1916: Shirley Jackson - Resources and General Discussion

Shirley Jackson (1916 – 1965)

Shirley Jackson was born in San Francisco, in 1916. In 1938, while Jackson was studying at Syracuse, her first published story, "Janice", appeared. Jackson continued to publish novels and short stories. Her novel The Haunting of Hill House (1959) is regarded by manyas one of the important horror novels of the twentieth century.

Lenemaja Friedman's Shirley Jackson (Twayne Publishers, 1975) is the first published survey of Jackson's life and work. Judy Oppenheimer also covers Shirley Jackson's life and career in Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson (Putnam, 1988). S. T. Joshi's The Modern Weird Tale (2001) offers a critical essay on Jackson's work.

A comprehensive overview of Jackson's short fiction is Joan Wylie Hall's Shirley Jackson: A Study of the Short Fiction (Twayne Publishers, 1993). The only critical bibliography of Jackson's work is Paul N. Reinsch's A Critical Bibliography of Shirley Jackson, American Writer (1919–1965): Reviews, Criticism, Adaptations (Edwin Mellen Press, 2001). Darryl Hattenhauer also provides a comprehensive survey of all of Jackson's fiction in Shirley Jackson's American Gothic (State University of New York Press, 2003). Bernice Murphy's recent Shirley Jackson: Essays on the Literary Legacy (McFarland, 2005) is a collection of commentaries on Jackson's work. Colin Hains's Frightened by a Word: Shirley Jackson & Lesbian Gothic (2007) explores the lesbian themes in Jackson's major novels.

Novels

The Road Through the Wall (1948)
Hangsaman (1951)
The Bird's Nest (1954)
The Sundial (1958)
The Haunting of Hill House (1959)
We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962)

Story collections

The Lottery and Other Stories (1949)
The Magic of Shirley Jackson (1966)
Come Along with Me (1968)
Just an Ordinary Day (1995)
Let Me Tell You (2015)

Memoirs

Life Among the Savages (1953)
Raising Demons (1957)

I'm considering picking up the Library of America's volume(s) of Jackson's short fiction, partially as a spur to read more of it. Will be following this thread to learn more about her and her work.

The Road Through the Wall was torture and I skimmed most of it. Hill House was ok. Have read it twice, but still don't see what all the hoopla is about. Castle is brilliant though. Utterly brilliant. And most of her short stories are as well.

That's the sort of orientation I like! Even if I don't come to agree with it, I have a place to focus.

I'm impressed you read so much when 2 of those 3 novels were only OK at best. Did you start with Castle, or the short fiction, and that motivated you?

I think I started with Hill House then went to Castle and then to Road. I got part way through The Bird's Nest as well, but abandoned it. I was in my 20s and I don't remember why. I still have the book and also Hangsaman and a ton of stories so I can always go back.

I like her because she's subversive. She looks for the dark side.

That subversive outlook is what intrigues me, too.

I love Shirley Jackson and have already read most of her works.