Author's Life

We begin in Canada,  Ottawa 1939. Margaret Atwood was born on November 18th in Ottawa General Hospital. She has 2 siblings, a brother born 2 years prior, Harold Leslie Atwood, and a sister in 1951, Ruth Atwood. Fun fact, she may be related to a woman famous for being one of many hunted during the Salem witch trials, Mary Webster. Her grandmother with the same maiden name told her this story often throughout her life, though it's speculated whether it's made up or real. Her grandmother had dementia, so from Atwood’s words herself, “On Monday, my grandmother would say Mary was her ancestor, and on Wednesday she would say she wasn't… So take your pick.” Margaret Atwood's aspects of her life  were embedded into most of her work, which is why this tidbit was shared. Her poem “Half-Hanged Mary”, dedicated to her grandmother, is a poem that resonates powerful feminist feelings, much like one of her bestselling works, The Handmaid’s tale which is a story also including feminist themes. Atwood's birth was around the time where women began to especially be a force in play not just for World War 2, but for the whole world. Such things like the We Can Do It poster could be assumed to be a driving force in her literature later on. Atwood had grown up with feminism all around her, and within her, which she used to spread powerful messages that are especially important today, whether you’re a man or a woman.

Margaret moved an awful lot during childhood due to her father’s work in forest entomology. She had  started writing poems at age 6, and had not attended school full-time until she was 12. She was an avid-reader, as she read things from the iconic Grimm’s Fairy Tales to dazzling comic books. She states that when she was 16, she had found her purpose. That purpose as we all know it was to write literature as timeless as many others like the works of George Orwell, or Stephen King's horror novels. There are plenty more that could be named, but Margaret had presented herself as one of the best writers of our time. Atwood studied at Victoria College in the University of Toronto, and graduated in 1961 with a Bachelor of Arts in Honors English. A year later after she graduated, she obtained a masters degree from Radcliffe College of Harvard University. Atwood around this time had published her first book, Double Persephone. It was a collection of poems, and it had won her an E.J. Pratt Award. She wrote a lot more, and in the 60’s she was lecturing at plenty of colleges for English classrooms. During 1964-65, she lectured at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, instructed at Sir. George Williams University in 67-68, and taught at the University of Alberta in 1969-70. She wrote her first novel, The Edible Woman in 1969, it was her first novel to have included feminist ideas and themes. 

Margaret Atwood had married a man named Jim Polk, then divorced in 1973. But the true romance happened later between her and Graeme Gibson the same year. Graeme was also a writer, and had previously made Five Legs, one of his bestsellers. Both Atwood and Gibson had a fond interest in birds, and later they’d both advocate for these beautiful animals together through taking up important jobs in the Birdlife International’s Rare Birds Club. They had 1 child together in 1976, named Eleanor Jess Atwood Gibson. They never married, but they stayed lovers for over 40 years. Sadly, Graeme died at 85 years of age in 2019, cause of death being Alzheimer's.  They had announced the early stages of his vascular dementia in 2017, so they had expected it. He died on September 18th, and everyone had shared their farewells. Margaret Atwood would later publish the poem Dearly, in memory of her lover. 

Atwood liked teaching, just not as much as writing. She had taught and lectured for almost a decade, from 1964-73. As mentioned earlier she had published Double Persephone in 1961 and The Edible Woman in 1969. Throughout then she had published some other works such as Surfacing in 1972 and Lady Oracle in 76, but arguably her best work had been published in the year 1985. The Handmaid's Tale,  a dystopian novel about a girl forced to be a person with the important role of being a handmaid, is an iconic masterpiece still being discussed half a century later. Its sequel was published in 2018, called The Testaments, which describes the first book's plot 15 years later after the events of it. Her works earned her countless awards and medals. She’s earned the Booker Prize, the Nebula Award , and even had the honors of the Key to the City of Ottawa.