Margret Atwood

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 12th grade February 2008

download word file, 4 pages 0.0

Canada has had It's fair share of great author's like Farley Mowat, Steven King,Stanley Burke, and many more. But one Author that stands out from the rest is a woman who is not afraid to speak her mind. A feminise by the name of Margaret Atwood who has written poems, novels, short stories, children's books, and television scripts. Atwood was also the president of the writer's Union of Canada. Most would say that Atwood is the greatest Canadian writer of all time. Margaret Atwood was born in Ottawa, Ontario, on November 18, 1939. Because her father was a forest entomologist, Atwood spent most of her childhood living in the Canadian wilderness. During the eight months of each year that her father did insect research in the forest, the Atwood family lived in "a cabin with a wood stove and several kerosene lanterns. There were bears and wolves and moose and loons" (qtd.

in "Author Profile"). Because she live in the forest eight months of the year Atwood would entertain herself with books. They became her only means for entertainment and escape. "I read them all, even when they weren't supposed to be for children" (qtd. in "Author Profile"). One of her favorite books as a child was Grimm's Fairy Tales, "the unexpurgated version¾ the one with the red hot shoes." During this childhood of reading, Atwood also began to write. By the age of six, Atwood was writing "poems, morality plays, comic books, and an unfinished novel about an ant" (qtd. in "Author Profile"). Ten years later, Atwood decided that she only wanted to write. She wanted "to live a double life; to go places I haven't been; to examine life on earth; to come to know people in ways, and at depths, that are otherwise impossible; to be surprised...to...