History Creator / ShirleyJackson

Creator/StephenKing paid homage to her in his dedication to ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'': "To Shirley Jackson, who never had to raise her voice." Carrie's shower of rocks in the first few pages is a ShoutOut to Eleanor's in ''Literature/TheHauntingOfHillHouse''.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Her first novel ''The Road Through the Wall'' suffers from this, attempting to catalogue an entire suburban neighborhood of families. You almost need to use the first chapter to draw a map of the neighborhood homes just to keep track.
** The later novel ''The Sundial'' also has a large cast, but it's easier to keep track of them since they're all in one house.

The 1957 film ''Film/{{Lizzie}}'' was adpated from her novel ''The Birds' Nest''. (Badly, and Jackson said it was like "Creator/AbbottAndCostello Meet a Multiple Personality.")

* ''Literature/TheLottery'' (1948), later collected in...

* ''The Bird's Nest'' (1954)

[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/shirley_jackson_1.jpg]]

Jackson's best-known work is the short story "Literature/TheLottery", about the dark underside of American small-town life, which has been adapted to film three times. Her novel ''Literature/TheHauntingOfHillHouse'' has been adapted for film twice, and several of her other works have been adapted for the stage or screen. She only wrote about half-a-dozen novels, but was a prolific short-story author. She also wrote humorous stories about her family, mostly based on reality.

In 2007, the Shirley Jackson Award for outstanding achievement in psychological suspense and dark fantasy was created in her honor.

She was a master of understatement and implication, creating chilling FridgeHorror in what would start out looking like your average ''New Yorker'' short. Creator/StephenKing paid homage to her in his dedication to ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'': "To Shirley Jackson, who never had to raise her voice." Carrie's shower of rocks in the first few pages is a ShoutOut to Eleanor's in ''Literature/TheHauntingOfHillHouse''.

The film ''Film/{{Lizzie}}'' is based on ''The Birds' Nest''. (Badly, and Shirley said it was like "Creator/AbbottAndCostello Meet A Multiple Personality.")

The film ''Film/{{Shirley}}'' about the writing of ''Hangsaman'' (starring Creator/ElisabethMoss as Jackson) was released in 2020.

Shirley Hardie Jackson (1916–1965) was an American author known for her dark stories of mystery and horror.

* HappyMarriageCharade: Shirley Jackson and Stanley Edgar Hyman's marriage devolved into this. He started cheating on her, and she maintained a StiffUpperLip about it while raising their four children. Eventually, however, she suffered from the trauma of it and was prescribed tranquilizers. It's reflected a lot in her short stories, several of which (including her final, unfinished novel ''Come Along With Me''), are about women getting away and making a new home in an unfamiliar place.

* HoYay, AmbiguouslyGay and perhaps MistakenForGay and/or BaitAndSwitchLesbians: Clearest in ''Hangsaman'', where Natalie's female friend Tony attempts to seduce her. But partly based on this, reviewers and literary analysts often comment on what look like Lesbian themes or implications in all her work, whether she intended it or not. She was psychologically very self-aware and in her search for further insight she acknowledged that her attraction to yet fear of the idea had more to do with a desire for an independent life, without needing to be married (this was the 1940s and 50s, when women who didn't need or want marriage were often assumed to be gay).

* StepfordSmiler: It would probably be a lot more efficient to list the characters who ''don't'' either become one or have profoundly unsettling run-ins with them; even Shirley's own deeply eccentric and none-too-flawless authorial persona in her humorous writing can start to come off this way when you know ''how'' toxic her marriage actually was and how much she struggled with mental illness.

* AllPsychologyIsFreudian: A number of short stories and at least one novel (''The Bird's Nest'') deal with a character spilling her troubles to an analyst. May be TruthInTelevision, since at the time Jackson wrote (1940s through the 1960s) Freudian analysis was very much the prevailing school, though in Jackson's case she also had a husband well-versed in Freudian thought and who had written critically on Freud's writing. Also, she and family had lived for about a year in a house that belonged to Erich Fromm, while he was away in Europe. He'd left notes and case files all over the place, although she said she stowed them in the attic without looking.

** Jackson, the descendant of architects who built huge, lavish mansions (like [[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Residence_of_Governor_Stanford,_Palo_Alto,_California,_1888_(LAROCHE_12).jpeg#/media/File:Residence_of_Governor_Stanford,_Palo_Alto,_California,_1888_(LAROCHE_12).jpeg this one]], was fond of these in real life, too. Both her collections of family stories begin with the family required to move into a new, larger home that invariably becomes its own character: the house with the pillars in ''Life Among the Savages'' is reputed to be haunted, while the house with gateposts (one slightly askew) in ''Raising Demons'' has a confusing layout of rooms that seem to move around and choose their own functions.
* BumblingDad: Her husband, as portrayed in the family stories, tends to be either an absentminded one of these, or (especially in ''Raising Demons''), a would-be authority figure who ended up looking ridiculous.

* HoYay: Especially in ''Hangsaman'', where Natalie's female friend Tony attempts to seduce her. Reviewers and literary analysts often comment on what look like Lesbian themes in all her work. Jackson had a reputation for this and BaitAndSwitchLesbians without her intention (at least, not consciously); in her search for self-understanding she acknowledged that her attraction to yet fear of the idea had more to do with a desire for an independent life, without needing to be married.

** Jackson, the descendant of architects who built huge, lavish mansions (like [[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Residence_of_Governor_Stanford,_Palo_Alto,_California,_1888_(LAROCHE_12).jpeg#/media/File:Residence_of_Governor_Stanford,_Palo_Alto,_California,_1888_(LAROCHE_12).jpeg this one]], was fond of these in real life, too. Both her collections of family stories begin with the family required to move into a new, larger home that invariably becomes its own character: the house with the pillars in ''Life Among the Savages'' is reputed to be haunted, while the house with gateposts in ''Raising Demons'' has a confusing layout of rooms that seem to move around and choose their own functions.

** In ''Life Among the Savages'' and ''Raising Demons,'' Jackson admits to being a little creeped out by her kindergarten-age daughter Sally, who has a habit of piping up with some hilariously unsettling remarks.

* HappyMarriageCharade: Shirley Jackson and Stanley Edgar Hyman's marriage devolved into this. He started cheating on her, and she maintained a StiffUpperLip about it while raising their four children. Eventually, however, she suffered from the trauma of it and was prescribed tranquilizers. It's reflected a lot in her short stories, several of which (including her final, unfinished novel ''Come Along With Me'', are about women getting away and making a new home in an unfamiliar place.

Jackson's best-known work is the short story "Literature/TheLottery", about the dark underside of American small-town life, which has been adapted to film three times. Her novel ''Literature/TheHauntingOfHillHouse'' has been adapted for film twice, and several of her other works have been adapted for the stage or screen. She only wrote about half-a-dozen novels, but was a prolific short-story author.

* AllPsychologyIsFreudian: A number of short stories and at least one novel (''The Bird's Nest'') deal with a character spilling her troubles to an analyst. May be TruthInTelevision, since at the time Jackson wrote (1940s through the 1960s) Freudian analysis was very much the prevailing school, though in Jackson's case she also had a husband well-versed in Freudian thought and who had written critically on Freud's writing.

** Jackson was fond of these in real life, too. Both her collections of family stories begin with the family required to move into a new, larger home that invariably becomes its own character: the house with the pillars in ''Life Among the Savages'' is reputed to be haunted, while the house with gateposts in ''Raising Demons'' has a confusing layout of rooms that seem to move around and choose their own functions.

* HappyMarriageCharade: Shirley Jackson and Stanley Edgar Hyman's marriage devolved into this. He started cheating on her, and she maintained a StiffUpperLip about it while raising their four children. Eventually, however, she suffered from the trauma of it and was prescribed tranquilizers. It's reflected a lot in her short stories.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Happens a ''lot'' in Jackson's work, to the point that it's practically a theme. Most notably in ''The Haunting of Hill House,'' which famously hinged on whether or not Hill House is really haunted, the idea is used for both horror (as in the James Harris stories) and humor (as in "The Wishing Dime," in which two little girls find a "magic" dime and use it for wishes that all come true in unexpected ways).

* VerbalTic: In ''The Road Through the Wall'', Beverly, a young girl with an unspecified mental disability, tends to repeat entire sentences.

* CreepyChild: Fancy in ''The Sundial'' who, among other things, shows pride in her dollhouse but says that she'll take a hammer and smash it to pieces once the adults die and she inherits the estate.

* HappyMarriageCharade: Shirley Jackson and Stanley Edgar Hyman's marriage devolved into this. He started cheating on her, and she maintained a StiffUpperLip about it while raising their four children. Eventuallly, however, she suffered from the trauma of it and was prescribed tranquilizers.

** In ''The Bird's Nest,'' Bess (one of the heroine's [[SplitPersonality four personalities]]) accidentally lets slip an ambiguous hint that [[spoiler: she may have been sexually assaulted by her late mother's boyfriend.]] Bess's immediate denial that she said anything at all makes it more obvious that something terrible ''did'' happen.
* SpookySeance: Angela in the never-finished ''Come Along With Me'' holds a seance. She's a real medium; spirits constantly come to her, but it's very random, so she's not even always sure if she's talking to the loved ones of her sitters. The messages she does get don't fit their preconceived notions, and they leave unsatisfied.

* YourCheatingHeart: Shirley's husband Stanley Edgar Hyman was emotionally abusive and cheated on her with one of her closest friends.

* HornyDevil: A recurrent figure in Jackson's short story is a mysterious man in blue calling himself James Harris, who may or may not be a supernatural creature. Though he rarely appears directly, women seduced by him abandoned their lives and families to pursue him...only to find themselves stranded and alone when he vanishes. (The original edition of her short story collection ''The Lottery'' was even subtitled "The Adventures of James Harris" and the collection ends with [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Daemon_Lover the ballad of the Daemon Lover]].)

* MistakenForAnImposter: The short story "Louisa, Please Come Home" concerns a nineteen-year-old girl who runs away from home and returns three years later only to find that she [[YouCantGoHomeAgain Can't Go Home Again]]. Because her family thinks she's an imposter after the reward money. DramaticIrony ensues.
* OldDarkHouse: Almost all of Jackson's major works and several short stories contain a central image of an Old, Dark House that dominates the work. Notable examples are the unnamed house in "The Visit," Blackwood House in ''We Have Always Lived in the Castle,'' Halloran House in ''The Sundial,'' and the titular Hill House in ''The Haunting of Hill House.'' ''The Road Through the Wall'' is centralized around two strange houses: the mansion at the end of the street which dominates the neighborhood and a single mysterious house-for-rent that seems unable to retain a family even though it is outwardly identical to every other house on the street.
** Jackson was fond of these in real life, too. Both her collections of family stories begin with the family required to move into a new, larger home that invariably becomes its own character: the house with the pillars in ''Life Among the Savages'' is reputed to be haunted, while the house with gateposts in ''Raising Demons'' has a confusing layout of rooms that seem to move around and choose their own functions.

** In ''The Bird's Nest,'' Bess (one of the heroine's [[SplitPersonality four personalities]]) accidentally lets slip a ambiguous hint that [[spoiler: she may have been sexually assaulted by her late mother's boyfriend.]] Bess's immediate denial that she said anything at all makes it more obvious that something terrible ''did'' happen.

** In ''The Bird's Nest,'' Bess (one of the heroine's [[SplitPersonality four personalities]]) accidentally lets slip a ambiguous hint that she may have been sexually assaulted by her late mother's boyfriend. Bess's immediate denial that she said anything at all makes it more obvious that something terrible ''did'' happen.

* RapeAsDrama: Natalie Waite in ''Hangsaman'' flirts with a man at her father's cocktail party and he drags her off. In so many words, the narrative reveals that he raped her. When she gets to college, she refuses to tell a gathering of the school's GirlPosse whether she's a virgin.

* MagicalNanny: In a series of unconnected, light-hearted short stories, Jackson introduces us to the mysterious Dimity, a magical maid who always turns up just when a troubled family needs her (whether they're actually ''looking'' for a maid at the time is another matter) and solves the household's problems. Though she's always called a housemaid, she usually ends up getting involved with the family's children in a nannying capacity.

* ''Literature/TheLottery'' (1948)

* "Literature/TheLottery" (1948)

* OldDarkHouse: Almost all of Jackson's major works and several short stories contain a central image of an Old, Dark House that dominates the work. Notable examples are the unnamed house in "The Visit," Blackwood House in ''We Have Always Lived in the Castle,'' Halloran House in ''The Sundial,'' and the titular Hill House in ''The Haunting of Hill House.'' ''The Road Through the Wall'' is centralized around two strange houses: the mansion at the end of the street which dominates the neighborhood and a single mysterious house-for-rent where no one seems able to live for long.

Shirley Hardie Jackson (1916–1965) was an American author known for her dark stories of mystery and horror. Her best-known work is the short story "Literature/TheLottery", about the dark underside of American small-town life, which has been adapted to film three times. Her novel ''Literature/TheHauntingOfHillHouse'' has been adapted for film twice, and several of her other works have been adapted for the stage or screen. She only wrote about half-a-dozen novels, but was a prolific short-story author.