Montgomery began writing at an early age, publishing poems and short stories in magazines before achieving worldwide fame with Anne of Green Gables, the story of an imaginative red-headed orphan adopted by an elderly couple on Prince Edward Island. The novel's immediate success launched a series that includes Anne of Avonlea (1909), Anne of the Island (1915), Anne's House of Dreams (1917), and Rilla of Ingleside (1921).
Beyond the Anne series, Montgomery wrote The Story Girl (1911) and the popular Emily of New Moon trilogy (1923–1927), which drew on her own experiences as an aspiring writer. Over her career, she published twenty novels, more than five hundred short stories, and numerous poems and essays.
The first Canadian woman to be named a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Montgomery remains one of the most translated and cherished authors in Canadian literature.