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Margaret Atwood (1939- )
Margaret Atwood was arguably Canada's first serious, purely creative, writer to
achieve international fame on a popular scale. Born in Ottawa, she moved
briefly to Sault Ste Marie and then settled in Toronto following WWII. Her
formative education reflects an immersion in her father's vocation as an
entomologist specializing in forest insects. She graduated from Victoria
College, University of Toronto in 1961 and received an M.A. degree from
Radcliffe College, Harvard in 1962. Although she did some teaching and residencies
in Canadian universities in the 1960s and early 1970s, her success as a
novelist allowed her to devote herself to writing full-time after the publication
of her second novel Surfacing (1972). Her first poetry publication
was a slim volume called Double Persephone (1961). Her next, full,
collection, The circle game (1966) won the Governor General's Award,
significant for its recognition also of the small press in Canada, in this
case Contact Press. This was followed by a steady stream of books of poetry:
The animals in that country (1968), The journals of Susanna Moodie
(1970), Procedures for underground (1970), Power politics
(1973), You are happy (1974), Two-headed poems (1978), True
stories (1981), &c; novels: The edible woman (1969), Lady
oracle (1976), Life before man (1979), Bodily harm (1981),
The handmaid's tale (1985), Cat's eye (1989), and Alias
Grace (1997); stories: Dancing girls (1977), Murder in the
dark (1983), Bluebeard's egg (1983), and Wilderness tips
(1991).
Atwood's critical writings, especially Survival: a thematic guide to Canadian literature (1972) have also been influential.
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