Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life

Ruth Franklin - Shirley Jackson — Ruth Franklin (Photo: Anthony Delmundo)

Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life is one of the finest biographies you’ll ever read. You’ll want to use it as a springboard to Jackson’s novels and short stories as well as Franklin’s other works.

High Point: Franklin’s analyses of Jackson’s works set this biography apart. Rather than limit herself to a review of Jackson’s life—which in itself is detailed and enthralling—she delves into the origins and development of Jackson’s stories.

Low Point: None

Author: Ruth Franklin

Publication Date: 2016

Genre: Biography

Shirley Jackson - The Haunting of Hill House — Shirley Jackson

Listen to the audio version of this review

space

The Writer Behind “The Lottery”

In Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life, Ruth Franklin resurrects Jackson’s standing as a premier American author from the 1940s, 50s and 60s. In this meticulously researched biography, Franklin clearly illustrates how Jackson’s personal relationships, her home life, her social conscience, and even world politics influenced her short stories and novels.

Inside Jackson’s Creative Process

In fact, Franklin’s analyses of Jackson’s works set this biography apart. Rather than limit herself to a review of Jackson’s life—which in itself is detailed and enthralling—she delves into the origins and development of Jackson’s stories. From her review of Jackson’s notes, she shares alternate plotlines and endings which Jackson later changed. She describes the thoughts that led to Jackson’s final versions. There are spoilers as she looks into specific works, but they won’t detract from their impact if you’ve not yet read them. Instead, knowing the backstories will only enhance your enjoyment of Jackson’s classic works. And if you have read them, those backstories will provide impetus to read those works again.

Revisiting “The Lottery”

Franklin’s exhaustive research is evident throughout the book. For example, her examination of Jackson’s controversial short story, “The Lottery”, exemplifies her creativity and determination for unearthing the detailed information that makes her book unique. When “The Lottery” was published in the June 26, 1948, edition of The New Yorker, the backlash from readers was voiced in an avalanche of angry letters and the cancellation of subscriptions. Decades later, Franklin tracked down some of those letter writers to determine why they had felt the way they did.

Incidentally, Franklin mentions that Jackson recorded a reading of “The Lottery.” That recording is easily found online (see below), so make sure you augment the biography by listening to Jackson as she narrates one of her definitive short stories.

The Cost of Being a Woman Writer

Throughout the book, Franklin continually comes back to a particular underlying theme. Although she never uses the term misogyny, she makes it clear that gender bias was a factor detrimental to Jackson’s writing career. Among other things, she cites numerous examples of the disparity in the fees awarded Jackson by leading publishers compared to her male counterparts. And Franklin frequently applies quotes from Betty Friedan’s Feminine Mystique.

Why This Biography Matters

Published in 2016, this book won several national awards. With it, Franklin established herself as a premier biographer. Her latest book—The Many Lives of Anne Frank—was released in 2025 and has been well-received by most critics. It exhibits the same extensive research as the Shirley Jackson biography.

Quotes

[From Jackson’s Special Delivery: A Useful Book for Brand-New Mothers]

In some respects, having a baby is roughly like being in the path of a major hurricane. Or like having all your relatives come a once for a two-week visit. …Or like discovering suddenly that you only have one hand when you thought you had two. Or like discovering suddenly, as a matter of fact, that you only have two hands when you hoped you had four.

In “Notes for a Young Writer,” a lecture on writing fiction composed as advice to her daughter Sarah, Jackson would relish the “grotesque effect” of the “absolutely wrong word”: “’I will always love you,’ he giggled.”

[From a Jackson letter following the publication of her children’s book The Witchcraft of Salem Village]

The people of Salem hanged and tortured their neighbors from a deep conviction that they were right to do so. Some of our own deepest convictions may be as false. We might say that we have far more to be afraid of today than the people of Salem ever dreamed of, but that would not really be true. We have exactly the same thing to be afraid of—the demon in men’s minds which prompts hatred and anger and fear, an irrational demon which shows a different face to every generation, but never gives up his fight to win over the world.