Margaret Atwood was inspired to write the book by, among other things, the rise of the Christian right in America during the 1970s and 1980s; the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979; and, much less well-known, a woman named Mary Webster in 17th century New England, who was one of the people she consulted. Mary Webster had been through a religious conversion experience after which she devoted her life to preaching Christianity. She married and had a child, but both she and her husband died young. Her son went on to have children of his own and today there are many churches in early American towns where all of the pastors are direct descendants of this single woman. The Handmaid's Tale is a near-future dystopian novel that explores what happens when a totalitarian religion becomes popular again following a global economic collapse. It tells the story of Offred, a young woman forced into slavery after being captured during a military raid on her home. She is taken to be "Handmaid" to a powerful woman named Serena Joy and begins to learn the rules of her new world. The book has been adapted for television with Elisabeth Moss playing the lead role of Offred. It first aired in 2016 and was received very positively by critics. Here are some other famous writers who wrote their best-selling books before the age of 30: Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Isaac Asimov, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Stephen King.