THT Biographical Context

• Margaret Atwood was born in Canada in 1939
• The Handmaid’s Tale won the Booker Prize in 1986.
• In an 1997 feminism interview, Atwood stated that she believes it is impossible to write a story without women.
• Margaret Atwood lived through the patriarchal presidencies of: Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan