Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life

When I was in eighth grade, one of the stories in our literature textbook was Charles. This was my introduction to Shirley Jackson, and a few years later, I read The Haunting of Hill House. I was forever a fan after that, and have since gone on to read many of her other stories. So when I saw a biography on her was on the way, I waited anxiously!

I wasnt disappointed. Ruth Franklin does an outstanding job, thanks to the monumental research she conducted through Jacksons archives and interviews with her children and those still alive who were closest to her. Much is told about Jacksons beginnings and upbringing, her turbulent relationships with both her husband and mother, and her writing career. Her humorous essays and stories on domesticity that were a staple of 1950s womens magazines may have been embellishedif the real truth of her life is any indicator. Her horror and psychological terror tales (which made me the fan I am, since Im a 40ish single male who cant really identify with her housewife stuff) gave her a different audience, and had other readers scratching their heads on the departure it was from her more whimsical work.

The book is at times scholarly, a bit juicy here and there, and all together hard to put down. As an author who dips into multiple genres myself, Jackson is one of my many inspirations as a writer, so I always enjoy a good biography on those who paved the way. Her relationships with her husband and mother are a bit heartbreaking at times. Franklin does an amazing job chronicling the complexities of Jacksons struggles here, as well as other ailments and insecurities. You get the sense Jackson never really found any kind of needed closure with her husband and motherand never fully rode the wave of success she deservedbefore her untimely death (a heart attack in her sleep) at age 48.

As a reader, Im so grateful for this biography and the works of Jackson that live on more than fifty years after her passing. Reading this book has inspired me to go back and re-read Hill House, as well as the novels of Jacksons Ive never read. Im also now a fan of Franklins and cant wait to see who her next subject will be.

In this sympathetic biography, Franklin explores Jacksons life, her family, her successes, and her writings. Her mother loved fashion and glorified attractiveness; from her earliest years, Jackson had little interest in fashion and was never fashion-model perfect. Her mothers opinions and criticisms of her appearance, of her choice of a husband, of her housekeeping, of her writing continued to her death. She was passionately in love with Stanley Hyman, her brilliant but often unsupportive husband, from their first meeting. His story is linked to hers, of course, and he had many successes, including admiration from the literati of their time (40s, 50s, early 60s) and a fine reputation as a critic and professor at Bennington. He was, however, unfaithful periodically and, in contrast to Shirley, relatively unsuccessful as a writer (and breadwinner). Shirley became a sort of chaotic earth mother, raising four children in a kind of laissez-faire style, cooking, entertaining, and constantly writing in her spare time. She submitted stories to publications of the day, often being rejected, until finally the success of The Lottery earned her the reputation (and notoriety) which led to more frequent sales of her many stories and several novels. Over the years she became a sought-after speaker and the primary financial support of the family. Some critics tended to dismiss her as too focused on oddities and witchcraft, but author Franklin makes the point that her primary themes grew out of her unhappy childhood: human natures tendency to ostracize and reject, the plight of the mother/housewife, the sense of a personality and sometimes evil in houses (she and Stanley lived in half a dozen), and finally of her desire to escape. In her last years she developed agoraphobia and insomnia. She relied on doctor-prescribed pills to make it through the day, and she died when her youngest child Barry was only 13. She is a very sympathetic character, and her achievement in carefully documented throughout this excellent biography.

I first read Shirley Jackson in the 60’s, when I was in high school, probably a few years after her death, and have read all of her published work. Coming upon this biography by Ruth Franklin was a wonderful surprise! Franklin’s research appears meticulous, and her admiration for Jackson is evident. The writing is superb. My one quarrel is with Franklin’s detours, e.g., a lengthy discourse about the New York literary scene of the 1930’s and 1940’s that felt long-winded. As interested as I am in that topic, I found myself skimming some of it, and wanting to get back to Jackson’s life. I felt the same way, but less so, about the amount of time dedicated to Stanley Edgar Hyman. Yes, he was a pivotal figure in Jackson’s life, and some background information on him is both important and appropriate, but at times I felt as though I was reading a double biography. That said, overall I enjoyed this very much and will probably reread Judy Oppenheimer’s early bio of Jackson.

Shirley Jackson is a fascinating subject, and her complex life, in the hands of a lesser biographer, might have been simplified for readers. Instead we are presented with a woman and a writer who can’t be easily pinned down at all. One must simply learn to accept the lovely mystery of Jackson, much like she had to learn to do herself.

I thoroughly enjoyed the way history and the details of the life around Jackson’s life was painted vividly but without straying far from Jackson herself. I felt that I was visiting the places Shirley lived.

I found myself dreading the end of Shirley Jackson as well as the end of this book, in the way one does when something marvelous is winding down.

Highly, highly recommended.

I have been a huge fan of Shirley Jackson since I first read “The Haunting of Hill House” as a teenager and am often amazed that she isn’t more widely read. Ruth Franklin’s biography is a fascinating, well-researched book that brings illumination to the woman behind many quirky and macabre novels and stories. The woman who emerges is at least as complex as any of her heroines. It is also an insightful study of the way women writers were (and in many ways still are) marginalised by their male contemporaries. I just hope this leads to a resurgence of interest in her work.

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