Which publisher first released the novel The Handmaid's Tale?

McClelland and Stewart first released Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale in 1985.

The Canadian publishing house issued the book on April 17, 1985. Atwood, a Canadian author, set the story in the Republic of Gilead, a theocratic dictatorship that has replaced the United States. Its narrator, Offred, is forced into reproductive servitude as a “Handmaid.”

The novel’s publisher is sometimes confused with later international publishers or ebook distributors. Houghton Mifflin published the American edition, while later editions and digital versions involved other companies. Those editions do not change the publisher credited with the original Canadian release.

The Handmaid’s Tale became one of Atwood’s best-known works and was followed decades later by The Testaments, published in 2019. Its themes of authoritarianism, religious extremism, reproductive control, and the loss of personal identity have kept the novel central to discussions of dystopian fiction.