Anne of Green Gables

The wildly popular children's story Anne of Green Gables features Anne Shirley, a red-headed, green-eyed chatterbox of an orphan girl who is adopted by a family in Prince Edward Island, Canada. The parents wanted a boy to help around the farm, but a mix up gave them Anne, who instantly stole their hearts. Mark Twain once described the character Anne Shirley as "The dearest and most moving and delightful child since the immortal Alice," which is about as solid an endorsement from a literary hero as one can get. Lucy Maud Montgomery imagined the book years earlier, having written on a slip of paper: "Elderly couple apply to orphan asylum for a boy. By mistake a girl is sent them." That scrap of paper would prove to be incredibly fruitful, as Anne of Green Gables would go on to sell about 50 million copies.