Shirley Jackson Biography

Shirley Jackson was an influential American author whose work has garnered increasing attention from literary critics. Her short story "The Lottery" suggests a deeply unsettling underside to seemingly idyllic small-town America. Jackson herself avoided interviews and self-promotion, believing her books would speak for themselves. Her husband maintained that the darker elements of her work were not personal fantasies but intended to mirror humanity's Cold War-era fears and totalitarian anxieties.