Ruth Franklin on Shirley Jackson
This Day In History: Author Shirley Jackson was born on this day in 1916. Jackson gained significant public attention for her short story The Lottery, which presents the sinister underside of a bucolic American village. She actually wrote The Lottery in a single morning, and many people wrote to her believing that the story was true.
In 1959, she published The Haunting of Hill House, a supernatural horror novel widely considered to be one of the best ghost stories ever written. Jackson's 1962 novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a Gothic mystery which has been described as Jackson's masterpiece.
She was raised in a family of Christian Scientists, and she would angrily recall her mother and grandmother praying over her little brother’s broken arm rather than taking him to a hospital. Her parents never attended her wedding because she married a Jew.
She had a huge library of witchcraft books, and she was fascinated by a book called "An Adventure" which details a "true" ghost story involving Marie Antoinette written by two academics. She was the inspiration for other writers, including Stephen King, Neil Gaiman and Joyce Carol Oates.
She was raised in a family of Christian Scientists, and she would angrily recall her mother and grandmother praying over her little brother’s broken arm rather than taking him to a hospital. Her parents never attended her wedding because she married a Jew.
She had a huge library of witchcraft books, and she was fascinated by a book called "An Adventure" which details a "true" ghost story involving Marie Antoinette written by two academics. She was the inspiration for other writers, including Stephen King, Neil Gaiman and Joyce Carol Oates.
Jackson was of English ancestry, and her family heritage can be traced to the Revolutionary War hero General Nathanael Greene.
By the 1960s, Jackson's health began to deteriorate significantly, ultimately leading to her death due to a heart condition in 1965 at the age of 48.
Read The Haunting of Hill House here
The Ghost of Marie Antoinette at Petit Trianon by James H. Hyslop 1911
https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-ghost-of-marie-antoinette-at-petit.html
The Ghost of Marie Antoinette at Petit Trianon by James H. Hyslop 1911
https://thebookshelf2015.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-ghost-of-marie-antoinette-at-petit.html
This Kindle book, 70 Forgotten Ghost Stories is now available on Amazon by clicking here...and it is only 99 cents and Edgar Allan Poe - An Exhumation is available on Amazon by clicking here...and it is only 99 cents
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