Publication Date: May 30, 2023
A stunning and unexpected portrait of Lucy Maud Montgomery, creator of one of literature’s most prized heroines, whose personal demons were at odds with her most enduring legacy—the irrepressible Anne of Green Gables.
“Dear old world,” she murmured, “you are very lovely, and I am glad to be alive in you.” —L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, 1908
As a young woman, Maud had dreams bigger than the whole of Prince Edward Island. Her exuberant spirit had always drawn frowns from her grandmother and their neighbors, but she knew she was meant to create, to capture and share the way she saw the world. And the young girl in Maud’s mind became more and more persistent: Here is my story, she said. Here is how my name should be spelled—Anne with an “e.”
But the day Maud writes the first lines of Anne of Green Gables, she gets a visit from the handsome new minister in town, and soon faces a decision: forge her own path as a spinster authoress, or live as a rural minister’s wife, an existence she once called “a synonym for respectable slavery.” The choice she makes alters the course of her life.
With a husband whose religious mania threatens their health and happiness at every turn, the secret darkness that Maud herself holds inside threatens to break through the persona she shows to the world, driving an ever-widening wedge between her public face and private self, and putting her on a path towards a heartbreaking end.
Beautiful and moving, After Anne reveals Maud’s hidden personal challenges while celebrating what was timeless about her life and art—the importance of tenacity and the peaceful refuge found in imagination.
Behind every published novel is an author filled with ideas and experiences guiding the creative process. One such example is Lucy Maud Montgomery, who entertained readers with Anne of Green Gables.
Author Logan Steiner draws upon portions of Montgomery’s life and weaves it along with historical fiction into After Anne. If there is one theme that stands out regarding Montgomery, it’s that her novels offered an opportunity for escape.
Interspersed with passages from her works, the story delves deeply into Montgomery’s relationships with family and her eventual husband. At times, it seems as if she’s in and out of reality. The young Anne character serves as her muse when life turns bleak.
Of special interest is the time period, with the 20th century ushering in two world wars and a pandemic that robs Montgomery of her dearest friend. In some ways, she’s a trailblazer, although she never managed to break out of the children’s book mold.
Her husband’s mental illness, combined with her eldest son’s vicious abuse, left her spiraling with no tether. She destroys much of her late-in-life journaling, caught up in the depths of despair. Her end is far different than what she would have predicted.
After Anne paints a picture of Montgomery’s tumultuous life. Somewhat dark and depressing in parts, reality offers a clear contrast to the world created within her books.
Logan is a lawyer by day and a writer by baby bedtime. Her writing explores motherhood and the creative life. Logan’s debut novel AFTER ANNE will be released on May 30, 2023 by HarperCollins. For fans of Anne of Green Gables and fans of complex, creative women, the novel tells the life story of the author Lucy Maud Montgomery. Logan also writes a newsletter on Substack called The Creative Sort.
After graduating from Pomona College and Harvard Law School, Logan clerked for three federal judges, spent six years in Big Law, and served for three years as an Assistant United States Attorney. She now specializes in brief writing at a boutique law firm.
Logan lives in Denver with her husband, daughter, and the cranky old man of the house, a Russian Blue cat named Taggart.
