But the creation of Katie happened well before Anne’s own life found its way onto the page. Anne of Green Gables author L.M. Montgomery had two “window friends” growing up. And they provided her with the same amusement and comfort that Katie provided Anne. Just three years before Anne of Green Gables was published, Montgomery reflected on her childish whims.
March 26, 1905.
“One story in a magazine brought vividly back an odd fancy of my early childhood. The story was of a lonely little girl who lived with two grim aunts; having no real companion she evolved one from fancy. This companion, whom she called Elizabeth ‘lived’ in a grove on the hill, and the child shocked her unimaginative aunts by persistently retailing ‘lies’ to them concerning her talks and adventures with Elizabeth.
In our sitting room there has always been a big bookcase used as a china cabinet. In each door is a large, oval glass, dimly reflecting the room. When I was very small each of my reflections in these glass doors were ‘real folks’ to my imagination. The one in the left-hand door was Katie Maurice, the one in the right-hand Lucy Gray. Why I named them thus I cannot say. A Wordsworth’s ballad had no connection with the latter, because at that time I had never read it or heard of it. Indeed, I have no recollection of deliberately naming them at all. As far back as consciousness runs Katie Maurice and Lucy Gray lived in the fairy room behind the bookcase. Katie was a little girl like myself and I loved her dearly. I would stand before that door and prattle to her for hours, giving and receiving confidences. In especial, I liked to do this at twilight when the fire had been lighted for the evening, and the room and its reflections were a glamour of light and shadow.
Lucy Gray was grown-up—and a widow! I did not like her as well as Katie. She was always sad and always had dismal stories of her troubles to relate to me; nevertheless, I always visited her scrupulously in turn, lest her feelings should be hurt, because she was jealous of Katie, who also disliked her. All this sounds like the veriest nonsense, but I cannot describe how real it was to me. I never passed through the room without a wave of my hand to Kate in the glass door at the other end.”
Did you have imaginary friends growing up? How would you amuse yourself as a child if there was no one around to play or talk with?
Sources: The Selected Journals of L.M. Montgomery, Volume I: 1889-1910
