Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life

Known to millions for her classic story “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson took the American gothic tradition of Poe, Hawthorne, and Lovecraft and brought it down to earth. Her novels and stories brilliantly plumbed the dark underside of the conformist postwar decades, as well as her own personal struggles in marriage and motherhood, to craft a subtle genre of domestic horror that Dorothy Parker hailed for its “beautifully written, quiet, cumulative shudders.”
Jackson biographer Ruth Franklin, editor of Library of America’s "Shirley Jackson: Four Novels of the 1940s and 50s, " joins novelist and literary critic Francine Prose and playwright John Guare for a pre-Halloween conversation about one of our most haunting writers.
Presented in partnership with the Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers.
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[@halcyon_distilled]

I enjoyed this immensely. Thank you so much!

[@herberthuber8500]

I vote for "Summer People" as the best Jackson short story.

[@stardust949]

Thank you! I went on a Shirley Jackson QUEST this morning----after having watched that crap bio-pic "Shirley" last night. I really appreciated your insights, information, and cooler heads prevailing----because I haven't read any biography of her life, but just knew that screenplay was an unfair, inaccurate piece of garbage. Not the production values, not the acting---the fabrication of a very twisted version of one of my favorite author's life. I'm excited to realize just how many more Jackson books there are that I haven't read yet, yay! I also want to read this biography too. Anyway, many thanks to all for this lovely presentation/homage. It soothed my soul.

[@lindaharrison3240]

There is currently an absolutely beautiful new edition of THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE. It is a must have for fans of this book; if you know someone who loves the book, it would make a wonderful gift for them.

[@aolearable]

I enjoyed this hour very much. Thanks

[@BookCravings]

Great video! This boxed set is amazing. I really wish LIbrary of America would accept international subscriptions/orders again... I always have a really hard time finding the titles I want...

[@sorryrocco]

I bought her book the haunting of hill house by chance, brandnew £5.00 at a HMV record shop, for years ive loved and feared the 1963 movie. And so ive discovered het her other books, brilliant author.

[@ImCarolB]

After the Julie Harris version of The Haunting of Hill House, everyone just ought to stop. I wish there could be a law that a person could not get a ticket for a movie based on a book until they prove they have read the book, but that won't happen.

[@sarahallenhumboldt2638]

Well stated; thank you for expressing that sentiment.

[@ttowntrekker5174]

This guy needs to !ip it