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

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First published 31 August 2004

Citation: Murphy, Bernice. "Shirley Jackson". The Literary Encyclopedia. 31 August 2004.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2326, accessed 9 February 2010.]