Prince Edward Island is truly one of the jewels in Canada’s crown. The smallest province is renowned for its rolling countryside, with green fields in summer and white in the winter. The mild temperature even in winter is a direct result of the Island’s situation on the Atlantic Ocean, a geographical advantage that also lends the citizens of the Island a unique visual and commercial advantage. PEI is not only one of the most beautiful and unique places in Canada; it is also a cultural touchstone and has helped to put Canada on the map internationally. This can be largely attributed to one author, L.M. Montgomery, whose Anne of Green Gables novels enthralled first the country, and then the world. The phenomenon was so great that the mini series based on the books is still among the most watched movies in the world today. While Montgomery based her character and many of the novels in the setting of Avonlea, the town of Cavendish takes pride in the fact that it was there that one of Canada’s most famous authors made her home. Cavendish is located in the central part of Prince Edward Island, and Montgomery lived in the rural town in the house of her mother’s grandparents in the late nineteenth century. Her cousins lived nearby, in a settlement that was affectionately called Green Gables. This, of course, was to be the name of the fictional residence where Anne Shirley would come to live with bother and sister Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, who eventually adopted her. Montgomery’s writing insofar as the landscapes and attitudes of the citizens of PEI are mostly based on the rural lifestyle enjoyed by the people of Cavendish as she was growing up. Few places can boast having been put on the map of world consciousness by one person, as Cavendish can with Montgomery. The re-release of the books coincided with a surge in the popularity of tourism, and the making of the mini series decades later would see resurgence of tourism to the location of the author’s childhood and the basis of her work. Today, Cavendish still boasts a major tourism industry, based on Montgomery’s work and the establishment of the Prince Edward Island National Park, of which Cavendish Beach is one of the more popular inclusions.
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