senoritafish | Snippet from "The Writer's Almanac," for November 18th....

(Yes, I'm behind...)

It's the birthday of novelist and poet Margaret Atwood , born in Ottawa, Ontario (1939). She spent most of her childhood living in a research station in the cold north of Quebec with her father, who was an entomologist. There were no theaters and the radio did not work well, so Atwood decided to be a writer. She thought that in order to become an author of any importance she would have to become mysterious and aloof, sickly and enigmatic--that she would have to live in a garret, dress in black, smoke cigarettes, drink absinthe, and have lovers whom, she said, "I would discard in appropriate ways, though I drew the line at bloodshed. (I was, after all, a nice Canadian girl.)" She's best known for her novel The Handmaid's Tale (1985). She said, "Wanting to meet an author because you like his work is like wanting to meet a duck because you like paté."

Ah well, my chances of running into her are slim anyway....