Margaret Atwood was born on November 18, 1939, in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Her childhood was divided between the city and the country. Her family spent the school year in Ottawa and Toronto, where her father taught entomology or worked for government agencies, and summers in northern Quebec and Ontario where her father conducted research. These early experiences away from urban society encouraged Atwood to read and develop her imagination.

As a child, Atwood composed and illustrated poems, which she collected into small books. She wrote prose and poetry for her high school's literary magazine. While attending Victoria College, University of Toronto, from 1957 to 1961, she wrote for the newspaper and the dramatic society. As a young poet, she was an active member of the literary scene, which included giving readings at coffeehouses and contributing reviews, poems, and parodies to the college newspaper.

In the year of her graduation from...