L.M. Montgomery's first published novel was a resounding success with many sequels to follow. She made Canada's Prince Edward Island an international tourist destination and her novels and hundreds of short stories have contributed greatly to Canadian Literature. Now almost a century later her works remain in print and continue to inspire stage, television, and film adaptations. Lucy Maud 'Maud' Montgomery was born into a long line of Scots-Canadian ancestors who first settled in P.E.I. in the late 1770s. Among their numbers were successful farmers, businessmen, and politicians. Lucy Maud was born on 30 November 1874 in the village of Clifton (now New London), Prince Edward Island, Canada. Her birthplace is now preserved as it was in her time. She was the only daughter of Hugh John Montgomery (1841-1900) and Clara 'Tillie' Woolner Macneill (1853-1876) who died of tuberculosis when Maud was twenty-one months old. Young Maud then went to live with her maternal grandparents Alexander Marquis Macneill (1820-1898) and Lucy Ann Woolner Macneill (1824-1911), staunch Presbyterians who maintained the Post Office for Cavendish, on P.E.I.'s north shore. Their rambling farm was the inspiration for "Green Gables", now part of the Prince Edward Island Provincial Park, established in 1937.