Her legacy continues, with the reissue of her novels by Penguin Classics, and a film loosely based on her life, Shirley.Ī Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin, a thrilling and masterful biography, reveals Shirley Jackson as an artist with extraordinary insight. “The Lottery” made Shirley Jackson a literary celebrity. “Bewilderment, speculation, and plan old-fashioned abuse.” She said, “if the letter writers could be considered to give any accurate cross section of the reading public. Jackson received letters as well, and placed them in three piles. After it was published in The New Yorker in 1948, the magazine received letters calling “The Lottery” “outrageous, “gruesome,” and “utterly pointless.” The New Yorker had never received so much mail in response to a work of fiction. Jackson was confronting conformity at a time when the individual wasn’t valued. They were regular people, going about their regular lives in their bucolic village. It was the first story that truly disturbed me the stoning of an innocent woman was a shock. My first encounter with Shirley Jackson was reading “ The Lottery” in junior high. Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life is a biography of horror fiction writer Shirley Jackson by Ruth Franklin.
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