Lucy Maud Montgomery (November 30, 1874 – April 24, 1942), published as L. M. Montgomery, was a Canadian author best known for a series of novels beginning with Anne of Green Gables in 1908. She published 20 novels as well as 530 short stories, 500 poems, and 30 essays. Anne of Green Gables was an immediate success; the title character, orphan Anne Shirley, made Montgomery famous in her lifetime and gave her an international following. Most of the novels were set on Prince Edward Island, and those locations within Canada's smallest province became a literary landmark and popular tourist site – namely Green Gables farm, the genesis of Prince Edward Island National Park. She was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1935.

Montgomery's work, dairies, and letters have been read and studied by scholars and readers worldwide. The L. M. Montgomery Institute, University of Prince Edward Island, is responsible for the scholarly inquiry into the life, works, culture, and influence of L. M. Montgomery. Montgomery was born at Clifton, Prince Edward Island, and after her wedding with Rev. Ewen Macdonald on July 11, 1911, she came to live at Leaskdale, north of Uxbridge Ontario. She had three children and wrote close to a dozen books while living in the Leaskdale Manse before the family moved to Norval, Ontario in 1926. She died in Toronto on April 24, 1942, and was buried at Cavendish, Prince Edward Island.