Case 8 - Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale
McClelland & Stewart released Margaret Atwood’s sixth novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, in the fall of 1985. While Atwood was at the time a Canadian literary celebrity, The Handmaid’s Tale put her in another stratosphere. The novel, which received near-unanimous critical acclaim – it won the Governor General’s Award, and it was her first novel nominated for the prestigious Booker Prize – has been Atwood’s most successful to date. Not only has it reportedly sold over eight million copies, it has been something of a cultural, political, and social touchstone. It was her breakthrough work internationally as well, particularly in the United States. The Handmaid’s Tale material in the Atwood Papers here at the Fisher provides an ideal window to examine the full life cycle of a book: from the initial manuscript drafts, through to the publishing, promotion, and publicity, along with files of newspaper clippings maintained by Atwood herself that served as research.
First draft. Atwood began to write The Handmaid’s Tale in the spring of 1984 when she was living in West Berlin. Seen here is the first draft of the novel, written in Atwood's hand, with her own notes and revisions. Instead of the published version's opening lines, "We slept in what had once been the gymnasium," the original draft begins with: "A chair, a table, a lamp, a window, two white curtains.” This line ends up being shifted to the beginning of chapter two in the final version.
First typed draft. The Handmaid's Tale was originally called "Offred," the name of the heroine in the novel. This title is revealed in one of the first typewritten drafts, seen here, and is then crossed out and replaced in pen by Atwood with the new and lasting title in early 1985, when the novel was not yet complete. One of the remarkable revelations of the original handwritten draft is how little of the novel was altered from this draft, and how few drafts there are, occupying only two archival boxes.
Background material related to The Handmaid’s Tale. While the novel deals with an ominous future, Atwood has always objected to it being referred to as science fiction. Rather, she calls it 'speculative fiction," insisting that nothing that happens in the book has not happened in real life, somewhere at some time. In her clippings files, some seen here from her research binders, she collected articles on many topics including plastic money, toxic waste, birth control, infertility, sexual equality, abortion, surrogates, baby stealing, and the American Right. As Atwood has said: "I didn’t even research it. There was no Internet then, you couldn’t just go online and put in a topic, so this is just stuff I came across when reading newspapers and magazines. I already knew what I was writing about and this was backup. In case someone said, ‘How did you make this up?’ As I’ve said about a million times, I didn’t make it up. This is the proof – everything in these boxes."
Publicity and Marketing Material. As the archival material around the promotion of The Handmaid's Tale demonstrates, the publishers put in considerable marketing muscle to publicize the novel. This was especially true in the US where her American publisher, Houghton Mifflin, anticipated that the novel would be Atwood’s breakthrough in the United States, and accordingly had her commit to an exhausting travel schedule in February 1986 which included appearances in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Boston, according to.a spring schedule maintained (and marked up) by Atwood, seen here. These trips typically involved two or three radio or television interviews, a print interview with the local newspaper, and a signing at a bookshop. Also seen here is the original invitation to the Canadian launch of the novel.
The Handmaid's Tale pilot script. The Handmaid's Tale has spawned numerous adaptations: first as a film in 1990, with a screenplay by Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter (although he tried to have his name removed from the credits because he was so displeased with the movie and the alterations made to his script), then several stage versions, a ballet, a well-received opera by Danish composer Poul Ruders in 2000, and, finally, a widely acclaimed television adaptation first aired in 2017, which has introduced the novel to a new generation of readers. Seen here are pages from the pilot episode, written by Ilene Chaiken and revised by Bruce Miller, sent to Atwood for review.