Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson (San Francisco, 14 de desembre de 1916 – 8 d'agost de 1965) fou una escriptora estatunidenca especialitzada en el gènere de terror. Va influir fortament en autors com Stephen King, Nigel Kneale i Richard Matheson.

Shirley Jackson

Biografia
Naixement	14 desembre 1916 San Francisco (Califòrnia)
Mort	8 agost 1965 (48 anys) North Bennington (Vermont)
Causa de mort	Causes naturals  (Insuficiència cardíaca )
Dades personals
Formació	Universitat de Syracuse - Grau en Arts (–1940) Brighton High School Universitat de Rochester Burlingame High School
Activitat
Ocupació	periodista, escriptora de no-ficció, escriptora, novel·lista, escriptora de literatura infantil
Activitat	1940  –
Gènere	Literatura de terror, ficció detectivesca, memòries, literatura gòtica i ciència-ficció feminista
Família
Cònjuge	Stanley Edgar Hyman (1940–1965)
Premis  Premi Edgar
Signatura
Lloc web	shirleyjackson.org

El seu relat més conegut és possiblement «The Lottery» (1948), que suggereix l'existència d'un tètric i estremidor submón en les petites ciutats de l'Amèrica profunda. El conte es publicà el 28 de juny de 1948 en The New Yorker i donà origen a centenars de commocionades cartes per part dels lectors.

La seva producció literària inclou sis novel·les, dos llibres autobiogràfics, nombrosos assajos, més de cent relats i unes quantes històries infantils.

L'escriptora americana no va rebre bones crítiques en vida. Els seus primers textos es van publicar en revistes sota el perfil d'escriptora ocasional, esposa i mare de quatre fills, que s'entretenia escrivint en les seves estones lliures.

Obra publicada

Novel·les

• The Road Through the Wall (1948)
• Hangsaman (1951)
• The Bird's Nest (1954)
• The Sundial (1958)
• The Haunting of Hill House (1959), traduïda al català com a La maledicció de Hill House per Martí Sales amb L'Altra (2014)
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962), traduïda al català com a Sempre hem viscut al castell per Martí Sales i Sariola amb L'Altra (2016).

Memòries

• Life Among the Savages (1953)
• Raising Demons (1957)

Antologia de contes

• The Lottery and Other Stories (Farrar, Straus, 1949)
• The Magic of Shirley Jackson (Farrar, Straus, 1966)
• Come Along with Me (Viking, 1968)
• Just an Ordinary Day (Bantam, 1995)

Contes infantils

• The Witchcraft of Salem Village (1956)
• The Bad Children (1959)
• Nine Magic Wishes (1963)
• Famous Sally (1966)

Relats breus (llista no exhaustiva)

• "About Two Nice People", Ladies' Home Journal, July 1951
• "Account Closed", Good Housekeeping, April 1950
• "After You, My Dear Alphonse", The New Yorker, Jan. 1943
• "Afternoon in Linen", The New Yorker, Sept. 4, 1943
• "All the Girls Were Dancing", Collier's, Nov. 11, 1950
• "All She Said Was Yes", Vogue, Nov. 1, 1962
• "Alone in a Den of Cubs", Woman's Day, Dec. 1953
• "Aunt Gertrude", Harper's, April 1954
• "The Bakery", Peacock Alley, Nov. 1944
• "Birthday Party", Vogue, Jan. 1, 1963
• "The Box", Woman's Home Companion, Nov. 1952
• "Bulletin", The Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy, March 1954
• "Call Me Ishmael", Spectre, Fall 1939
• "A Cauliflower in Her Hair", Mademoiselle, Dec. 1944
• "Charles", Mademoiselle, July 1948
• "The Clothespin Dolls", Woman's Day, March 1953
• "Colloquy", The New Yorker, Aug. 5, 1944
• "Come Dance with Me in Ireland", The New Yorker, May 15, 1943
• "Concerning … Tomorrow", Syracusan, March 1939
• "The Daemon Lover ['The Phantom Lover']", Woman's Home Companion, Feb. 1949
• "Daughter, Come Home", Charm, May 1944
• "Day of Glory", Woman's Day, Feb. 1953
• "Don't Tell Daddy", Woman's Home Companion, Feb. 1954
• "Every Boy Should Learn to Play the Trumpet", Woman's Home Companion, Oct. 1956
• "Family Magician", Woman's Home Companion, Sept. 1949
• "A Fine Old Firm", The New Yorker, March 4, 1944
• "The First Car Is the Hardest", Harper's, Feb. 1952
• "The Friends", Charm, Nov. 1953
• "The Gift", Charm, Dec. 1944
• "A Great Voice Stilled", Playboy, March 1960
• "Had We But World Enough", Spectre, Spring 1940
• "Happy Birthday to Baby", Charm, Nov. 1952
• "Home", Ladies' Home Journal, Aug. 1965
• "The Homecoming", Charm, April 1945
• "The House", Woman's Day, May 1952
• "I Don't Kiss Strangers", Just an Ordinary Day (Bantam, 1995)
• "An International Incident", The New Yorker, Sept. 12, 1943
• "I.O.U.", Just an Ordinary Day (Bantam, 1995)
• "The Island," New Mexico Quarterly Review, 1950, vol. 3
• "It Isn't the Money", The New Yorker, Aug. 25, 1945
• "It's Only a Game", Harper's, May 1956
• "Journey with a Lady", Harper's, July 1952
• "Liaison a la Cockroach", Syracusan, April 1939
• "Little Dog Lost", Charm, Oct. 1943
• "A Little Magic", Woman's Home Companion, Jan. 1956
• "Little Old Lady", Mademoiselle, Sept. 1944
• "The Lottery", The New Yorker, June 26, 1948
• "Louisa, Please Come Home", Ladies' Home Journal, May 1960
• "The Lovely Night", Collier's, April 8, 1950
• "Lucky to Get Away", Woman's Day, Aug. 1953
• "The Man in the Woods", The New Yorker, April 28, 2014
• "Men with Their Big Shoes", Yale Review, March 1947
• "The Missing Girl", The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Dec. 1957
• "Monday Morning", Woman's Home Companion, Nov. 1951
• "The Most Wonderful Thing", Good Housekeeping, June 1952
• "Mother Is a Fortune Hunter", Woman's Home Companion, May 1954
• "Mrs. Melville Makes a Purchase", Charm, Oct. 1951
• "My Friend", Syracusan, Dec. 1938
• "My Life in Cats", Spectre, Summer 1940
• "My Life with R.H. Macy", The New Republic, Dec. 22, 1941
• "My Son and the Bully", Good Housekeeping, Oct. 1949
• "Nice Day for a Baby", Woman's Home Companion, July 1952
• "Night We All Had Grippe", Harper's, Jan. 1952
• "Nothing to Worry About", Charm, July 1953
• "The Omen", The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March 1958
• "On the House", The New Yorker, Oct. 30, 1943
• "One Last Chance to Call", McCall's, April 1956
• "One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts", The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Jan. 1955
• "The Order of Charlotte's Going", Charm, July 1954
• "Pillar of Salt", Mademoiselle, Oct. 1948
• "Paranoia", The New Yorker, August 5, 2013
• "The Possibility of Evil", The Saturday Evening Post, Dec. 18, 1965
• "Queen of the May", McCall's, April 1955
• "The Renegade", Harper's, Nov. 1949
• "Root of Evil", Fantastic, March–April 1953
• "The Second Mrs. Ellenoy", Reader's Digest, July 1953
• "Seven Types of Ambiguity", Story, 1943
• "Shopping Trip", Woman's Home Companion, June 1953
• "The Smoking Room", Just an Ordinary Day (Bantam, 1995)
• "The Sneaker Crisis", Woman's Day, Oct. 1956
• "So Late on Sunday Morning", Woman's Home Companion, Sept. 1953
• "The Strangers", Collier's, May 10, 1952
• "Strangers in Town", The Saturday Evening Post, May 30, 1959
• "Summer Afternoon", Just an Ordinary Day (Bantam, 1995)
• "The Summer People", Charm, 1950
• "The Third Baby's the Easiest", Harper's, May 1949
• "The Tooth", The Hudson Review, 1949, vol. 1, no. 4
• "Trial by Combat", The New Yorker, Dec. 16, 1944
• "The Very Strange House Next Door", Just an Ordinary Day (Bantam, 1995)
• "The Villager", The American Mercury, Aug. 1944
• "Visions of Sugarplums", Woman's Home Companion, Dec. 1952
• "When Things Get Dark", The New Yorker, Dec. 30, 1944
• "Whistler's Grandmother", The New Yorker, May 5, 1945
• "The Wishing Dime", Good Housekeeping, Sept. 1949
• "Worldly Goods", Woman's Day, May 1953
• "Y and I", Syracusan, Oct. 1938
• "Y and I and the Ouija Board", Syracusan, Nov. 1938
• "The Witch", 1949

Premis i reconeixements

• 1949 - Premi O. Henry Award 1949: «The Lottery»
• 1961 - Nominació al Premi Edgar Award com a millor relat curt, atorgat per Mystery Writers of America: "Louisa, Please Come Home»
• 1960 - Nominació al Premi Nacional del Llibre: The Haunting of Hill House
• 1962 - Una de les deu millors novel·les de 1962, segons la revista Time: We Have Always Lived in the Castle
• 1966 - Premi Edgar Award com a millor relat curt: «The Possibility of Evil»

Bibliografia

• King, Stephen. Danse Macabre. Everest House, 1981.
• Kittredge, Mary. "The Other Side of Magic: A Few Remarks About Shirley Jackson", in Darrell Schweitzer ed., Discovering Modern Horror Fiction. Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House, July 1985, pp. 3–12.
• Kosenko, Peter. "A Reading of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery Arxivat 2020-08-12 a Wayback Machine.. New Orleans Review, vol. 12, no. 1 (Spring 1985), pp. 27–32.
• Murphy, Bernice. Shirley Jackson: Essays on the Literary Legacy.
• Oppenheimer, Judy. Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson. New York: Putnam, 1988.
• Shapiro, Laura. Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America.
• Shirley Jackson Papers. Library of Congress, Washington DC.