,
2026 Reading Challenge
Shirley Jackson

more photos (1)

Shirley Jackson’s Followers (11,299)

member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo

Add New
Videos

Michael Stuhlbarg Reads a Selection from ‘The Haunting of Hill House’
3 comments
The Lottery
Add a comment

More videos…

Shirley Jackson


Born
in San Francisco, California, The United States
December 14, 1916

Died
August 08, 1965

Genre
Horror, Biographies & Memoirs, Short Stories


Shirley Jackson was an influential American author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from literary critics in recent years. She has influenced such writers as Stephen King, Nigel Kneale, and Richard Matheson.

She is best known for her dystopian short story, "The Lottery" (1948), which suggests there is a deeply unsettling underside to bucolic, smalltown America. In her critical biography of Shirley Jackson, Lenemaja Friedman notes that when Shirley Jackson's story "The Lottery" was published in the June 28, 1948, issue of The New Yorker, it received a response that "no New Yorker story had ever received." Hundreds of letters poured in that were characterized by, as Jackson put it, "bewilderment, specul ...more

Combine Editions

Average rating: 3.88 · 993,789 ratings · 102,723 reviews · 341 distinct works • Similar authors
The Haunting of Hill House
by
3.81 avg rating — 392,529 ratings — published 1959 — 472 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
We Have Always Lived in the...
3.91 avg rating — 293,922 ratings — published 1962 — 220 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
The Lottery
4.04 avg rating — 109,374 ratings — published 1948 — 92 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
The Lottery and Other Stories
by
4.02 avg rating — 84,420 ratings — published 1949 — 158 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
Hangsaman
3.76 avg rating — 12,000 ratings — published 1951 — 57 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
Dark Tales
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 9,845 ratings — published 2016 — 16 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
Life Among the Savages
3.97 avg rating — 9,331 ratings — published 1953 — 63 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
The Sundial
3.80 avg rating — 8,028 ratings — published 1958 — 62 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
The Bird's Nest
3.72 avg rating — 7,940 ratings — published 1954 — 49 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
The Witchcraft of Salem Vil...
3.80 avg rating — 4,829 ratings — published 1956 — 34 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
1 of 5 stars2 of 5 stars3 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars5 of 5 stars
More books by Shirley Jackson…

Series by Shirley Jackson

Life Among the Savages Raising Demons
(2 books)
by
4.01 avg rating — 12,592 ratings

Related News

Three women are bewitched across time and space in Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s latest Gothic ghost story, The Bewitching.   Minerva is a foreign...
Read more...
159 likes · 0 comments
Need another excuse to treat yourself to a new book this week? We’ve got you covered with the buzziest new releases of the day, according to early...
Read more...
33 likes · 18 comments
  At the beginning of each calendar month, Goodreads’ crack editorial squad assembles a list of the hottest and most popular new books...
Read more...
126 likes · 37 comments
Quotes by Shirley Jackson  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House
tags: escape, escapism, first-sentence, opening-lines, reality, sanity
1306 likes
Like

“No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.”
― Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House
tags: horror, house
1031 likes
Like

“A pretty sight, a lady with a book.”
― Shirley Jackson, We Have Always Lived in the Castle
793 likes
Like

Polls

May 2019 Revisit the Shelf Poll

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, 1959, 182 pages, Group read: 2017
 
  74 votes, 22.4%

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, 1979, 216 pages, Group Read: 2014, 2016
 
  74 votes, 22.4%

The Iliad by Homer, 720 BCE, 683 pages, Group read: 2012
 
  55 votes, 16.6%

Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, 1958, 209 pages, Group read: 2015
 
  52 votes, 15.7%

Watership Down by Richard Adams, 1972, 478 pages, Group read: 2016
 
  52 votes, 15.7%

Rob Roy by Walter Scott, 1817, 501 pages, Group read: 2012
 
  24 votes, 7.3%

331 total votes
More...

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics posts views last activity  
The Next Best Boo...: What You Wish You Read in High School 47 518 Jul 30, 2009 10:44AM  
Pick-a-Shelf: 2009-10 - Paranormal - What will you Read in October 50 125 Oct 22, 2009 04:08PM  
The Book Challenge: Meghan's Other 2009 Challenges 11 263 Oct 31, 2009 09:58AM  
The Life of a Boo...: Need suggestions for one of my goals 42 120 Nov 21, 2009 03:15PM  
Challenge: 50 Books: Collections of Short Stories 15 606 Nov 25, 2009 11:35AM