Novels and Stories (Library of America #204)

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Novels and Stories (Library of America #204)

by Shirley Jackson, Joyce Carol Oates (Editor)

4.21 of 5 stars 4.21 · rating details · 90 ratings · 31 reviews

“The world of Shirley Jackson is eerie and unforgettable,” writes A. M. Homes. “It is a place where things are not what they seem; even on a morning that is sunny and clear there is always the threat of darkness looming, of things taking a turn for the worse.” Jackson’s characters–mostly unloved daughters in search of a home, a career, a family of their own–chase what appe...more “The world of Shirley Jackson is eerie and unforgettable,” writes A. M. Homes. “It is a place where things are not what they seem; even on a morning that is sunny and clear there is always the threat of darkness looming, of things taking a turn for the worse.” Jackson’s characters–mostly unloved daughters in search of a home, a career, a family of their own–chase what appears to be a harmless dream until, without warning, it turns on its heel to seize them by the throat. We are moved by these characters’ dreams, for they are the dreams of love and acceptance shared by us all. We are shocked when their dreams become nightmares, and terrified by Jackson’s suggestion that there are unseen powers–“demons” both subconscious and supernatural–malevolently conspiring against human happiness.

In this volume Joyce Carol Oates, our leading practitioner of the contemporary Gothic, presents the essential works of Shirley Jackson, the novels and stories that, from the early 1940s through the mid-1960s, wittily remade the genre of psychological horror for an alienated, postwar America. She opens with The Lottery (1949), Jackson’s only collection of short fiction, whose disquieting title story–one of the most widely anthologized tales of the twentieth century–has entered American folklore. Also among these early works are “The Daemon Lover,” a story Oates praises as “deeper, more mysterious, and more disturbing than ‘The Lottery,’” and “Charles,” the hilarious sketch that launched Jackson’s secondary career as a domestic humorist.

Here too are Jackson’s masterly short novels The Haunting of Hill House (1959), the tale of an achingly empathetic young woman chosen by a haunted house to be its new tenant, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962), the unrepentant confessions of Miss Merricat Blackwood, a cunning adolescent who has gone to quite unusual lengths to preserve her ideal of family happiness. Rounding out the volume are 21 other stories and sketches that showcase Jackson in all her many modes, and the essay “Biography of a Story,” Jackson’s acidly funny account of the public reception of “The Lottery,” which provoked more mail from readers of The New Yorker than any contribution before or since.(less)

Hardcover, 832 pages

Published May 27th 2010 by Library of America (first published 2010)

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Feb 01, 2011 Cindy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: does-my-book-look-big-in-this, horror, female-authors, fiction, anthology, gothic

A moral thread through Jackson's tales: She who sees evil in everyone around her should look in a mirror. Especially if she lives in a village.

A few notes on this edition:
Although Joyce Carol Oates is the editor, she only selected the included novels and short stories. Sadly, there is no preface or comment from her. Also, the book is printed on exceedingly thin paper, which you can clearly see the type through from the other side. It makes it quite hard to read. I probably won't be reading a sim...more

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Sep 30, 2010 Tony rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-short-stories

Jackson, Shirley. THE LOTTERY: or, The Adventures of James Harris. (1949). ****. “The Lottery,” was Jackson’s only collection of short fiction, twenty-five stories followed by an epilogue, an excerpt from “James Harris, The Daemon Lover (Child Ballad No. 243).” The title story is the best known, said to be the most anthologized short story around. This one, and a few of the others I’ve read before. This is the first time I read the whole collection straight through. I found it impossible to clas...more

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Oct 19, 2012 Joe rated it 5 of 5 stars

"He was confused between trying to look hurt and trying to see if anyone heard what she was saying."

"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality."

Watch your back Willa Cather because there's a new lady gunning for the distinguished honor of being my favorite female author. This was basically a collection of almost everything Shirley Jackson ever wrote during her brief lifetime. It is fantastic!

I had only known her before through her most famous sho...more "He was confused between trying to look hurt and trying to see if anyone heard what she was saying."

"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality."

Watch your back Willa Cather because there's a new lady gunning for the distinguished honor of being my favorite female author. This was basically a collection of almost everything Shirley Jackson ever wrote during her brief lifetime. It is fantastic!

I had only known her before through her most famous short story "The Lottery" and another humorous short story called "Charles." Recently, I noticed her being name dropped by a lot of my favorite authors as a major influence on them and an underappreciated master of storytelling. After reading this, I can see why.

The vast majority of her work is short stories. They are hard to categorize but if I had to I guess I would call them Gothic slices of domestic life. She was able to put her finger on the pulse of the evil, bigotry, racism, sorrow, and unrequited love that seethes just below the surface of modern life.

She tackles the fear of the unknown and misunderstood in stories like "Dorothy and My Grandmother and the Sailors." Drug induced insanity in "The Tooth" and "The Bus." The depths of human cruelty in "The Mouse","The Possibility of Evil", and "Flower Garden." She confronts life's disappointments in "Like Mother Used to Make" and "Elizabeth."

But don't think this was a serious, heavy, unentertaining read. She is hilarious and satirical in "After You, My Dear Alphonse", "Charles", "The Night We All Had Grippe", "It Isn't the Money I Mind", and "One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts."

She confronted terror and horror directly with "The Summer People", "The Lottery", and her novella's "The Haunting of Hill House" and "We Have Always Lived In The Castle."

There really is something for everyone here. The writing and characters are top notch and she really has an ear for dialogue. I am so sad that she died so young and can only imagine what further treasures she would have given us. I can't recommend this collection highly enough.(less)

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Oct 09, 2011 Diann Blakely added it

I, for one, am profoundly grateful that the Library of America chose to enshrine Jackson's work in this way, for her "novels and stories" can no longer be confined to "minor" or be called by that dreadful term, "cult classics." Joyce Carol Oates' work as editor and introduction writer are likewise superb; look at IN ROUGH COUNTRY (Ecco Press), which I haven't yet finished, for her essay on "We Have Always Lived In The Castle."

Hooray to the HUFFINGTON POST as well, for last summer I came across t...more I, for one, am profoundly grateful that the Library of America chose to enshrine Jackson's work in this way, for her "novels and stories" can no longer be confined to "minor" or be called by that dreadful term, "cult classics." Joyce Carol Oates' work as editor and introduction writer are likewise superb; look at IN ROUGH COUNTRY (Ecco Press), which I haven't yet finished, for her essay on "We Have Always Lived In The Castle."

Hooray to the HUFFINGTON POST as well, for last summer I came across the following announcement there:

"The Shirley Jackson Awards for excellence in 'literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic' will be awarded over the weekend, and the nominees are a refreshing mix of well-known and emerging writers, from large and small presses working in both literary and genre traditions -- or..."

As a child, I somehow came across THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, in both of its book and film incarnations; and the latter frightened me just as badly when I came across it on TMC not long ago. (Its only competitors in the Nightmare-Bestowing Movies Category are THE INNOCENTS, which is based on THE TURN OF THE SCREW and was adapted for film by Truman Capote; perhaps IN COLD BLOOD itself; and THE SHINING).

Re-reading "The Lottery," a long story / brief novella is a profoundly resonant experience in this our time, considering the xenophobia in our country that has given rise to what more and more states are boasting as the "toughest anti-immigration laws" in the country. Even though, here in Georgia, I heard a farmer on the news not long ago saying that he had six acres of blackberries rotting because Mexican workers without green cards were afraid to step foot over the Florida state line. "No way," said the interviewee, "anybody's going to convince me that these people are taking away jobs from Americans, since neither white people nor African-Americans want to do farm work any more." Think of the unemployment rate in this country: we may as well all be holding that piece of paper with a black dot.(less)

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Feb 14, 2011 Ashley rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-books, heavier-fiction, suspense-thriller

It took me nearly a month to read this book - clocking in at over 800 pages, it's quite large. The pages are very thin and the type a little small, so fortunately it looks and feels smaller than it really is.

I picked this up because Jackson's infamous story The Lottery is included in this collection. For such a short story, it caused quite a stir when it was originally published in The New Yorker, and while I think the response may have been a bit severe, I can certainly see why it made so many...more

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Jan 28, 2011 Belinda rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-story-collections

When I found this lovely at the library I was cautiously optimistic, I have read so much Shirley Jackson I was just not sure there was much I had not read.
Well, I was wrong--not only were there many short stories here that I had not read but there was a section of unpublished work that was truly amazing--I also loved the extensive notes, dates and short bio of Ms. Jackson's life. I am seriously considering declaring her the Master of the Short Story (yeah, I'm playin' God--that's how I roll......more

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Oct 14, 2010 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Gothic and Horror Enthusiasts

This is a wonderful collection, who's stories were selected by one of my favorite authors, Joyce Carol Oates.

I had read a few of Shirley Jackson's stories in high school and remembered really enjoying them, so when I saw this collection, I knew it had to be mine.

I had read The Lottery of course and Charles in high school, however there were the two novels and sketches I hadn't read yet and throughly enjoyed just as much, if not more. If I was to rank the content by most enjoyable to least enjoya...more

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Jun 12, 2010 Robert rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-literature, favorites, shirley-jackson

A few years ago I read a review of an anthology of short stories in which a story by Joyce Carol Oates was praised as "a study of loneliness worthy of Shirley Jackson." For that and many other reasons how apropos that it's Oates herself who has compiled the contents of this very welcome volume, which features Jackson's three best books in their entirety: her 1949 collection The Lottery and Other Stories, and her classic novels The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. No...more A few years ago I read a review of an anthology of short stories in which a story by Joyce Carol Oates was praised as "a study of loneliness worthy of Shirley Jackson." For that and many other reasons how apropos that it's Oates herself who has compiled the contents of this very welcome volume, which features Jackson's three best books in their entirety: her 1949 collection The Lottery and Other Stories, and her classic novels The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Not only that, but a bumper crop of 22 of her other short stories are included as well, some of which are among her very best: "One Ordinary day, With Peanuts," "A Visit, or The Lovely House," "The Summer People," "I Know Who I Love," and "The Bus." Jackson's been my favorite author since I was a teen, and I've been really happy to see her literary rep growing again in recent years; I'm hoping this volume might do well enough that The Library of America might release a companion volume collecting her four other novels: The Road Through the Wall, The Bird's Nest, The Sundial, and my favorite of the bunch, the underrated bildungsroman, Hangsaman (I'd also throw in her book of very funny family stories, Life Among the Savages, as well as the novel she was working on at the time of her death, Come Along with Me).

At any rate what we have here is a feast of Jackson's particular brand of mystery, fear, humor, tragedy, and misanthropy, as always communicated in her clear, unmistakably Jacksonian prose, and starring such unforgettable characters as the mysterious, tragic Eleanor Vance, who goes to Hill House for a summer stay and never leaves; Mary Catherine Blackwood and her sister Constance, who together find their very peculiar happy ending in their "castle;" not to mention the nameless protagonist of "The Daemon Lover," likely whom the reviewer above was referring to with his reference to human loneliness (I would add Catherine Vincent from "I Know Who I Love" in that delineation as well); and of course the terrified Mrs. Hutchinson from Jackson's main claim to immortality, "The Lottery." There is also a veritable constellation of dreadful old bats populating these tales as antagonists, tormenting our heroines with their prudish propriety, and worse (Mrs. Montague in The Haunting of Hill House is a good example); and many, many perfectly horrible small town denizens, who play out smaller-scaled but similar versions of Jackson's famous lottery in many stories, practicing or promulgating ostracism, narrow-mindedness, racism, and just plain petty, spiteful, mean-spiritedness in general. Jackson regularly narrated the meme that human beings carry evil within them, and some of the most fearful, anxiety-provoking stories in her oeuvre disturb so because their descriptions of the sheer banality of this herd-pack mentality still ring true ("The Renegade" may yet be the cruelest of all the contes cruels I've encountered). Jackson had her lighter side as well, and in stories such as "The Night We All Had the Grippe," "Charles," and "My Life with RH Macy" her wry humor shines, though still with an almost indefinable air of something off-kilter; through light and dark, the author peered at life with a detached, slightly warped lens.

As this book clearly proves, Shirley Jackson's entire body of work exists today as an integrated whole, with a distinct vision and overall worldview that remains universal yet curiously her own; something I suppose every artist would strive for. Love this book: 5 out of 5 stars. (less)

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Mar 08, 2011 Zach rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: feminism-gender, fiction, horror, short-stories

By the time of her death at the age of 48, Shirley Jackson was a full-blown agoraphobic shut-in who refused to leave her house. Ironically enough, though, the vast majority of the works in "Novels and Stories" are pretty unrelenting attacks on the bourgeois American home; deconstructions of the idea that women should find any safety or comfort in the life of a mid-century housewife. In fact, the only time that the women in these stories are more uncomfortable and lonely and exploited and miserab...more

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Oct 27, 2011 Kristi Thielen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Stephen King is right - he can't hold a candle to Jackson. A terrific read for October, near the light of a jack-o-lantern. "Haunting of Hill House," and "We Have Always Lived in the Castle," are as good the second or third time around as any short novel anywhere else, and "The Lottery," remains one of the most gripping short stories in American literature. (This book also includes the witty "Biography of a Story," about the blowback from "The Lottery.") The short stories are equally as good - e...more

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Feb 16, 2013 Alan rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shirley Jackson’s frequent themes of alienation and isolation seem to find their ultimate expression in her 1962 novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle, one of the two novels reprinted in The Library of America’s collection Shirley Jackson: Novels and Stories.

Mary Katherine is the narrator of the story, and although I would not go so far as to say she is unreliable, her baroque view of the world she lives in does not always immediately reveal the objective truth of her circumstances.

Jackson as...more Shirley Jackson’s frequent themes of alienation and isolation seem to find their ultimate expression in her 1962 novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle, one of the two novels reprinted in The Library of America’s collection Shirley Jackson: Novels and Stories.

Mary Katherine is the narrator of the story, and although I would not go so far as to say she is unreliable, her baroque view of the world she lives in does not always immediately reveal the objective truth of her circumstances.

Jackson as a writer excelled at depicting small communities and the small-minded people within them (see her classic short story The Lottery, or the lesser-known but equally compelling The Summer People, for example), and We Have Always Lived in the Castle begins with Mary Katherine (“Merricat” to her big sister Constance) enduring an agonizing journey from the Blackwood family home on the outskirts of town into the village proper, where she seems to be viewed as a freak, an outcast and a curiosity by the townspeople. The story is completely told from Mary Katherine’s point of view, and we slowly get hints of why she and her family are shunned and feared, but at the same time Jackson makes it clear that Mary Katherine and Constance, who live in the Blackwood family home with their handicapped Uncle Julian, keep a clean home and maintain always a strong air of order and decorum.

Eventually and in tantalizing puzzle-like pieces we learn that the order rose up from one particularly chaotic and horrific evening when the Blackwood family was forever changed and diminished, and when their reputation in the community was sealed in blood. The years since have been spent with the family mostly alone by itself, with only one progressively-minded resident of the village willing to come for weekly tea with Constance, who never, ever leaves the Blackwood property. Mary Katherine is responsible for the weekly shopping excursion, which we fear is always a horrible ordeal, but she has also created a magical world for herself and her sister, Uncle Julian, and cat Jonas, in which they are protected by family heirlooms buried on the perimeter of the home or nailed to trees in the surrounding woods, talismans that mostly succeed in keeping out the world, at least for a while. One day, Merricat promises, they will all go to live on the moon, where they can truly be happy (“Everything’s safe on the moon,” she says), and of course, truly be isolated from the world that they work so hard to avoid.

The world has other plans, of course, in this case executed by seemingly-kindly cousin Charles Blackwood, who has come after many years to see what is what in the Blackwood home, and perhaps secure the family safe, said to contain untold riches.

The Blackwoods, you see, don’t believe in banks, and Charles is certain there was a lot of money and other valuable items in the home on that night, that terrible night, after which no one wanted sugar in their tea.

Bookslut’s Jessa Crispin recently regarded Jackson as one of the best writers of the 20th century, and I second that idea. Although I read the entirety of the LOA collection, I was most impressed by We Have Always Lived in the Castle and wanted to explore a little just why it is such an extraordinary and powerful novel.

You don’t have to do much research to discover that Jackson had something of a troubled life. Her protagonists are largely isolated, mistrustful and misunderstood, and I strongly suspect that is because she herself was isolated, mistrustful and misunderstood. The Lottery was hugely misinterpreted as non-fiction in its initial publication, very probably because Jackson’s prose is so smooth, so lyrical and convincing that at its best it feels so very true, no matter how extraordinary or shocking are the events it describes. While many regard Jackson as primarily a horror writer, and certainly horror interested her (The Haunting of Hill House is probably the Platonic ideal of a haunted house story, with a brilliant resolution that allows the reader an unparalleled degree of interpretation while still being utterly terrifying), but her greatest gift was her ability to explore the inner worlds of her characters, usually women, usually alienated in some way. Many of her short stories follow a pattern of introducing a woman who is somehow apart from the world or from her family, and then Jackson explores the consequences of that aloneness. But far from being an easy formula, rather it provides the intellectual stem cells that allowed the writer to create an impressive gallery of worlds in which these elements are endlessly, infinitely recombined to deliver shocking cultural commentary (The Lottery), a vision of banal, suburban viciousness (The Possibility of Evil), or outright terror (The Haunting of Hill House).

Jackson’s inability to fit into the world she so eloquently described in her fiction haunted her, and very possibly ended her. The timeline of her life at the back of the LOA Novels and Stories collection holds many hints to the reasons for the wall between Jackson and the outside world, but of one thing there can be no question: Jackson used her pain and her sadness to write dozens of compelling stories, some short, like The Lottery (the story’s reputation is what drew me to her work in the first place), some longer, like We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Having spent months now immersing myself in Jackson’s worlds, I have come to appreciate her subtle worldbuilding (read any five or ten of her stories and you will start to sense a cohesive universe), but more, I have grown to respect her voice and become astonished and grateful for the eloquence and ease with which she is able to use mere words to take me to secret places where I am forced to confront the horrors she no doubt experienced in her life. I don’t pity her; Jackson’s too powerful a writer to be pitied. But I do sympathize, and like Mary Katherine, I frequently find myself thinking of how lovely it would be to take my loved ones to live on the moon, where we are free to take tea and tiny rum cakes, away from all the pettiness and cruelty of this fallen world.(less)

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Nov 03, 2012 Grace rated it 5 of 5 stars

This is a great collection of Jackson's more accessible work. I would have liked to see a book that collected Jackson's more hard to find novels- The Bird's Nest, Hangsaman, The Sundial, because I haven't been able to find those in the library or bookstores. However, I would recommend this collection to anyone who wants to delve further into Jackson's work if they liked the story "The Lottery". I had never even known that "The Lottery" was part of a collection of short stories, and what a good c...more

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Feb 23, 2013 Elizabeth (Miss Eliza) marked it as neglected_deprived_and_languishing

Shelves: rory_gilmore, bookclubbing, last_word_bookclub

We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Date I read this book: September 19th, 2012
★★★

"Merricat, said Connie, would you like a cup of tea?
Oh no, said Merricat, you'll poison me.
Merricat, said Connie, would you like to go to sleep?
Down in the boneyard ten feet deep!"

Mary Katherine Blackwood, called Merricat, and her sister Constance, have lived their life for the past six years shut away from the world caring for their Uncle Julian. Their only other companion is Merricat's cat Jonas. Merricat is the on...more

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Mar 18, 2013 Joe Meyers rated it 5 of 5 stars

Picked this up because it included my book club pick 'Hill House.' Great collection of Jackson's chilling novels & short stories. Also wonderful piece on the torrent of hate mail the New Yorker received after it published 'The Lottery.'

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Aug 22, 2012 Deodand rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, usa

I picked up this anthology in order to refresh my memory of "The Lottery" and read "The Haunting of Hill House" for the first time.

It never ceases to amaze me how Jackson can build a roaring fire out of two thin sticks. She gives us nothing but the meanest sketches in her short fiction but they draw the reader in and lodge in the memory afterward.

Hill House isn't as incisive as her other work. The dialogue is a little too carefully crafted, which messes with the suspension of disbelief. But tho...more

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Nov 03, 2011 Venessa rated it 5 of 5 stars

A good collection of "Jackson essentials" as chosen by Joyce Carol Oates. Jackson's short fiction packs a powerful, startling punch, and The Haunting of Hill House is a classic in psychological horror that literally freaks me out no matter how many times I read it. We have always lived in the castle gives us Merricat, a culmination of many of Jackson's characteristic heroine traits all rolled up into one brilliant character. I might have added Come along with me to show where Jackson was heading...more

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Apr 29, 2013 Martha rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-books

Jackson found the creepy in the everyday, brilliantly. I read the first section of this volume, savoring the short stories, as well as her essay on the response to "The Lottery." She illumines the prejudices of post WWII America in their New England flavor. I only knew "The Lottery" and enjoyed reading more of her work.

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Mar 23, 2011 Jessi rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, horror, short-stories

Shirley Jackson was a pretty amazing writer. Until recently, I had only read We Have Always Lived in the Castle, which I thought was okay. My favorites from this collection are The Renegade, The Lottery, The Haunting of Hill House, and The Beautiful Stranger.

Jackson's stories are unsettling. Many of them are about the most mundane and ordinary people and events, but I always get the feeling that something horrific is just around the corner. And I love that.

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Aug 24, 2011 Caroline added it

Shelves: started-but-may-never-finish

Got this for the short story "Janice," which doesn't seem to appear anywhere else. But of course I'm enjoying the rest of the "uncollected short stories" section. I do find that I have to read two or three stories at a sitting, because I don't "get" but about a third of them, and I don't want to stop reading until I've read one that actually makes sense. Best one so far is "Louisa, Please Come Home."

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Sep 12, 2010 Cynthia marked it as to-read

Shirley Jackson died in her sleep in 1965 at the age of 48. She had a husband and four children and in her later years ventured outside only infrequently, according to the New York Times Book Review. "Houses loomed large in her imagination, as places that promise but never quite deliver some respite from everyday terrors.

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Mar 10, 2011 Megan Underwood rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories, mystery-thriller, fiction

The Intoxicated; read 2-11-2011 - ***
The Lottery; read 2-11-2011 - ***+
The Witch; read 2-12-2011 - ***
Charles; read 2-14-2011 - ****
Afternoon in Linen; read 2-14-2011 ***
The Villager; read 2-14-2011 **+
The Haunting at Hill House; read 3-03-2011 ***

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Dec 30, 2012 Cristina added it

Shelves: gifts-from-juan, shortstories

I haven't actually finished this collection - but I think I'll read it in bits and pieces over the next few months. So far, it is the best thing ever though and I highly recommend reading "The Lottery" at some point in your life. You really, really need to.

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Mar 06, 2011 Anne B rated it 4 of 5 stars

I had "We Have Always Lived In the Castle", and wanted to read "The Beautiful Stranger" (unpublished when Jackson died). Great work here - the surprise for me was "Tooth": eerie, dreamlike, entirely satisfying.

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Sep 04, 2012 Lindsey rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

Love. Particularly "We Have Always Lived in the Castle," and several of the unpublished stories, most strikingly "The Honeymoon of Mrs. Smith" and "A Beautiful Stranger."

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Jul 07, 2010 Kate marked it as to-read

Now that I've read We Have Always Lived in the Castle, I feel compelled to read everything else that Shirley Jackson has written.

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Nov 02, 2011 Sharon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 11-11-11-challenge

Finished "The Haunting of Hill House". Great Halloween read.

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Oct 17, 2010 Betty rated it 4 of 5 stars

Not sure I'm really going to read this. I scare too easily.

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Oct 09, 2012 tetel tan's nambatac rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: hehe

this story is so nice ! i enjoyed reading :)

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Mar 08, 2013 peaseblossom rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: creepy

Great collection of great works.

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Dec 10, 2011 Nick marked it as to-read

I want this edition.

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About Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson was an influential American author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from literary critics in recent years. She has influenced such writers as Stephen King, Nigel Kneale, and Richard Matheson.

She is best known for her dystopian short story, "The Lottery" (1948), which suggests there is a deeply unsettling underside to bucolic, smalltown Ameri...more

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