Anne of Green Gables Celebrated with Canadian Stamp

https://www.tourismpei.com/anne-of-green-gables

In the early 1900's, Lucy Maud Montgomery was working as an editor for the Halifax Morning Chronicle when she read a newspaper article about a local couple who applied to adopt a boy, but instead was sent a girl.  The wheels started turning in Miss Montgomery's head.

In 1905, she wrote a novel about an elderly sister and brother from P.E.I. who apply to adopt a boy, but instead are sent a red-headed, freckle-faced girl with a wild imagination.  Most people would assume that her story was immediately snapped up by a Canadian publisher.  But this was not the case.  After five rejections, Miss Montgomery put her manuscript in a hat box and tucked it away.


                                                 

                                      "Beyond the Summer Fields" by Ben Stahl circa 1932                                                         courtesy https://americangallery.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/ben-f-stahl-1932/.

Three years passed.  Finally, the author resubmitted her story, this time to an American publisher.  It was accepted by L. C. Page of Boston, Massachusetts, the editor unable to resist the feisty freckle faced girl with the fiery red hair.  Anne of Green Gables was an immediate success in bookstores, selling more than 19,000 copies in the first five months.  It was translated into 20 different languages. Today it has sold an estimated 50 million copies worldwide.

In 2008, on the centennial of Anne of Green Gables, Canada Post issued a stamp.  The design is based on a painting by Ben Stahl, a resident of Prince Edward Island.

https://www.pinterest.com/anndelorey/homeprince-edward-island-canada/