew and loved her. Not only does this book uncover fascinating sides of the author and provide fresh anecdotes, but it includes many photos that are published for the first time.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1597130 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 284 pages

About the Author
Alexandra Heilbron worked as editor of The Avonlea Traditions Chronicle, a magazine for fans of L.M. Montgomery. In 2000 she won a writing award from the Prince Edward Island Museum and Heritage Foundation for her first book, The Lucy Maud Montgomery Album. Alexandra lives in Toronto,Canada.

Customer Reviews

Maud Montgomery Comes to Life!
Where to begin? Lucy Maud Montgomery wrote one of my favorite books, "Anne of Green Gables". A book that inspired many lovely childhood dreams. The dreams became a reality when I went to Prince Edward Island in 1998 - Searching for Anne, Green Gables and all the magic of LM Montgomery!

While on the Island I bought a number of books and visited many Anne related sites. All of this made me want more! The other books I read were well written and informative; but, this book about Maud by Alexandra Heilbron grabbed my attention from the very first page. I enjoyed her question and answer approach. This way we got the actual thoughts and feeling of the people she interviews. We did not get the authors (AH) thoughts and feelings on LMM. Once I started reading it was very hard to put down.

I like the fact that Alexandra Heilbron actually went to the Island to do her interviews ; it provided such authenticity to her writing. To actually show pictures of the people she interviewed was something new. And, there were new LMM pictures , a delight to see; when so many other publications use the same photos over and over again.

Towards the back of the book there are examples of some of Maud's ( she preferred being called "Maud") poetry. Charming. There are reviews of Maud's work written at the time of her books publication. There is even a published review that Maud did herself about writing and other authors! As I said, I found it hard to put this book down.

It is obvious from the way the book was written that the author (AH) is well acquainted with her material, many small details add to the charm of the book. I like the physical size of it, too. Large, soft covered and easy to hold when reading.

On a scale of 1 to 10; I give it a 9 1/2. Why not a 10? Because if I give it the highest mark, Ms. Heilbron might not write another LMM book. I sincerely hope she does, this one was a delight!

The real L.M. Montgomery?
Having read all L.M. Montgomery's books, including the autobiographical ones - the Journals and The Alpine Path - I jumped at the chance to find out more about her through people who have actually known her, so this book was a must for me.

Well, I certainly found out some more about her, but it is not another piece of the puzzle, as Ms Heilbron promises in her introduction. What I found instead was that Lucy Maud mastered the trick of projecting a certain image of herself to perfection. For in spite of all the physical and other complaints she writes about, the occasional nastiness to some people, the peculiar relationship with her husband and so on, she still manages to project an image of herself in The Journals as a very capable, humorous, strong, erudite and above all carefully dressed LADY (in capitals). And if one reads the reports of her relatives and neighbours closely, apart from a few barely noticeable dissident notes that is exactly how they remember her! So she goes on fooling us all, including the author/editor of this book, and we still don't know the real L.M. Montgomery.

I will be eternally grateful to Alexandra Heilbron for conceiving of the idea for this book and tracing down all those elderly people before it was too late. But asking the same questions over and over again - and often getting the same answers - becomes a little monotonous and the questions themselves sometimes seem rather irrelevant. Still, the book is a welcome addition to my L.M. Montgomery shelf.

Good reading
For all L.M. lovers this is good reading. I wish that the author had used a few more leading questions. Most of the questions seemed to be about how she dressed. This book gave a little insight into L.M.'s relationships with her children. A fascinating woman with such a sad life, I wish she were here to
give her a little sympathy. She needed it.