About the Author

Childhood

Margaret Atwood was born on November 18, 1939, in Ottawa, making her, 80 today. She grew up in northern Ontario and Quebec and did not attend school until she was twelve, although, she started writing at five years of age. 

At six, she was writing morality plays, poems, comic books and had started writing a novel. 

In her teen years, she lived mostly in her family home in Toronto, but she also lived around northern Canada, following her father, an entomologist, in his research. 

Education

She graduated from Leaside High School in 1957 and then went to Victoria College at the University of Toronto, she already knew then she wanted to be an author.

In 1969, she studied at Radcliffe College of Havard University, but she dropped out two years later. 

Personal Life 

She married an American Writer, Jim Polk, in 1968, but they divorced in 1973. Soon afterward, she started dating a fellow novelist, Greame Gibson. They moved together and had their daughter, Eleanor Jess Atwood Gibson, was born in 1976. They were together until September 18th, 2019 when Greame Gibson died of dementia.  

Margaret also has a little sister, Ruth Atwood, born in 1951 and a brother, Harold Leslie Atwood, who is two years older. 

Fun facts

She could be a descendant of a witch, no one knows for sure.