Anne of the Island.

MONTGOMERY, L. M.

$7,800.00

Item Number: 135042

Boston: The Page Company, 1915.

First edition, first printing of the third title in Montgomery’s beloved Anne of Green Gables series with all first issue points including stated first impression on copyright page, 1915 date in roman numerals on title page. Octavo, original cloth decorated in gilt, tissue-guarded frontispiece and mounted cover illustration in color by H. Weston Taylor, 16 pages of publisher’s advertisements bound at rear. Near fine in a later issue dust jacket with a few small closed tears.

The story of the red-haired orphan Anne Shirley, Anne of Green Gables “is the most popular and enduring of a host of girls’ stories published in the United States and Canada in the first years of the 20th century” (Carpenter & Pritchard, 25-26). “Montgomery began writing about Anne as a serial for a Sunday school periodical in the spring of 1904. The character became so real that she eventually decided to develop the idea into a full novel. Much as she would later with readers, Anne took hold of her creator, developing into a feisty, imaginative little being who demanded to be noticed and loved” (Keeline, 41).