Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery celebrated at Central Library

The Calgary Public Library is hosting a new exhibit featuring nearly 40 artifacts related to the author of 'Anne of Green Gables.'

Fans of Lucy Maud Montgomery and her iconic characters Anne of Green Gables and the Emily series can learn more about the artist in a special June exhibit at the Central Library.

The touring exhibition, celebrating Montgomery’s life and literary legacy, is being hosted by the Calgary chapter of the Canadian Bookbinders and Book Artists Guild (CBBAG).

The exhibit was put together to honor Montgomery’s birth [in 1874, over] 150 years go and is called Kindred Spirits: The Lucy Maud Montgomery Legacy as Interpreted by Contemporary Book Artists . A variety of book art for the touring exhibition was submitted by 60 CBBAG members and 37 pieces were chosen.

Thea Lynn Paul is a Calgary member and one of the organizers for the Calgary leg of the exhibition who has two pieces of her calligraphy in it. She says it’s a chance for the public to learn more about Montgomery but also CBBAG.

“We want them to see the multiple aspects of the bookbinding world,” she said. “In CBBAG there are lots of disciplines that it would include fine bookbinding, papermaking, book artistry, paper artistry, calligraphy, letterpress printing, and box making so we want people to see all of those different opportunities to be creative and to work with books.”

Annie Murray, University of Calgary rare books and special collections librarian says many Canadians have a special place in their heart for the author and her characters.

“I read Anne of Green Gables when I was little and it’s often a book that either your mom or your aunt might say oh, you’ve got to read Lucy Maud Montgomery,” she said. “You remember it as this special feeling you had reading them as a child and so it’s fun to revisit this on Montgomery’s 150th birthday, because the books still have a hold on people, there’s still adaptations being made, Netflix made ‘Anne with an E’, there’s graphic novels, manga and toys.”

Murray says the university has a valuable collection of Montgomery first additions of Anne of Green Gables published in 1908 and the Emily series published in 1923.

She’s bringing them to the Central Library on the evening of June 8th for an opening reception of the exhibit.

“They’re highly sought after as collectibles so they are worth quite a bit of money,” said Murray. “It’s a very prized possession to have some first editions, we have some in my own family signed down from great aunts and aunts, grandmothers but the very rare thing is to find one with a dust jacket, we don’t have any dust jackets on our 1908s, but that is the Holy Grail.”

Brian Queen heads the Calgary chapter of CBBAG and says the opening reception is free to attend, but visitors do have to register.

“We’ll also have a table with what we call a ‘make-and-take’, he said. “We have a couple of pages that you’ll come and fold and find this little pamphlet so we have folders and thread and needle, and so you’ll fold this and then do this particular stitch to create a little binding.”

The opening reception will take place on June 8, 2026 from 7–9 p.m. at the Patricia A. Whelan Performance Hall. The exhibition will be on display at Calgary Central Library from June 1–30, 2026.