She will eventually be the subject of a
longer article. In the meantime, here are two quotations from her that describe
the two worlds that some people live in. It was
these quotations that made me decide to investigate L. M. Montgomery, her life and her
works:
“I grew up out of that strange, dreamy
childhood of mine and went into the world of reality. I met with experiences
that bruised my spirit - but they never harmed my ideal world. That was always
mine to retreat into at will. I learned that that world and the real world
clashed hopelessly and irreconcilably; and I learned to keep them apart so that
the former might remain for me unspoiled.
I learned to meet other people on their own
ground since there seemed to be no meeting place on mine. I learned to hide the
thoughts and dreams and fancies that had no place in the strife and clash of
the market place.
I found that it was useless to look for
kindred souls in the multitude; one might stumble on such here and there, but
as a rule it seemed to me that the majority of people lived for the things of
time and sense alone and could not understand my other life. So I piped and
danced to other people's piping - and held fast to my own soul as best I
could.”
From My Dear Mr. M: Letters to G.B.
Macmillan from L.M. Montgomery
So she too was faced with an unaccommodating,
often incomprehensible and sometimes unbearable real world, and she too was
able to escape to the inner world of the imagination.
