Shirley Jackson : a rather haunted life / Ruth Franklin.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 501-580) 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.

"This long-awaited biography establishes Shirley Jackson as a towering figure in American literature and revives the life and work of a neglected master. 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.