In 1917, nine years after the publication of "Anne of Green Gables", the editor of the Canadian magazine "Everywoman's World" asked the book's now famous author to write the story of her career. Reluctant at first, Lucy Maud Montgomery agreed to write six installments—one per month—and named her column "The Alpine Path", taking the title from a favorite inspirational verse:

The Alpine path, so hard, so steep,

That leads to heights sublime.

Although she balked at the term "career", Maud had by this time published eight books and hundreds of poems and short stories. She writes that her mother's death when she was 21-months-old is a first memory, but that sadness was soon replaced by the loving care of the grandparents who provided an idyllic childhood. She describes growing up in the lush province of Prince Edward Island and of the land and sea that surrounded her. She was an insatiable reader and everything was inspiration to her fertile imagination which she crystallized in her later book "Magic for Marigold" (1925).

Maud was compelled to write every day but the path to publication was, indeed, steep. After college she became a teacher (which she disliked) and a newspaper writer and proofer (an improvement). When at last she began earning income from her magazine stories she wondered if she could attain the sublime height of writing a book. She was 34-years-old when, after years of toil, she created Anne Shirley to the delight of generations of readers.

Her memoir ends with her marriage in 1911 and a diary of her honeymoon travels through Scotland and England, fulfilling a life-long desire. Earlier in her reminiscences she mentions that she's very bad with dates, which is evident when each of her diary entries during the trip are tagged "1912"!

Fans of L.M. Montgomery will recognize and delight in this memoir's unique storytelling and lilting prose, hallmarks of her writing that have sealed her deserved international fame.