{"id":139579,"date":"2019-09-16T11:00:40","date_gmt":"2019-09-16T15:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=139579"},"modified":"2019-09-16T11:17:28","modified_gmt":"2019-09-16T15:17:28","slug":"the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/","title":{"rendered":"The Gift of Lewis Hyde\u2019s \u2018The Gift\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Lewis Hyde photo: Ruben Cox.<\/p><\/div>\n

Gifts pass from hand to hand: they endure through such transmission, as every time a gift is given it is enlivened and regenerated through the new spiritual life it engenders both in the giver and in the receiver.<\/p>\n

And so it is with Lewis Hyde\u2019s classic study of gift giving and its relationship to art. The Gift<\/em> has never been out of print; it moves like an underground current among artists of all kinds, through word of mouth and bestowal. It is the one book I recommend without fail to aspiring writers and painters and musicians, for it is not a how-to book\u2014there are many of these\u2014but a book about the core nature of what it is that artists do, and also about the relation of these activities to our overwhelmingly commercial society. If you want to write, paint, sing, compose, act, or make films, read The Gift<\/em>. It will help to keep you sane.<\/p>\n

I doubt that Lewis Hyde knew while he was writing it that he was composing such an essential work. Perhaps he felt he was merely exploring a subject of interest to him\u2014in its short form, why poets in our society are seldom rich\u2014and enjoying the many tributaries he was uncovering through his exploration without realizing that he had hit on a wellspring. When asked by his original editor who his presumed audience was, he couldn\u2019t really pinpoint it but settled for \u201cpoets.\u201d \u201cThat\u2019s not what most editors want to hear,\u201d as he says in his preface to the 2007 edition. \u201cMany prefer \u2018dog owners seeking news of the dead.\u2019\u2009\u201d As he then tells us, \u201cThe happy fact is that The Gift<\/em> has managed to find an audience beyond the community of poets.\u201d This is an understatement of some vastness.<\/p>\n

I first encountered both Lewis Hyde and The Gift<\/em> in the summer of 1984. I was in the midst of writing The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em>, begun in the spring in that combination of besieged city and consumer showcase that was West Berlin at the time and where the twentieth-century clash between communitarianism gone wrong and Mammon worship gone wild was most starkly in evidence. But now it was July, and I was in Port Townsend, Washington, at a summer school for writers of the kind that were then multiplying. In that secluded area, all was bucolic. <\/p>\n

Lewis Hyde was also teaching at the summer school. He was a genial young poet whose hobby was lepidoptery, and he shyly presented me with a copy of The Gift<\/em>. In it he wrote: \u201cFor Margaret. Who has given all of us many things.\u201d I like the slipperiness and ambiguity of this\u2014\u201cmany things\u201d could include anything from the poems and novels I hope he had in mind to \u201ca case of herpes\u201d and \u201cthe heebie-jeebies\u201d\u2014for the word gift<\/em> is itself slippery and ambiguous. Think of \u201cGreeks bearing gifts,\u201d a reference to the fatal Trojan horse, and the poisoned apple given to Snow White, not to mention that other apple given to Adam and the wedding gifts that burn Medea\u2019s rival to the bone. The double-handedness of gifts is in part what Lewis Hyde\u2019s book is about.<\/p>\n

The Gift<\/em> was first published in 1983, when it was originally subtitled Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property<\/em>. On the cover of my 1983 Vintage paperback (and again with the new edition) is a Shaker painting of a basket of apples\u2014a choice explained in a note by Hyde:<\/p>\n

The Shakers believed that they received their arts as gifts from the spiritual world. Persons who strove to become receptive of songs, dances, paintings, and so forth were said to be \u201claboring for a gift,\u201d and the works that they created circulated as gifts within the community. Shaker artists were known as \u201cinstruments\u201d; we know only a few of their names, for in general it was forbidden that they be known to any but the church elders.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This note is followed by a copyright line that, in view of the origins of Basket of Apples<\/em>, reads ironically: \u201cBasket of Apples<\/em> is reprinted through the courtesy of The Shaker Community Inc.\u201d So the community of gift givers has now become incorporated, and its gifts have been transformed to property by the commodity market that now surrounds us on all sides. One of the questions Hyde asks is whether a work of art is changed by the way it is treated\u2014as gift or as commodity for sale. In the case of Basket of Apples<\/em>, I would say not: the word courtesy<\/em>\u00a0implies that no money changed hands. But it could have, whereas under the Shaker rules such a thing would have been impossible. Hyde\u2019s point is taken.<\/p>\n

The painting itself is instructive. The basket of apples is not depicted realistically. The basket is transparent, as if made of glass, and the apples float within it as if levitating. They are not red apples but golden ones, and if you look at them closely, they morph from flat design to three-dimensional, with something like molten gold leaf flowing within them. Thus the picture shows a gift\u2014the glowing energy\u2014within a gift\u2014the apples\u2014within another gift, the entire basket. Each apple most likely represented a single Shaker, warmed and glimmering with an inner gift, but not thereby standing out from the community, for all the apples are the same size. My guess is that the container that holds them all together\u2014the transparent basket\u2014would have meant, to its original viewers, divine grace. Hyde chose his cover with care.<\/p>\n

Together, Basket of Apples<\/em> and its commentary encapsulate the large questions Hyde is posing. What is the nature of art? Is a work of art a commodity with a money value, to be bought and sold like a potato, or is it a gift on which no real price can be placed, to be freely exchanged?<\/p>\n

And if works of art are gifts and nothing but, how are their creators to live in the physical world, in which food will sooner or later be needed by them? Should they be sustained by reciprocal gifts made by the public\u2014the equivalent of the gifts placed in the Zen monk\u2019s begging bowl? Should they exist in quasi-Shaker communities of the like-minded, of which creative-writing departments may be a secular version? Present copyright law takes a stab at this problem.<\/p>\n

If a creation or a version of it is traded in the marketplace, a creator is entitled to control who may reproduce the work and is entitled to a portion of the sale price. And this right may be inherited. But that entitlement ends a certain number of years after the creator\u2019s death, after which the work passes into the creative commons and is freely available to all, to do with as they will. Hence Pride and Prejudice and Zombies<\/em> and Mona Lisa<\/em> postcards with mustaches on them. Gifts are not always treated in a way that respects their original spirit.<\/p>\n

This and many other questions are tackled by Hyde through a mixture of economic theory, anthropological works about tribal gift-giving customs, folktales about the use and misuse of gifts, snippets from etiquette guides, accounts of archaic funeral rites, marketing stratagems for such things as children\u2019s underwear, organ donation practices, religious observances, the history of usury, the cost-benefit analyses made by Ford when deciding whether to recall a model with a potentially lethal flaw, and much more.<\/p>\n

Then Hyde follows up with two case studies of writers, both of whom gave much thought to the knot between art and money: Whitman, so generous that he risked obliterating the boundary between self and universe\u2014how much of yourself can you give away without evaporating?\u2014and Ezra Pound, so obsessed with the unfair and distorting effects money can have on artists that he became a supporter of the Fascists in Italy, as they seemed to give credence to some of his wackier theories about what money should be and how it could be made to grow, if not exactly on trees, then like trees. This chapter is called \u201cEzra Pound and the Fate of Vegetable Money,\u201d and it is one of the few things I\u2019ve ever read that explains how Pound might have come by his corrosive anti-Semitism. The account of Allen Ginsberg\u2019s generous and redemptive visit to Pound at the end of his life is intensely moving and is\u2014again\u2014an illustration of Hyde\u2019s theories in practice.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

The Gift<\/em> was first published almost four decades ago, when personal computers were in their infancy, when there were no e-readers or e-books, and no social media on the internet. Now all these things have come to pass, and Hyde\u2019s examination of the relationship between gift giving and the creation and reinforcement of the communities that form around it is more pertinent than ever.<\/p>\n

Many have scratched their heads over the monetization of social sites\u2014how are these things to be paid for, and how shall they make money?\u2014and over the tendency of the internet to demand that everything on it be somehow \u201cfree,\u201d despite the salaries that must be paid to those pulling the e-strings and making the very physical devices on which intangible e-objects appear and disappear. But as Hyde expounds, gift exchange demands reciprocity and is fed by it: thus one retweet deserves another, shared enthusiasms are exchanged with the enthusiasms of others, and those who offer advice for nothing may expect to receive it for nothing when in need. But gifts create bonds and obligations, and not everyone wants these or understands them. There is, in fact, no totally free lunch.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve lifted a song or a film off the net without paying\u2014if you\u2019ve got something out of it, as we say\u2014if you\u2019ve treated it as a gift, which by its nature has spiritual worth but no monetary value, being priceless\u2014what do you owe its creator, who has been the instrument through which it has arrived in your hands? Your gratitude, via a word of thanks? Your serious attention? The price of a latte deposited in a beggar\u2019s bowl e-tip jar?<\/p>\n

The answer is never \u201cnothing.\u201d Much digital ink has been spilled over these issues, with copyright wars taking center stage. Surely part of the solution is the education of the new e-audience in the ways of gifts. A gift is a gift when the giver exercises their choice; if something is taken against an owner\u2019s will or without their knowledge, that\u2019s called \u201ctheft.\u201d But that line can get blurry. As Hyde points out, it\u2019s not for nothing that in the ancient Greek world the messenger god, Hermes, was in charge of movement of all kinds: buying and selling, travel, communications, tricks, lies and jokes, the opening of doors and the revealing of secrets\u2014something the web is particularly good at\u2014and thieves. But Hermes sets no moral value on how a thing changes location: he just facilitates that change. Whether those using the information highways and byways know it or not, the presiding god of the internet is Hermes.<\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

Every reader of The Gift<\/em> I\u2019ve ever spoken to has come away from it with new insights, not only into their artistic practices but also into questions that are so much a part of daily life that we don\u2019t look at them too closely. If someone opens the door for you, do you owe that person a thank-you? Should you spend Christmas with your family if you\u2019re trying to solidify an identity of your own? If your sibling asks you to donate your kidney to her, do you immediately say you\u2019ll give it to her or do you charge her a couple thousand dollars? Why shouldn\u2019t you accept a gift from the Mafia if you don\u2019t want to find yourself on the receiving end of a request that you perform a criminal act? What about that case of wine from a lobbyist, if you\u2019re a politician? Are diamonds a girl\u2019s best friend, or should you prefer a sentimental kiss on the hand that you will never be able to turn into cash?<\/p>\n

One guarantee: you won\u2019t come out of The Gift<\/em> unaltered. This is a mark of its own status as a gift: for gifts transform the soul in ways that simple commodities cannot.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Margaret Atwood, whose work has been published in more than forty-five countries, is the author of more than fifty books of fiction, poetry, critical essays, and graphic novels. In addition to <\/em>The Handmaid\u2019s Tale, now an award-winning TV series, her novels include <\/em>Cat\u2019s Eye, short-listed for the 1989 Booker Prize; <\/em>Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; <\/em>The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize; The <\/em>MaddAddam Trilogy; <\/em>The Heart Goes Last; and <\/em>Hag-Seed. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Franz Kafka International Literary Prize, the PEN Center USA Lifetime Achievement Award, and the <\/em>Los Angeles Times Innovator\u2019s Award. In 2019 she was made a member of the Order of the Companions of Honour for services to literature. She lives in Toronto with the writer Graeme Gibson.<\/em><\/p>\n

From the book <\/em>The Gift<\/a>, by Lewis Hyde, to be published on September 24, 2019, by Vintage, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Introduction copyright \u00a9 2012 by Margaret Atwood.\u00a0<\/em>Gift<\/a>, a documentary inspired by the book, will open in select theaters on October 10.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Margaret Atwood on the one book she recommends without fail to aspiring writers and painters and musicians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1218,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[419],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-culture"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThe One Book Margaret Atwood Recommends to Every Writer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Margaret Atwood on the one book she recommends without fail to aspiring writers and painters and musicians.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Gift of Lewis Hyde\u2019s \u2018The Gift\u2019 by Margaret Atwood\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"September 16, 2019 \u2013 Margaret Atwood on the one book she recommends without fail to aspiring writers and painters and musicians.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-09-16T15:00:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-09-16T15:17:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/hydegift.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"750\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Margaret Atwood\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Margaret Atwood\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"11 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Atwood\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c44817724e4d9fdf5f98696211f7f16e\"},\"headline\":\"The Gift of Lewis Hyde\u2019s \u2018The Gift\u2019\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-09-16T15:00:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-09-16T15:17:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/\"},\"wordCount\":2297,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/hydegift.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Arts & Culture\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/\",\"name\":\"The One Book Margaret Atwood Recommends to Every Writer\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/hydegift.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-09-16T15:00:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-09-16T15:17:28+00:00\",\"description\":\"Margaret Atwood on the one book she recommends without fail to aspiring writers and painters and musicians.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/hydegift.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/hydegift.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Gift of Lewis Hyde\u2019s \u2018The Gift\u2019\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"description\":\"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"The Paris Review\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"The Paris Review\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c44817724e4d9fdf5f98696211f7f16e\",\"name\":\"Margaret Atwood\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f0975a8d855629c63dac9388432a346a965d693e2538abbbcd9507965f7158de?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f0975a8d855629c63dac9388432a346a965d693e2538abbbcd9507965f7158de?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Margaret Atwood\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/margaret-atwood\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The One Book Margaret Atwood Recommends to Every Writer","description":"Margaret Atwood on the one book she recommends without fail to aspiring writers and painters and musicians.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Gift of Lewis Hyde\u2019s \u2018The Gift\u2019 by Margaret Atwood","og_description":"September 16, 2019 \u2013 Margaret Atwood on the one book she recommends without fail to aspiring writers and painters and musicians.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/","og_site_name":"The Paris Review","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","article_published_time":"2019-09-16T15:00:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-09-16T15:17:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":750,"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/hydegift.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Margaret Atwood","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@parisreview","twitter_site":"@parisreview","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Margaret Atwood","Est. reading time":"11 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/"},"author":{"name":"Margaret Atwood","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c44817724e4d9fdf5f98696211f7f16e"},"headline":"The Gift of Lewis Hyde\u2019s \u2018The Gift\u2019","datePublished":"2019-09-16T15:00:40+00:00","dateModified":"2019-09-16T15:17:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/"},"wordCount":2297,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/hydegift.jpg","articleSection":["Arts & Culture"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/","name":"The One Book Margaret Atwood Recommends to Every Writer","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/hydegift.jpg","datePublished":"2019-09-16T15:00:40+00:00","dateModified":"2019-09-16T15:17:28+00:00","description":"Margaret Atwood on the one book she recommends without fail to aspiring writers and painters and musicians.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/hydegift.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/hydegift.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/09\/16\/the-gift-of-lewis-hydes-the-gift\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Gift of Lewis Hyde\u2019s \u2018The Gift\u2019"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","name":"The Paris Review","description":"The best prose, interviews, poetry, and art. Since 1953.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"The Paris Review","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/tpr-hadada-roundell-logo-square.png","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"The Paris Review"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/","https:\/\/x.com\/parisreview","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/parisreview"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/c44817724e4d9fdf5f98696211f7f16e","name":"Margaret Atwood","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f0975a8d855629c63dac9388432a346a965d693e2538abbbcd9507965f7158de?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f0975a8d855629c63dac9388432a346a965d693e2538abbbcd9507965f7158de?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Margaret Atwood"},"url":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/author\/margaret-atwood\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1218"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139579"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139599,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139579\/revisions\/139599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}