No Anne of Green Gables

I recentley read in the "Prince Edward Island book of everything" that the famous novel "anne of Green Gables" almost didn't happen. Tried of getting rejections, Lucy Maud Montgomery was on the verge of giving up when Boston based Page Company picked up the book. First published in 1908 BTW.
What if she had given up? What would the world and PEI in particular be like without Anne of Green Gables?
I suspect PEI would be wrost off for Ann is a big money maker for them. Look forward to other people's thoughts.
 
Having read all of L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series and enjoyed the various dramatizations - from the earliest days of cinema to present - I think you are basically right in that PEI would be lacking the tourist dollars it enjoys today.

However, I will have to also admit that as an American living in California I don't have an idea of what the regional view of PEI - from Canada or the Maritimes may be. I became aware of PEI because of Anne of Green Gables, so I suspect that it would just be some obscure Canadian province unless something else happened. Undoubtedly, by the 1960s or later the PEI Visitors' Bureau would figure out some way of advertising about the island as a vacation spot.
 
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