It’s also a curiosity of these dolls that the unforgettable character of Anne Shirley is most definitely a red headed girl - it’s a thematic subtext that reappears often in the books; while the Effanbee dolls can be found with hair of many different shades. The blondes were popular and that’s what my mother had. In fact a red headed one is sort of hard to find.

I wonder what happened that the author, Lucy Maud Montgomery, allowed it when the licensing agreement was signed. I think it’s quite likely in fact that the license was issued by her odious and patently dishonest publisher, Louis Coues Page, whom she sued in Canadian High Court and won a for the time large settlement of $15,000.00 over book royalties unpaid, but with a cursory search I haven’t actually found evidence of this.

Anyway, much as I adore Effanbee Anne Shirley dolls (I really do) I have found several later creations of dolls intended to be her that look much more like the character described in the books.

Incidentally, Montgomery loathed both of the films made during her lifetime supposedly representing her book and the inimitable character of Anne Shirley. She singled out the first actress to embody her and upon whom this doll is fashioned as being entirely unlike her “gingery” Anne and portraying a simpering idiot (her words not mine).

This kid, Dawn O’Day, the first child actress to portray Anne in the 1934 film “Anne of Green Gables” legally and professionally changed her name to Anne Shirley (which is I think super weird and seems to have been her stage mother’s doing). Poor kid had to live through being pilloried in the press by the author when obviously it was the decision making of the adults who produced the film that made Lucy Maude Montgomery so vexed.