Syndetics cover image
Image from Syndetics

Shirley Jackson : a rather haunted life / Ruth Franklin.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, [2016]Edition: First editionDescription: 607 pages : illustrations ; 25 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780871403131
  • 0871403137
Other title:
  • Rather haunted life
Subject(s): Genre/Form:
Contents:
Introduction: a secret history -- Foundations: California, 1916-1933 -- The demon in the mind: Rochester, 1933-1937 -- Intentions charged with power: Brooklyn, 1919-1937 -- S & S: Syracuse, 1937-1940 -- The mad bohemians: New York, New Hampshire, Syracuse, 1940-1942 -- Garlic in fiction: New York, 1942-1945 -- Sidestreet, U.S.A.: Bennington, The road through the wall, 1945-1948 -- A classic in some category: "The Lottery," 1948 -- Notes on a modern book of witchcraft: The Lottery: or, The Adventures of James Harris, 1948-1949 -- The Lovely House: Westport, Hangsaman, 1950-1951 -- Cabbages and Savages: Bennington, Life Among the Savages, 1951-1953 -- Dr. Write: The Bird's Nest, 1953-1954 -- Domestic disturbances: Raising Demons, 1954-1957 -- What is this world?: The Sundial, 1957-1958 -- The heart of the house: The Haunting of Hill House, 1958-1959 -- Steady against the world: We Have Always Lived in the Castle, 1960-1962 -- Writing is the way out: 1962-1964 -- Last words: Come Along with Me, 1964-1965.
Summary: "Still known to millions only as the author of the "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) remains curiously absent from the American literary canon. A genius of literary suspense, Jackson plumbed the cultural anxiety of postwar America better than anyone. Now, biographer Ruth Franklin reveals the tumultuous life and inner darkness of the author behind such classics as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Placing Jackson within an American Gothic tradition of Hawthorne and Poe, Franklin demonstrates how her unique contribution to this genre came from her focus on "domestic horror" drawn from an era hostile to women. Based on a wealth of previously undiscovered correspondence and dozens of new interviews, Shirley Jackson, with its exploration of astonishing talent shaped by a damaged childhood and a troubled marriage to literary critic Stanley Hyman, becomes the definitive biography of a generational avatar and an American literary giant."-- Provided by publisher.
Fiction notes: Click to open in new window
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Dr. James Carlson Library Biography Jackson S. F833 Available 33111008558468
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Instantly heralded for its "masterful" and "thrilling" portrayal ( Boston Globe ), Shirley Jackson reveals the tumultuous life and inner darkness of the literary genius behind such classics as "The Lottery" and The Haunting of Hill House . In this "remarkable act of reclamation" (Neil Gaiman), Ruth Franklin envisions Jackson as "belonging to the great tradition of Hawthorne, Poe and James" ( New York Times Book Review ) and demonstrates how her unique contribution to the canon "so uncannily channeled women's nightmares and contradictions that it is "nothing less than the secret history of American women of her era'" ( Washington Post ). Franklin investigates the "interplay between the life, the work, and the times with real skill and insight, making this fine book a real contribution not only to biography, but to mid-20th-century women's history" ( Chicago Tribune ). "Wisely rescu[ing] Shirley Jackson from any semblance of obscurity" (Lena Dunham), Franklin's invigorating portrait stands as the definitive biography of a generational avatar and an American literary genius.
60 illustrations

"Still known to millions only as the author of the "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) remains curiously absent from the American literary canon. A genius of literary suspense, Jackson plumbed the cultural anxiety of postwar America better than anyone. Now, biographer Ruth Franklin reveals the tumultuous life and inner darkness of the author behind such classics as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Placing Jackson within an American Gothic tradition of Hawthorne and Poe, Franklin demonstrates how her unique contribution to this genre came from her focus on "domestic horror" drawn from an era hostile to women. Based on a wealth of previously undiscovered correspondence and dozens of new interviews, Shirley Jackson, with its exploration of astonishing talent shaped by a damaged childhood and a troubled marriage to literary critic Stanley Hyman, becomes the definitive biography of a generational avatar and an American literary giant."-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 503-580) and index.

Introduction: a secret history -- Foundations: California, 1916-1933 -- The demon in the mind: Rochester, 1933-1937 -- Intentions charged with power: Brooklyn, 1919-1937 -- S & S: Syracuse, 1937-1940 -- The mad bohemians: New York, New Hampshire, Syracuse, 1940-1942 -- Garlic in fiction: New York, 1942-1945 -- Sidestreet, U.S.A.: Bennington, The road through the wall, 1945-1948 -- A classic in some category: "The Lottery," 1948 -- Notes on a modern book of witchcraft: The Lottery: or, The Adventures of James Harris, 1948-1949 -- The Lovely House: Westport, Hangsaman, 1950-1951 -- Cabbages and Savages: Bennington, Life Among the Savages, 1951-1953 -- Dr. Write: The Bird's Nest, 1953-1954 -- Domestic disturbances: Raising Demons, 1954-1957 -- What is this world?: The Sundial, 1957-1958 -- The heart of the house: The Haunting of Hill House, 1958-1959 -- Steady against the world: We Have Always Lived in the Castle, 1960-1962 -- Writing is the way out: 1962-1964 -- Last words: Come Along with Me, 1964-1965.

Powered by Koha