Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson's stories and books arose out of the complex, sad, and joyous magic of her life. Often her stories were based on her own family or sick little customary romances, well suited for the magazines she wrote for. Jackson's restrictive upbringing created a struggle within her to both fulfill and deny the ways of her mother, to whom appearance and social acceptance was all important. Jackson, an odd, plain girl rejected the gracious country-club lifestyle of her family. She would laugh at it and rebel against it throughout her childhood in San Francisco, CA to her college years in New York.

Jackson graduated from college in 1940, receiving a BA in English. In 1941 she published her first book "My Life with R. H. Macy" for $25. She married Stanley Edgar Hyman, also a writer and they moved to a secluded shack in New Hampshire where they both focused on writing. By 1945 they moved again to a town near North Bennington, Vermont where she obtained a job teaching at Bennington College.

In the short stories, "The Lottery", and "We Have Always Lived In The Castle" (which was one of her most brilliant works), it is obvious how she liked to write about fear. In a letter to poet Howard Nemerov, she wrote:

"I have always loved to use fear, to take it and comprehend it and make it work and consolidate a situation where I was afraid and take it whole and work from these. I delight in what I fear. It is not about tow women, it is about my being afraid and afraid to say so, so much afraid that a name in a book can turn me inside out".

By the time "Castle" was finished, she had lost her delight in her fears and succumbed to them, retreating from the world.

Jackson was a large messy woman given to wearing red and purple, wore no makeup and pulled her stringy hair back with rubber bands. She and her husband, a bearded, loud-mouthed man, argued, smoked, drank to excess, and took prescription drugs - uppers and downers on a daily basis. They had four children, and although Shirley was a loving mother, she was not a tidy one, often sending the kids to school in dirty clothes and uncombed hair. Her children were troubled and reclusive kids.

Jackson's physical and mental ailments finally got to a point where she was unable to go into the town of Bennington for three months. She sought help through psychotherapy and eventually found the strength to fight her fears, and after a lot of struggling, she survived to begin the novel, "Come Along With Me". It reflected the newer, lighter world that Jackson had created as a result of her psychotherapy. The story's main character, Angela Motorman, was the same age as Shirley Jackson (44) and her size (heavy). The character dabbled in the supernatural with her psychic ability, an ability Jackson always claimed and others acknowledged. The story moves along with energy, with and triumphal air, but was never finished. As her mental health improved, her physical health deteriorated.

"In her art as in her life, Shirley Jackson was an absolute original. She listened to her own voice, kept her own counsel, isolated herself from all intellectual and literary currents....She was unique." -Newsweek

The Lottery is a memorable and terrifying masterpiece. It is a strange story, one that creates a level of fear yet one finds it hard to accept what seems like just plain stupidity of the characters. The story takes place in a small