The Letters of Shirley Jackson by Shirley Jackson

Jackson’s maternal grandmother, who lived with the Jacksons while she was growing up, was a Christian Science faith healer. Her family believed in Christian Science. She drew on her memories of Burlingame in The Road Through the Wall, her first novel and the only one set in California.Ģ. She initially hated the Northeast, and always missed the California avocados and pomegranates-“two for a nickel,” she later remembered fondly. She lived in North Bennington, Vermont, for most of her adult life-in fact, some people believe it’s the setting for “The Lottery.” But she was born in San Francisco and spent her childhood in Burlingame, California, up until her senior year of high school, when her father was abruptly transferred to Rochester, New York. Jackson is often associated with New England writers such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, her American Gothic predecessor.

Here are some surprising facts from my biography.ġ. But the life story of the woman who created these works is much less well known. Perhaps you’ve also read her spooky novel The Haunting of Hill House (or seen one of the two films made of it) or the mysterious We Have Always Lived in the Castle. If you went to high school in the United States in the 1950s or later, you probably read Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” one of the most anthologized short stories in American fiction. Franklin picks some of her favorite Jackson details. Agent: Murray Weiss Agency, Catalyst Literary Management.Ruth Franklin's Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life is a major new biography of the American author, taking readers inside the personal life of the enigmatic Jackson. Full of wit and heartbreak, this volume shines, and Jackson’s singular prose never fails to entertain. Her cartoons, one of the most charming elements of the collection, also chronicle a marriage in decline. Two poignant letters were left unsent: one to Stanley, outlining the pain his womanizing, disregard, and mockery caused her-“indifference breeds indifference”-and another to her parents, reacting to their criticism of her appearance.

Primarily written to her agent and parents, the letters hit a high note in 1953, when the then-bestselling author and mother of four wrote to her parents that it was “the best year we’ve ever known.” But by 1955, Jackson’s downhill slide had begun: she got colitis and her health was failing, her marriage began to collapse, and her agoraphobia worsened. As the couple marries and starts a family, missives describe her burgeoning writing career and the comic escapades of being a mother. The letters begin with Jackson at college writing to her future husband, Stanley Hyman.

The life of Shirley Jackson (1916–1965)-as a mother and a writer-emerges in vivid detail in this collection of correspondence, edited by her son Hyman ( Let Me Tell You).

The Letters of Shirley Jackson by Shirley Jackson