Margaret Atwood

by Shannon Hengen

  Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL) 8 December 1996: Section: Arts and Leisure: 15D. By Ellen KANNER. (836 w).

  Sunday Star-Times 24 November 1996: Section: Features (Books): 5. By Iain SHARP. (429 w).

  Sunday Telegram (Worcester, MA) 29 December 1996: C5. By Nicholas A. BASBANES. (992 w). Also published in The Patriot Ledger 28 December 1996: Section: Features: 33.

  Sunday Telegraph 15 September 1996: Section: Books: 14. By Caroline MOORE. (616 w).

  Sunday Times 8 September 1996: Section: features. By Peter KEMP. (862 w).

  Tennessean 15 December 1996: Section: Showcase: 14S. By Ellen DAHNKE. (891 w).

  Time 149.1 (16 December 1996): 76. By John SKOW. (472 w).

  Times (London) 14 September 1996: Section: Features. By Elizabeth BUCHAN. (601 w).

  Times Literary Supplement 4876 (13 September 1996): 23. By Lorna SAGE.

  Times-Picayune 22 December 1996: Section: Travel: D5. By Mary A. McCAY. (767 w).

  Wall Street Journal Eastern Edition 228.98 (15 November 1996): A12. By Ruben MERLE.

  World Press Review 43.12 (December 1996): 43-44. By Joan SMITH.

  1922. La troisième main. Lachine [QU]: La Pleine Lune, 1995. [Good Bones].

  Nuit blanche 63 (Spring 1996): 50-51. By Jean-Paul BEAUMIER.

  1923. La voleuse d’hommes. Paris: Robert Laffont, 1994. [The Robber Bride].

  Nuit blanche 63 (Spring 1996): 50-51. By Jean-Paul BEAUMIER.

  1924. Morning in the Burned House. London: Virago, 1995. Published in the US by Houghton Mifflin.

  Antioch Review 54.2 (Spring 1996): 248. By Molly BENDALL.

  Canadian Literature 149 (Summer 1996): 201. Recommended in review of 1995 books by W. H. NEW.

  Chattanooga Free Press (25 February 1996): s.p. By Karin GLENDENNING. (747 w).

  Poetry 168.5 (August 1996): 281-302. By Sandra M. GILBERT. Comparative review.

  Santa Fe New Mexican 21 April 1996: Section: Outlook: D2. By Miriam SAGAN. (493 w).

  Star Tribune 21 January 1996: Section: Entertainment: 15F. By Fred ECKMAN. (368 w).

  1925. New Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories in English. Toronto: Oxford UP, 1995.

  Canadian Living 21.3 (March 1996): 157. By Barbara PHILPS.

  Journal of Commonwealth Literature 32.1 (1996): 138-139. ANON.

  Observer 14 January 1996: Section: Observer Review Page: 16. By Kit STEAD. (187 w).

  Quill & Quire 62.1 (January 1996): 32. By Kim HUME.

  Times Literary Supplement 4847 (23 February 1996): 24. By Joyce Carol OATES.

  1926. Princess Prunella and the Purple Peanut. Toronto: Key Porter Books, 1995.

  Children’s Bookwatch (February 1996): 6.

  Publishers Weekly 243.1 (1 January 1996): 70. (203 w).

  1927. Strange Things: The Malevolent North in Canadian Literature. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.

  Canadian Forum 75.851 (July-August 1996): 42. By John MOSS.

  Canadian Geographic 116.1 (January-February 1996): 82. By Rudy WIEBE. (1137 w).

  Canadian Literature 149 (Summer 1996): 201. By W. H. NEW.

  New Republic 214.26 (24 June 1996): 33-40. By Andy LAMEY. (5920 w).

  New York Times 145.50411 (28 April 1996): 22. By Tom MacFARLANE. (226 w).

  New Zealand Listener 154.2935 (27 July 1996): 28. By Brian TURNER.

  Reviews of Adaptations of Atwood’s Works

  1928. The Edible Woman. Radio play adapted by Dave Carley from the Margaret At-wood novel. Produced by Heather Brown and broadcast on CBC radio on 21 April 1996 at 10:05 p.m.

  Globe and Mail 20 April 1996: C4. By Christopher HARRIS.

  ~ 1997 ~

  Atwood’s Works

  1929. Alias Grace. Toronto: Seal Books; New York: Doubleday; London: Virago, 1997 ©1996. Paperback edition.

  1930. Alias Grace. Toronto: CNIB, 1997. Braille ed., 6 v.

  1931. Alias Grace. Thorndike, ME: G. K. Hall; Bath [UK]: Windsor, 1997. Large print edition.

  1932. Alias Grace. [Sound recording]. Read by Diana Quick. London: HarperCollins, 1997. 2 tapes (3 hr.).

  1933. Alias Grace. [Sound recording]. Read by Shelley Thompson. Bath [UK]: Chivers Audio Books; Hampton, NH: Chivers North America, 1997. 12 sound cassettes (16 hr., 38 min.).

  1934. Alias Grace. [Sound recording]. Read by Sandra Bolton. [Toronto]: Canadian National Institute for the Blind, 1997. 11 sound cassettes in one container (16:08 hr.). Restricted access: Available only to people with a print handicap.

  1935. Alias Grace. [Copenhagen]: Lindhardt og Ronghof, 1997. Danish translation by Marit Lise Bøgh.

  1936. Alias Grace. Stockholm: Rabén Prisma, 1997. Swedish translation by Ulla Dan-ielsson.

  1937. “The Animals in That Country.” Canadian Culture: An Introductory Reader. Ed. Elspeth Cameron. Toronto: Canadian Scholar’s Press, 1997. 299-300. Reprinted from Selected Poems, 1966-1984, ©1990.

  1938. “Apple Jelly.” The Canadian Treasury of Cooking and Gardening. By Mary Alice Downie and Barbara Robertson. Toronto: Key Porter Books, 1997. 45. Reprinted from Two-Headed Poems, ©1978.

  1939. “Approximate Homes.” Writing Home: A PEN Canadian Anthology. Ed. Constance Rooke. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1997. 1-8. Includes photo of At-wood at a motel on her 8th birthday.

  1940. “[Atwood Poems].” Chung-Wai Literary Monthly 300 (1997): 26-33. Includes: Tricks with Mirrors,” 27-30; “Two-Headed Poems,” 30-33; “This Is a Photograph of Me,” 26-27.

  1941. “Betty.” The Faber Book of Contemporary Stories about Childhood. Ed. Lorrie Moore. London: Faber, 1997. 6-22. Reprinted from Dancing Girls, ©1977.

  1942. “The Big, Bad Megacity Monster.” No Megacity. [Sound recording]. Toronto: Protest Boy Records, 1997. 1 sound disc. Atwood’s one of several performances.

  1943. Bluebeard’s Egg. Thorndike, ME: Thorndike Press; Bath, UK: Chivers Press, 1997 ©1986. Large print edition.

  1944. “Bluebeard’s Egg.” The Penguin Anthology of Stories by Canadian Women. Selected by Denise Chong. Toronto: Viking, 1997. 211-243. Reprinted from Bluebeard’s Egg, ©1986.

  1945. Bluebeard’s Egg and Other Stories. London: Vintage, 1997 ©1987.

  1946. “The Bogman.” The Adventures of Chauncey Alcock [et al.]. [Sound recording]. Grand Haven, MI: Brilliance Corp.: Playboy Audio, 1997. 2 sound cassettes (ca. 3 hr.).

  1947. “Cat’s Eye.” When We Were Young: A Collection of Canadian Stories. Selected and intro. by Stuart McLean. Toronto: Penguin Books, 1997. 97-116. Excerpt from novel of same name in which 8-year-old Elaine describes her first year at her new school in Toronto.

  1948. “Cheap, Gossipy Falsehoods Don’t Belong in Obituary.” Toronto Star 20 June 1997: Section: Letter: A24. Atwood commenting on obituary of Shirley Gibson, her partner’s ex-wife, published in Star on 30 May. Section: News: A5. “An obituary should be the occasion for the celebration of a life, not an excuse for telling cheap, gossipy falsehoods. I’m referring to your 30 May account, ‘Publisher and Poet Shirley Gibson.’ First, it is a misrepresentation to state baldly that poet John Thompson ‘killed himself.’ He choked to death. That’s kind of hard to arrange. Second, Graeme Gibson did not ‘leave’ Shirley for ‘Margaret Atwood,’ as you implied. Shirley was a strong character very much intent on making her own decisions; she would have been both insulted and amused by this suggestion. The marriage as such had been over for many years before I knew them, and both parties had been leading independent lives; this was hardly a secret. The decision for Graeme to move out was intensely mutual. He then lived on a farm near Beeton, by himself, for a year. Third, although I edited Shirley’s book of poems, it was hardly ‘Atwood influenced.’ Shirley’s poems came out of her own life, not out of my work. If anyone influenced her it was probably Anne Sexton. I hope you will see fit to publish this, both in justice to Shirley’s life, which was a varied and accomplished one, and to alleviate the distress you have caused to survivors.”

  1949. “Crow Song.” Animal Farm and Related Readings. By George Orwell. Evanston, IL:
McDougal Littell, 1997. 128-129. Reprinted from You Are Happy: Selected Poems 1965-1975, ©1976.

  1950. Desde el Invierno: Veintitrés cuentos canadienses. Compiled and intro. by Atwood and Graeme Gibson. La Habana: Ediciones Unión, 1997. Anthology of contemporary short fiction translated into Spanish and co-published by Union, the publishing arm of Cuba’s writers and artists.

  1951. The Edible Woman. London: Virago, 1997 ©1969.

  1952. The Enduring Enigma of Susanna Moodie. [Videorecording]. Toronto: Upper Canada Moving Picture Co., 1997. VHS tape, 1 videocassette (59 min.). “Timothy Findley, Carol Shields, Margaret Atwood and Michael Peterman comment on the life and works of Susanna Moodie, and on her influence in contemporary Canadian literature. Findley reads from his novel Headhunter, Shields from her novel Small Ceremonies, and Atwood from her poetry, The Journals of Susanna Moodie. Each author tells what they see in her, and how they came to write about her.” (Notes).

  1953. “[Excerpt].” In the House of Night: A Dream Reader. Ed. Christopher Navratil. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1997. 154-156. From the dream sequence in Lady Oracle in which the central character reveals her relationship with her mother.

  1954. “[Excerpt].” The Muse Strikes Back: A Poetic Response by Women to Men. Ed. Katherine McAlpine and Gail White. Brownsville, OR: Story Line Press, 1997. 31-32. Reprinted from “Circe/Mud Poems” originally published in You Are Happy, Oxford UP, ©1974.

  1955. “[Excerpt].” Parties: A Literary Companion. Ed. Susanna Johnston. Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 1997. 102-103. First published in 1994 by Macmillan London Ltd. from Cat’s Eye.

  1956. “[Excerpt].” Parties: A Literary Companion. Ed. Susanna Johnston. Woodstock, NY: Overlook Press, 1994. 223-224. From Life Before Man, © 1979.

  1957. “[Excerpt].” Queen’s Quarterly 104.3 (Fall 1997): 436-449. Christine Hamelin’s article, “Where Money Grew on Trees,” the story of home children who came to Canada from Quarrier Homes in Scotland, contains an excerpt from Atwood poem “Death of a Son by Drowning.”

  1958. “[Excerpt].” Washington Post 1 June 1997 Section: Book World: X03. Story excerpts significant book reviews since 1972. Compare Atwood’s “Niagara Falls” image in her 28 September 1980 review of E. L. Doctorow’s Loon Lake with he use of that image in her 1997 Updike review (see “Momento Mori—but First, Carpe Diem” [#1978]): “What happens to a writer such as E. L. Doctorow when a novel such as Ragtime sells 220,000 copies in hardback, gets translated into 20 languages and wins the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction? A writer of a certain kind would merely try to duplicate these lush results as quickly as possible. A writer who is more serious must either risk or perish. Everything in Doc-torow’s career to date indicates that he considers the novel a vehicle for social and moral commentary as well as an art form which should stretch the author’s resources to their limits. But success on the Ragtime scale in America automatically makes it more difficult for a writer to take himself seriously, partly because other, less successful writers begin to discount him. Post-romantic inverse snobbery attached to sales figures is still with us. Does 220,000 hardback copies mean you’re a schlock artist? Then there are all those critics gunning from the shrubberies. You’ve walked Niagara Falls on a tightrope once, but can you do it again?”

  1959. “The Female Body.” The McGraw-Hill Reader: Issues Across the Disciplines. 6th ed. Ed. Gilbert H. Muller. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997. 243-246.

  1960. “Five Poems for Grandmothers (excerpt) [i.e. Part III].” Pearls of Wisdom from Grandma. Ed. Jennifer Gates Hayes. New York: Regan Books, 1997. 50-51. Reprinted from Selected Poems II: Poems Selected and New 1976-1986, ©1987.

  1961. “Gertrude Talks Back.” The Tragedy of Hamlet with Related Readings. By William Shakespeare. Albany; London: International Thomson Pub., 1997. 167-168. Reprinted from Good Bones, ©1983.

  1962. Good Bones. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1997. Reprint of Coach House 1992 ed. with 5-page afterword by Rosemary Sullivan. (New Canadian Library Series).

  1963. Gute Knochen. Munich: BTB, 1997. German translation of Good Bones by Brigitte Walitzek.

  1964. Ha-Kalah ha-shodedet. [Tel Aviv]: Kineret, 1997. Hebrew translation of The Robber Bride by Yo’av Halevi.

  1965. “Hairball.” High Infidelity: Twenty-Four Great Stories about Adultery by Some of Our Best Contemporary Authors. Ed. John McNally. New York: Morrow, 1997. 224-237. Also in The New Woman’s Hour Book of Short Stories. Ed. Di Speirs. London: Penguin, 1997. 8-21.

  1966. “Half-Hanged Mary.” Wild Women. Ed. Melissa Mia Hall. New York: Carroll & Graf, 1997. 5-17. Poem about Mary Webster, who was accused of witchcraft in the 1680s in a Puritan town in Massachusetts and hanged from a tree—where she stayed all night, by one account. When cut down, she was still alive and lived on another 14 years!

  1967. “How I Became a Poet.” Prospect 16 (February 1997): 29-46.

  1968. In Search of Alias Grace: On Writing Canadian Historical Fiction. Ottawa: Ottawa UP, 1997. 37. (Charles R. Bronfman Lecture in Canadian Studies).

  1969. The Journals of Susanna Moodie. Toronto: MacFarlane, Walter & Ross; New York: Houghton Mifflin; London, Bloomsbury, 1997. Trade edition of the 1980 limited edition (120 copies) collaboration between Atwood and Toronto artist Charles Pachter. Poems first published in 1970.

  1970. Kassisilm. [Tallinn, Estonia]: Varrak, 1997. Estonian translation of Cat’s Eye by Tiia Rinne.

  1971. Lady Oracle. New York: Doubleday; London: Virago, 1997 ©1977. Paperback.

  1972. Lady Oracle. Paris: Editions Autrement, 1997. French translation by Marlyse Pic-cand.

  1973. L’altra Grace. Milan: Baldini and Castoldi, 1997. Italian translation of Alias Grace by Margherita Giacobino, although literally the title means “The Other Grace.”

  1974. “Late August.” The Canadian Treasury of Cooking and Gardening. Ed. Mary Alice Downie and Barbara Robertson. Toronto: Key Porter Books, 1997. 167. Poem. Reprinted from You Are Happy, ©1974.

  1975. Life Before Man. Bredbury, UK: National Library for the Blind, 1997. Braille ed., 6 v.

  1976. “Loulou; Or, the Domestic Life of the Language.” Literature and Ourselves: A Thematic Introduction for Readers and Writers. 2nd ed. [Ed.] Gloria Mason Henderson, Bill Day, and Sandra Stevenson Walker. New York: Longman, 1997. 970-982. Student study help, 982-983. Short story. Reprinted from Bluebeard’s Egg, ©1983.

  1977. The Moment. [Toronto]: Printed at the Massey College Press, 1997. Poem issued as a keepsake for a fundraising evening in support of the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library on Wednesday, 5 November 1997; laid in a folder with the title, “An evening with Margaret Atwood,” and a facsimile of Atwood’s holograph manuscript poem on inside back cover. Issued in an edition of 100 copies.

  1978. “Momento Mori—but First, Carpe Diem.” New York Times Book Review 12 October 1997: 9:1. Enthusiastic review of John Updike’s Towards the End of Time which begins: “Towards the End of Time is John Updike’s 47th book, and it is deplorably good. If only he would write a flagrant bomb! That would be news. But another excellently written novel by an excellent novelist—what can be said? Surely no American writer has written so much, for so long, so consistently well. Such feats tend to be undervalued. They shouldn’t be. Walking across Niagara Falls blindfolded on a tightrope for the 47th time is surely as remarkable as having made it across the first time, more remarkable perhaps; but the viewer’s response is all too likely to be not a delighted ‘How praiseworthy!’ but a jaded ‘What else did you expect?’ And at 65, Updike isn’t even old enough to be told he’s performed well for his age….”

  1979. “More and More.” Love Songs and Sonnets. Selected and ed. Peter Washington. Toronto: Knopf, 1997. 173. Reprinted from Poems 1965-75 published by Virago by permission of Little Brown.

  1980. Murder in the Dark: Short Fictions and Prose Poems. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1997. Reprint of 1983 Coach House Press edition with 7-page afterword by S. Heighton. (New Canadian Library Series).

  198
1. Nam-i diger Grace. Beyoglu, Istanbul: Oglak, 1997. Turkish translation of Alias Grace by Özden Arikan.

  1982. “Nasturtiums.” The Canadian Treasury of Cooking and Gardening. By Mary Alice Downie and Barbara Robertson. Toronto: Key Porter Books, 1997. 194. Reprinted from Two-Headed Poems, ©1978.

  1983. The New Oxford Book of Canadian Short Stories in English. Selected and ed. Margaret Atwood and Robert Weaver. Toronto; New York; Oxford: Oxford UP, 1997. Paperback edition, printed with corrections.

  1984. Nimeltään Grace. Helsinki: Kustannusosakeyhtiö Otava, 1997 ©1996. Finnish translation of Alias Grace by Kristiina Drews.

  1985. “Our First Visit to Japan.” JF Toronto News (Japan Foundation) Fall 1997: 1-2. With Graeme Gibson.

  1986. “The Owl and the Pussycat, Some Years Later.” Verandah 12 (1997): 5-8.

  1987. Pani Wyrocznia. Poznan: Zysk i S-ka, 1997. Polish translation of Lady Oracle by Zofia Uhrynowska-Hanasz.

  1988. “Poetic Process?” A Field Guide to Contemporary Poetry and Poetics. Ed. Stuart Friebert, David Walker, and David Young. Oberlin, OH: Oberlin College, 1997. 21. Reprinted from Field 4 (Spring 1971): 13-14.

  1989. Quiet Game and Other Early Works. Ed. Kathy Chung and Sherrill Grace. Edmonton: Juvenilia Press, 1997. With an introduction by Sherrill Grace. Atwood writing at age 17.

  1990. Röövelpruut. Tallinn [Estonia]: Eesti Raamat, 1997. Estonian translation of The Robber Bride by Maia Planhof.

  1991. Ryövärimorsian. Helsinki: Otava, 1997. Finnish translation of The Robber Bride by Kristiina Drews.

  1992. “Siren Song.” The Muse Strikes Back: A Poetic Response by Women to Men. Ed. Katherine McAlpine and Gail White. Brownsville, OR: Story Line Press, 1997. 32-33. Reprinted from You Are Happy, Oxford UP, ©1974.

  1993. “The Story of the Little Blue Harris and the Big Bad Megacity.” Toronto Star 1 March 1997 Section Arts: L7. Speaking at an anti-megacity forum, Atwood spun her own tale of modern politics.

  1994. Toduk sinbu. Seoul: Munhak Sasangsa, 1997. Korean translation of The Robber Bride in 2 v. by Kim Chin-jun omgim. Title romanized.