Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson (December 14, 1919 - August 8, 1965) was an american author who wrote short stories and novels. Her most famous work is her short story "The Lottery", which combines a bucolic small-town-America setting with a horrific shock ending. The tone of most of her works is odd and macabre, with an impending sense of doom, often framed by very ordinary settings and characters.

Born in San Francisco, California, she graduated from Syracuse University in 1940. While a student there, she met future husband Stanley Edgar Hyman, who was to become a noted literary critic.

In addition to her novels, Jackson also wrote a children's novel, Nine Magic Wishes, available in an edition illustrated by her grandson Miles Hyman. She also wrote two humorous memoirs, Raising Demons and Life Among the Savages, about her marriage and the experience of bringing up four children. After her death, her husband released her final unfinished novel, Come Along With Me, containing several chapters of her final work as well as several rare short stories and three speeches given by Jackson in her writing seminars.

In 1996, a crate of unpublished stories was found in the barn behind Jackson's house. These stories were published in a collection titled Just an Ordinary Day.

A large number of Miss Jackson's other papers are available in the Library of Congress.

Her novels include:

• The Bird's Nest
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle
• The Haunting of Hill House
• The Sundial
• Hangsaman
• The Road Through the Wall