'Green Gables' author committed suicide

TORONTO, Sept. 23 (UPI) -- Famed Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery committed suicide via a drug overdose, her granddaughter told the Globe and Mail newspaper.

Best known for writing "Anne of Green Gables," Montgomery also penned 19 other novels, as well as numerous journals, short stories and poems before she died in 1942.

"Despite her great success, it is known that she suffered from depression, that she was isolated, sad and filled with worry and dread for much of her life," Kate Macdonald Butler wrote in a piece for the Globe and Mail. "But our family has never spoken publicly about the extent of her illness. What has never been revealed is that L.M. Montgomery took her own life at the age of 67 through a drug overdose. I wasn't told the details of what happened, and I never saw the note she left, but I do know that it asked for forgiveness."

Butler said she decided to come forward after reading the newspaper's recent series of articles on mental health.

"Additionally, the recent focus on my grandmother's creativity -- this is the 100th anniversary of the publication of 'Anne of Green Gables,' with events around the world celebrating Anne and her creator -- has encouraged me to end our silence," Butler added.