If that information is from the new book you mention, it seems unlikely and unreliable.

Evelyn Nesbit was the notorious "girl in the red velvet swing", the centerpiece of one of the most famous crimes of the 20c. She was no Gibson Girl, as the type was defined, and it is inconceivable that Anne of Green Gables is based on Evelyn Nesbit.

Nesbit was, of course, the girl for whom Stanford White, one of America's greatest architects, was shot and killed. Nesbit was married to a wealthy and unstable young man who took umbrage at White's seduction of his beautiful young wife.

Nesbit had a bit of a history herself and was definitely not the all-American girl of perfect lineage, brimming with self-confidence and outdoors-y interests, portrayed by Gibson. The only thing they had in common was their beauty.

Nesbit is known to have modeled for artists. Perhaps the author is implying that Gibson used her as a model. It would be interesting to see his evidence.

I've also read (don't remember where) that "Anne" was inspired by a photograph of Evelyn Nesbit with the scandalous past. My impression was that LMM based the physical appearance of her character on this portrait.

I have a copy of The Annotated Anne, which says that Montgomery based Anne's physical appearance on a picture she saw in a magazine of Evelyn Nesbit. Apparently she had no idea who Ms. Nesbit was and would possibly have been quite disturbed if she did. The photo, however, is black-and-white, and so Anne's red hair is Montgomery's own idea.

I would guess that Lucy probably based Anne on the ideal of Nesbit, the Gibson girl, not necessari;y the actual person.

I've got the NYT book review in front of me now. An unmarked photo was slipped into her journal in late life by Montgomery. The author confided that she had been the model for Anne's face. "A previous writer indentified her as Evelyn Nesbit, the chorus dancer turned Gibson Girl...."

The writer of this review (Kate Bolick) goes on to say: "After three years of digging, Gammel identified the photo's source: a 1903 advertisement for a literary magazine. Innocent and natural, Nesbit's girlish pose was a "backward glance to the Victorian age"; "sultry and mysterious", she was also a subtly erotic harbinger of the modern era."

I just looked up Nesbit on the Internet and there are lots of excellent photos, at various stages of her life.

This is the picture shown in my Annotated Anne. (Hope this works!)

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:2117398}}