Have you ever wondered what inspired your favorite classic novelist to write their stories? What was happening in their lives to inspire their famous works? What was happening in the world at the time that they wrote those stories you love?
Join Host Bree Carlile while she helps to answer some of the questions you have always had about your favorite classic novelists.
For the next few weeks we will talk about the life of Lucy Maud Montgomery. What inspired her to write Anne of Green Gables? What else was happening in the world at the time?
Come with us as we release new episodes with the launch of each new author on the Bite at a Time Books Podcast, detailing the life and history at the time of your favorite authors.
Follow, rate, and review Bite at a Time Books Behind the Books where we go behind the scenes of what inspired your favorite authors to write your favorite classics. Available wherever you listen to podcasts.
Get exclusive Behind the Scenes content on our Patreon
If you would also like to hear a story by the author we are currently featuring, check out the Bite at a Time Books daily podcast where we read one bite (chapter) a day of your favorite classics, wherever you listen to podcasts, right now we are reading Jane Eyre.
Information for today's episode came from Wikipedia, don't judge us, we just want to give you a brief glimpse into the life. Thanks!
Transcripts
Speaker:
Welcome to bite at a time.
Speaker:
Books behind the story where we answer the questions you have about your favorite classic authors.
Speaker:
What inspired your favorite author to write their novels?
Speaker:
What was going on in the world at the time.
Speaker:
Follow along with us as we tell you what was happening in the world while your favorite authors wrote your favorite classics.
Speaker:
My name is bree Carlisle and I love to read and wanted to share my passion with listeners like you today.
Speaker:
We'll be talking about the early life of lucy maud Montgomery, lucy maud Montgomery was born in Clifton's now New London In Prince Edward Island on November 30, 18 74.
Speaker:
Her mother Clara Woolner MacNeill Montgomery died of tuberculosis when Maude was 21 months old, stricken with grief.
Speaker:
Her father Hugh john Montgomery placed mod in her maternal grandparents custody though he remained in the vicinity.
Speaker:
When Maude was seven, he moved to Prince Albert, Northwest Territories now Prince Albert Saskatchewan from then on Maude was raised by her grandparents alexander marquis McNeill and lucy Woolner MacNeill in the community of Cavendish, Prince Edward Island.
Speaker:
Montgomery's early life in Cavendish was very lonely despite having relatives nearby.
Speaker:
Much of her childhood was spent alone, she created imaginary friends and worlds to cope with her loneliness and Montgomery credited this time of her life with developing her creativity.
Speaker:
Her imaginary friends were named Katie Maurice and lucy gray and lived in the ferry room behind the bookcase in the drawing room during a church service, Montgomery asked her aunt where her dead mother was leading her to point upwards, Montgomery saw a trapdoor in the church's ceiling, which led her to wonder why the minister did not just get a ladder to retrieve her mother from the church's ceiling.
Speaker:
In 18 80 seven.
Speaker:
At age 13, Montgomery wrote in her diary that she had early dreams of future fame.
Speaker:
She submitted a poem for publication.
Speaker:
Writing, I saw myself The Wonder of my schoolmates, a little local celebrity.
Speaker:
Upon rejection, Montgomery wrote, tears of disappointment would come in spite of myself as I crept away to hide the poor crumpled manuscript in the depths of my trunk.
Speaker:
She later wrote down, deep down under all the discouragement and rebuff.
Speaker:
I knew I would arrive someday.
Speaker:
After completing Her education in Cavendish, Montgomery spent one year 1890 in Prince Albert with her father and her stepmother, Mary Anne Mcrae.
Speaker:
While she was in Prince Albert, Montgomery's 1st work.
Speaker:
A poem titled on Cape LaForce was published in the Charlottetown paper, The Daily patriot.
Speaker:
She was as excited about this as she was about her return to Prince Edward Island in 18 91 before returning to Cavendish Montgomery had another article published in the newspaper describing her visit to a First Nations camp on the great plains.
Speaker:
She often saw black feet and plains Cree in Prince Albert, writing that she saw many indians on the prairies who were much more handsome and attractive than those she had seen in the maritimes.
Speaker:
Montgomery's returned to Cavendish was a great relief to her.
Speaker:
Her time in Prince Albert was unhappy, for she did not get along with her stepmother.
Speaker:
According to Montgomery, her father's marriage was not a happy one.
Speaker:
In 1893, Montgomery attended Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown to obtain a teacher's license.
Speaker:
She loved Prince Edward Island.
Speaker:
During solitary walks through the peaceful island countryside, Montgomery started to experience what she called the Flash.
Speaker:
A moment of tranquility and clarity when she felt emotional ecstasy and was inspired by awareness of a higher spiritual power running through nature.
Speaker:
Montgomery's accounts of this Flash were later given to character Emily Byrd Starr in the Emily of New Moon trilogy, and also served as the basis for her descriptions of Anne Shirley's sense of emotional communion with nature.
Speaker:
In 1905, Montgomery wrote in her journal amid the commonplaces of life, I was very near to a kingdom of ideal beauty between it and me hung only a thin veil.
Speaker:
I could never quite draw it aside, but sometimes a wind fluttered it and I seemed to catch a glimpse of the enchanting realm beyond only a glimpse.
Speaker:
But those glimpses have always made life worthwhile.
Speaker:
A deeply spiritual woman.
Speaker:
Montgomery found the moments when she experienced The Flash some of the most beautiful, moving and intense of her life.
Speaker:
Montgomery completed the two year teaching program in Charlottetown in one year.
