Editing Margaret Atwood (section)

== Early life and education ==
Atwood was born on November 18, 1939,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://margaretatwood.ca/biography|title=Biography|author=<!--Not stated-->|website=margaretatwood.ca|access-date=November 17, 2024}}</ref> in [[Ottawa]], [[Ontario]], Canada, the second of three children<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10246937/Margaret-Atwood-interview.html|archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10246937/Margaret-Atwood-interview.html|archive-date=January 11, 2022|url-access=subscription|url-status=live|title=Margaret Atwood: interview|first=Hermione|last=Hoby|work=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|date=August 18, 2013|access-date=October 27, 2020}}{{cbignore}}</ref> of Carl Edmund Atwood, an [[entomologist]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.eeb.utoronto.ca/about-us/support_us/gradscholarships/schol_atwood.htm|title=Carl E. Atwood Graduate Scholarship in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology|website=[[University of Toronto]]|access-date=March 12, 2017|archive-date=March 13, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170313044308/http://www.eeb.utoronto.ca/about-us/support_us/gradscholarships/schol_atwood.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> and Margaret Dorothy (née Killam), a former dietitian and nutritionist from [[Woodville, Nova Scotia]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Foote|first=Hazel|title=The Homes of Woodville|publisher=M.A. Jorgenson|location= Woodville, Nova Scotia|date=1997|page=109}}</ref> Because of her father's research in forest [[entomology]], Atwood spent much of her childhood in the backwoods of northern [[Quebec]],<ref>{{cite news|date=August 9, 2016|title=Margaret Atwood's Wild Childhood|language=en-US|work=[[The Wall Street Journal]]|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/margaret-atwoods-wild-childhood-1470758356|access-date=May 20, 2021|issn=0099-9660|archive-date=May 20, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210520075006/https://www.wsj.com/articles/margaret-atwoods-wild-childhood-1470758356|url-status=live}}</ref> and traveling back and forth between Ottawa, [[Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario|Sault Ste. Marie]] and [[Toronto]].

She did not attend school full-time until she was 12 years old. She became a voracious reader of literature, [[Dell Publishing|Dell]] pocketbook mysteries, ''[[Grimms' Fairy Tales]]'', Canadian animal stories, and [[comic book]]s. She attended [[Leaside High School]] in [[Leaside]], Toronto, and graduated in 1957.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book|last=Cooke|first=Nathalie|year=1998|title=Margaret Atwood: A Biography|url=https://archive.org/details/margaretatwoodbi0000cook|url-access=registration|location=Toronto|publisher=ECW Press|isbn=978-1-55022-308-8|oclc=40460322}}</ref> Atwood began writing plays and poems at the age of 6.<ref name="Daley20072">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bzw1AwAAQBAJ&pg=PA159|title=Great Writers on the Art of Fiction: From Mark Twain to Joyce Carol Oates|last=Daley|first=James|publisher=Courier Corporation|year=2007|isbn=978-0-486-45128-2|page=159}}</ref>

As a child, she also participated in the Brownie program of [[Girl Guides of Canada]]. Atwood has written about her experiences in Girl Guides in several of her publications.<ref>{{cite web|last=Hicks|first=Cara|title=What it Means (to me) to Be an Owl|url=https://girlguidescanblog.ca/2013/08/07/what-it-means-to-me-to-be-an-owl/|url-status=live|website=GirlGuidesCANBlog|date=August 7, 2013|access-date=May 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200806003244/https://girlguidescanblog.ca/2013/08/07/what-it-means-to-me-to-be-an-owl/|archive-date=August 6, 2020|language=en-US}}</ref>

Atwood realized she wanted to write professionally when she was 16.<ref>[http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2262/margaret-atwood-the-art-of-fiction-no-121-margaret-atwood Margaret Atwood: The Art of Fiction No.121] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220045322/http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2262/margaret-atwood-the-art-of-fiction-no-121-margaret-atwood|date=December 20, 2016}}. ''The Paris Review''. Retrieved December 4, 2016.</ref> In 1957, she began studying at [[Victoria University in the University of Toronto|Victoria College in the University of Toronto]], where she published poems and articles in ''[[Acta Victoriana]]'', the college literary journal, and participated in the sophomore theatrical tradition of ''The Bob Comedy Revue''.<ref>[http://www.thenewspaper.ca/the-arts/despite-cuts-and-critics-bob-carries O'Grady, Conner] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180616103915/http://www.thenewspaper.ca/the-arts/despite-cuts-and-critics-bob-carries|date=June 16, 2018}} "Despite cuts and critics, Bob carries on"; ''the newspaper''; University of Toronto; December 18, 2013.</ref> Her professors included [[Jay Macpherson]] and [[Northrop Frye]]. She graduated in 1961 with a Bachelor of Arts in English (honours) and minors in philosophy and French.<ref name=":2" />{{rp|54}}

In 1961, Atwood began graduate studies at [[Radcliffe College]] of [[Harvard University]], with a [[Woodrow Wilson]] fellowship.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://alumni.utoronto.ca/portrait/margaret-atwood/|title=University of Toronto Alumni Website » Margaret Atwood|website=alumni.utoronto.ca|access-date=January 24, 2017|archive-date=March 23, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170323230151/http://alumni.utoronto.ca/portrait/margaret-atwood/|url-status=live}}</ref> She obtained a master's degree (MA) from Radcliffe in 1962 and pursued doctoral studies for two years, but did not finish her dissertation, ''The English Metaphysical Romance''.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/09/21/reviews/oates-poet.html|title=On Being a Poet: A Conversation With Margaret Atwood|work=The New York Times|access-date=January 24, 2017|archive-date=March 11, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170311123524/http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/09/21/reviews/oates-poet.html|url-status=live}}</ref>