Lucy Maud Montgomery Heritage Minute highlights triumph over sexism and rejection

Jeff Lagerquist, CTVNews.ca Staff</span>
Published Thursday, March 8, 2018 10:57AM EST

A new Heritage Minute honouring Canadian literary icon Lucy Maud Montgomery celebrates her triumph over the depression, rejection and sexism she battled on her way to becoming a beloved author.

The commercial, released on International Women’s Day by Historica Canada, depicts Montgomery in a new light, referencing her “dark moods” and sadness that “possessed body and soul.”

“They say women shouldn’t write,” an actor reads from Montgomery’s journals in the Heritage Minute. “Some days I almost give up.”

In the 60-second video featuring sweeping landscapes of P.E.I., the actor explains how Montgomery composed her most popular character, Anne of Anne of Green Gables, from elements of her own childhood.

“I made Anne real. I gave her my love of nature, my love of books, and my childhood dreams,” she said.

Anne of Green Gables has remained in print for more than a century. The novel has been translated into at least 36 languages, and sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide, according a Canadian Encyclopedia entry.

The minute ends with a description of Montgomery: “Lucy Maud Montgomery battled depression, rejection and sexism to become known around the world for Anne of Green Gables and 19 other novels.”

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