Unquestionable

Before Margaret Atwood the Icon was an icon, she was a little girl — born in November 1939, at the end of the Great Depression and two and a half months after Nazi tanks rolled into Poland. A little girl who spent her childhood shuttling between the wild summer bush of northern Quebec and the windy wintery landscapes of several nondescript 1940s cities, including Ottawa, Sault Ste. Marie, and Toronto. A little girl who had a meticulous, scientific father, an entomologist who worked for the Department of Lands and Forests, and a highly literate mother, a former nutritionist. A little girl who, following her parents’ example, was a voracious reader. Margaret Atwood was a little girl who, after a period of struggle, doubt, and uncertainty, developed into an extraordinarily articulate and cultured woman: a scholar, a writer, a poet, and a literary genius known throughout the world.

Early on, young Atwood appreciated the scientific method and the importance of observing...