Shirley Jackson

by Lenemaja Friedman

An examination of the novels and short stories of the modern American writer concentrates on such well-known works as The Lottery and The Haunting of Hill House

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

182 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Lenemaja Friedman received her Ph.D. from Florida State University and is the chair of the Department of Language and Literature at Columbus College.

Reviews

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

There’s currently a slow-burn revival of interest in Shirley Jackson, likely spurred by the appearance of the Library of America's collection of her work about five years ago, and continuing on with the second volume of her previously unavailable fiction and essays called Let Me Tell You published last year. There's also a new bio in the works, coming from Ruth Franklin later this year. Written in 1975, this first-ever book about Jackson proves well ahead of the curve. Like many academics, Lenemaja Friedman, an Associate Professor of English Literature at Columbus College, presents as a competent but styleless writer. In place of a sense of passion or excitement about her subject, there's a sort of careful objectivity–it's passive rather than dynamic, too often telling rather than showing. She’ll deem a short Jackson story ‘hilarious’ but make no attempt to project or describe to the reader what *makes* the story hilarious. Nevertheless, Friedman offers some interesting insights about several of Jackson’s novels, particularly The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, and the good-sized biographical section at the beginning included several factoids that I (as a huge Shirley Jackson fan) certainly appreciated. Though Judy Oppenheimer's lively 1988 Jackson biography Private Demons is light years better in style and verve than Friedman's, I'm still very glad to have finally read this book after hearing about it for so long. Bless you Minneapolis Library system, for holding onto it. Final rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 Shirley Jacksons.

[Lorraine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first bio of Shirley Jackson, written in 1975. I found it very informative simply because before reading it, I knew absolutely nothing about Shirley Jackson. As far as bios go, it's pretty lean. We get the bare bones of Jackson's life plus pretty extensive summaries of all her novels and most of her short stories. Friedman also tried her hand at a bit of literary criticism, but I find most of that superficial and not very convincing. On the whole, superficial is a pretty good word for this bio. I'm reading another, more recently written bio next, so hopefully that will give me a broader perspective.

[jacky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used this book in my thesis on Shirley Jackson.

[Johanna Jaworski · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's OK. It seems Ms Friedman was a fan and put together very short summaries of all S. Jackson's work. There's not a lot said of anything in particular; maybe it was used as a text book for a introductory class? I think she completely misinterpretted parts of "Hangsaman". On the upside, she has Ms Jackson's age at death wrong (45, instead of 48) - which is because Ms Jackson had for years reported herself to be younger!That alone made reading this worthwhile as we get to accidently enjoy a forgotten part of Shirley Jackson's life - even as a famous author, she was still compelled to lie about her age!

[Debra]

Stephen King recommended book as noted in Chapter 9 of Berkley's 1983 paperback edition of Danse Macabre.

[Beth E · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to read a biography of Mrs. Jackson. This book had some biographical material, but the greater portion merely summarized her works.