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Early life
Margaret was born on November 18, 1939 in Ottawa, Canada. She was the middle of three children. Her mother was Margaret Dorothy Killam, and Carl Edmund Atwood was her father. Since Carl had worked in entomology, he had influenced Margaret's love of nature. She would find herself spending lots of time in the woods, studying insects with her dad, or traveling between, Ottawa, Sault Ste. Marie, and Toronto. At age 6, Margaret had found her passions of writing and began to write plays and poems. When she started to attend school full-time at 12 years old, she fell in love with literature. In 1957, she graduated from Leaside High School. Because of this passion for literature, she went to the University of Toronto to receive her undergraduate then to Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1962 to receive her Master's degree in literature. Her love for literature only furthered shined through her life as she moved on to the next stage of her life after college.
Themes
Margaret has touched on many different themes in her novels. In the Handmaid's Tale, she explores the danger of totalitarianism, oppression, power dynamic, reproductive control, story telling and truth in order to keep identity, and religious extremism. In other books some themes are, the oppression of women and their resistance against it, doomed love, sacrifice, memory, identity, and repetition. Despite many of her books relating to women's oppression or them being used as objects, she doesn't consider her self as a feminist. When she was asked if she considered herself to be a feminist her response was," “Hello: I never say I'm an "ist" of any kind unless I know how the other person is defining it (Am I against lipstick, etc.) but in general: I believe women are full human beings (radical, I realize). And that laws should reflect this. However, men and women are not "equal" if "equal" means "exactly the same." Our many puzzlements and indeed unhappinesses come from trying to figure out what the differences really mean, or should mean, or should not mean.” Many would think that her books reflect her value of feminism, but this idea is simply not true. Her response truly represents her style of writing. She enjoys discussing harsh topics in her books to shed light on problems she sees in the world or to provoke thought; however, she is still able to use these topics even without presenting any bias.
Success
Throughout her time, she has gained the title of novelist, Literary critic, poet, and an inventor. Her invention, the LongPen, was very popular at release in 2004. This device allowed authors to sign documents from a distance instead of signing every paper by hand. So far she has written: 18 poems, 18 novels, 11 nonfiction books, 9 short fiction books, 8 children’s books, and 2 graphic novels with her most famous novel being The Handmaid's Tale. With creating all of these books, she has received many awards as well. She has received: 2 Booker Prizes, the Arthur C. Clarke Award, Governor General’s Award, Franz Kafka Prize, Prince of Asturias Award, National Book Critics, and Pen Center USA Award. A few of her short fiction books are Dancing Girls, Murder in the Dark, and Moral Disorder. Some children's books that she has written are Up in the Tree, Princess Prunella, and Bashful Bob. Finally, a famous poem that she has handcrafted is Eating Fire. Clearly, she had published countless books in a variety of categories which leaves a book for everyone. With the variety of categories she has covered, she has made an estimated between $15 million to $50 million. Her passion is the reason why she is so successful in her career. From being exposed to literature at such a young age, to writing plays at six years old, she was made for this path.
With all of her success, she has been invited to plenty of conferences to speak in front of crowd about her work, how she got there, and why she continues to make literature. She has inspired thousands of people at her confrences and even inspired some writers.
Outside the Book
Originally, Margaret married Jim Polk in 1968. She, however, divorced him in 1973. After a few years, she met Graeme Gibson in Toronto, and they moved to Alliston, Ontario in 1976. During this time, they had a daughter, who was named Eleanor Jess Atwood Gibson. In 1980, they returned back to Toronto. However, unfortunately on September 18, 2019 in London, England Graeme had passed away after experiencing a severe stroke. She has pushed through this tragedy and persevered even through the darkest times nevertheless. More positively, She has ensured that the books she has made can be read by everyone. She has produced her books in over 40 languages. She was the president of Writers Union, Canada from May 1981- 1982. Two year later, she became the President for International P.E.N. from 1984- 1986. After stepping down, she is still the vice president of P.E.N. today. Before her husband had passed, they were joint honorary presidents of Rare Bird Society.
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