“But who can remember pain, once it’s over? All that remains of it is a shadow, not in the mind even, in the flesh. Pain marks you, but too deep to see. Out of sight, out of mind.”- Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
Margaret Eleanor Atwood was born on November 18, 1939, in Ottawa, Canada. As a child, she spent much of her time in the bush country of North Quebec with her father, who was an entomologist. At the age of 5, she started writing— drafting stories and children’s plays. She moved to Toronto at age 7, began attending regular school at age 12, and in 1957, she graduated from Leaside High School in Leaside, Toronto.
She attended Victoria College at the University of Toronto and graduated in 1961 with an honors degree in English and minors in French and Philosophy. The next year she got her Master’s degree in English Literature from Radcliffe College (the female sister school to Harvard) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Margaret started her writing career as a poet, and she first came to public attention with her collections Double Persephone (1961) and The Circle Game (1964).
From 1964 to 1965, Margaret was a lecturer in English at the University of British Columbia, and from 1967 to 1968 was an English instructor at Sir George Williams University in Montréal. In 1968 she also married Jim Polk, an American writer.
The next year, Margaret published her first novel, Edible Woman (1969), and began teaching at the University of Alberta, which she did until 1970. In 1971, she moved to Toronto. That same year, she began teaching at York University, which she, again, did only for a year. Margaret then became a resident writer at the University of Toronto until spring 1973, which is also the year she and Jim divorced.
Soon after the divorce, Margaret met Canadian novelist Graeme Gibson, and though they never married, they had a child in 1976, named Elenor, and lived together until Graeme died in 2019.
In 1985, Margaret’s (arguably) most famous novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, was published. This typically marks the beginnings of her “feminist era”, though some of her previous books contain similar themes. Margaret was also inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in 2001. Published in 2003, Oryx and Crake started yet a new era of Atwood’s writing— her “speculative fiction era”.
Though Margaret has published many novels and poems, she was also an inventor. In 2004, she had the idea for a technology that would allow the user to write in real ink from a remote location and founded a company called LongPen to develop and produce the technology. She actually used LongPen to give autographs on book tours she could not attend in person.
Unlike any of the other authors mentioned previously on my blog, Margaret Atwood is (as of the writing of this post) currently alive (she’s 81 years old), and her most recently published novel is The Testaments (the sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale (1985)), which was published in 2019.
Book Recommendation: Cat’s Eye (1988)
Since we’re at the conclusion of Women’s History Month (and this blog), I wanted to mention the “feminist” ideas in Margaret’s works, most notably The Handmaid’s Tale (1985).
Margaret doesn’t like to label her works as “feminist” (though many people think of them that way), but they have an underlying theme of gender politics and feminism. They often explore different depictions of femininity, gender roles for women, and the pressures of societal expectations. The Handmaid’s Tale (1985), exemplifies this, depicting a totalitarian, theocratic dystopia that openly subjugates women and explores the relationships between men and women as well as women of different castes within that power dynamic.
“Pen Is Envy, Aunt Lydia would say, quoting another Center motto, warning us away from such objects. And they were right, it is envy. Just holding it is envy. I envy the Commander his pen. It’s one more thing I would like to steal.” -Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
Sources: Encyclopedia Britannica, ThoughtCo
My final thought for your blog is that I really appreciate the consistency. I like that you have a title and photo, and quote. Then, the body and book recommendations. I’m someone that likes consistency, so it was a perfect set-up for me. I have no recommendations for changes! ~Maybe~ add more color or a book theme to the website, but it isn’t necessary. Simple doesn’t mean bad!
I love the set up of your blog so much, it is very neat! I like how you included a photo Atwood, I think that’s important! I loved learning about Margaret Atwood and her past, especially because I have definitely heard of her before. I also love that you included book recommendation, I will definitely take a look at it. The quote at the end definitely wraps the blog post up nice! Next time, I would love to read a blog on an in-depth review on the book you recommended. Nice job!
This post is very intresting! It’s great to know the stories of Margaret. It sounds really cool that besides writing books, Margaret even developed technology. After reading your thoughts on her book “The Handmaid’s Tale”, I really think I should start to read it. Thanks for providing the book recommendations! I also like the quotes you provided at the beginning and the end; they look powerful and have deep meanings. Great job!
It’s very interesting to see some of the stories behind the authors of these famous novels. I’ve read “Oryx and Crake”, but I know very little about Margaret Atwood or any of her other work. I enjoyed reading your blog post, and the only suggestion I have is to maybe include more pictures to spice up the formatting.
This was very interesting to read and learn about Margaret Atwood. She seems like she lived a pretty good life up until this point. I thought it was really cool how she invented LongPen so she could still interact with her fans. I also really like the blog’s name itself.
I think your blog is super interesting! I love learn about history, and even more, I love learning about women in history. I also think it’s interesting that while Atwood does not label herself or her work as ‘feminist’, The Handmaid’s Tale is such a staple form of media in the modern-day feminism. Seeing how authors thought of their work versus how it is perceived now always amazes me at how interpretations change with time.
I only recently started reading Margaret Atwood, so I’ll definitely be looking at your recommendations! As always, reading about the non-literary aspects of an author’s life is really interesting, and I have no suggestions for improvements.
I really like that this author is still alive, very uplifting. Just like your first post, I really like how you organized this, it flowed really well and was easy to follow. I like how you made the paragraphs so small. I don’t really have any suggestions. Great work!
I really like the set up of your blog, everything looks neat and easy to read! I also appreciate the fact that you recommend a book from the author as I’m trying to find some good books to read this summer! It seems as though Margaret Atwood has accomplished a lot in her lifetime, and I am curious as to why she doesn’t want her to work to be labeled as feminist literature! Definitely going to look into it. Great post!
The second I saw the title I knew what the post was gonna be about. That’s such an iconic phrase in the Handmaid’s Tale that it served as the perfect title. I am currently watching the show inspired on the book on Hulu and I love it. I didn’t know much about the author so it was your post was definitely informative. I think this post was cohesive and organized and I enjoyed reading it.