Anne of the Island.

MONTGOMERY, L. M..

$9,200.00

Item Number: 130579

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, correct dust jacket blurbs and price ($1.25). 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. Fine in the scarce original dust jacket with a small chip to the spine. Exceptionally rare and desirable. Copies of this title in the original dust jacket are of the utmost scarcity.

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).