Burn-proof edition of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ up for auction
NEW YORK
Margaret Atwood has imagined apocalyptic disaster, a Dystopian government and an author faking her own death. But until recently she had spared herself the nightmare of trying to burn one of her own books.
On May 23, timed for PEN America’s annual gala, Atwood and Penguin Random House announced that a one-off, unburnable edition of “The Handmaid’s Tale” would be auctioned through Sotheby’s New York. They launched the initiative with a brief video that shows Atwood attempting in vain to incinerate her classic novel about a totalitarian patriarchy, the Republic of Gilead. Proceeds will be donated to PEN, which advocates for free expression around the world.
“In the category of things you never expected, this is one of them,” she said in a telephone interview.
“To see her classic novel about the dangers of oppression reborn in this innovative, unburnable edition is a timely reminder of what’s at stake in the battle against censorship,” Markus Dohle, CEO of Penguin Random House, said in a statement.
The fireproof narrative is a joint project among PEN, Atwood, Penguin Random House and two companies based in Toronto, where Atwood is a longtime resident: the Rethink creative agency and The Gas Company Inc., a graphic arts and bookbinding speciality studio.
The Gas Company’s principal owner, Doug Laxdal, told the AP that instead of paper, he and his colleagues used Cinefoil, a specially treated aluminum product.
The 384-page text, which can be read like an ordinary novel, took more than two months to complete. The Gas Company needed days just to print out the manuscript; the Cinefoil sheets were so thin that some would fall through cracks in the printer and become damaged beyond repair. The manuscript was then sewed together by hand, using nickel copper wire.
“The only way you could destroy that book is with a shredder,” Laxdal says. “Otherwise, it will last for a very long time.”
“The Handmaid’s Tale” has never been burned, as far as Atwood knows, but has often been subjected to bans or attempted bans. Atwood remembers a 2006 effort in one Texas high school district when the superintendent called her book “sexually explicit and offensive to Christians,” that ended when students successfully fought back.
In 2021, “The Handmaid’s Tale” was pulled by schools in Texas and Kansas.
The novel has sold millions of copies and its impact is not just through words, but images, amplified by the award-winning Hulu adaptation starring Elisabeth Moss.