Shirley Jackson

Bernice Murphy (Trinity College Dublin)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 14 Dec 1916
Died 8 Aug 1965
Activity 1943-1965

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Activities

Primary

Children's/Young Adult writer
Humorist
Novelist
Story-writer

Other

Autobiographer

Resources

Jackson's Works

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Though best known for the infamous short story “The Lottery” and her novel

The Haunting of Hill House

(1959) Shirley Jackson was one of the most prominent American writers of the 1950s, an author who managed to achieve both critical acclaim and substantial popular success. From the late 1940s, with the publication of her collection

The Lottery and Other Stories

(1949), until her death in the summer of 1965 she was a consistent bestseller (indeed, one of the most commercially successful female writers of the period) whose short fiction and essays were much sought after by many of the most famous magazines and journals of the day. In Jackson's lifetime her work was also adapted for the stage, television, and twice brought to the nation's movie screens, thus ensuring her exposure in a…

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2747 words

Citation: Murphy, Bernice. "Shirley Jackson". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 31 August 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2326, accessed 21 November 2024.]

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