Shirley Jackson was born, contrary to popular belief on December fourteenth nineteen-sixteen in San Francisco, California. On most of her documents she appeared to be born in nineteen-nineteen to appear younger than her husband. She attended Syracuse University in 1940. While studying at the University, she met her friend, and future husband Stanley Edgar Hyman, who was to become a noted literary critic. Although Shirley was extremely skilled in writing, she disliked writing about herself and thus failed to create an autobiography. Although she did not write her own biography, she can be quoted saying, “I very much dislike writing about myself or my work, and when pressed for autobiographical material can only give a bare chronological outline which contains, naturally, no pertinent facts. I was born in San Francisco in 1916 and spend most of my early life in California. I was married in 1940 to Stanley Edgar Hyman, critic and numismatist, and we live in Vermont, in a quiet rural community with fine scenery and comfortably far away from city life. Our major exports are books and children, both of which we produce in abundance. The children are Laurence, Joanne, Sarah and Barry: my books include three novels, The Road Through The Wall, Hangsaman, The Bird’s Nest and a collection of short stories, The Lottery. Life Among the Savages is a disrespectful memoir of my Children.” [Spiritus-Temporis.com ©2005]

Shirley Jackson’s book The Road Through The Wall “tells the tale of Pepper Street and its houses and families.” [Fantasticfiction.co.uk ©2009]

Shirley Jackson’s second novel, Hangsaman, describes an unusual young lady named Natalie, whose mother is unable to express her love for her whilst her father spends his time training her for a life of writing and affable intellectualism. Her father takes Natalie to meetings daily, at which she is encouraged by her father to engage in adult conversation, which often leads to drinking, and/or smoking. Natalie’s life drastically changes as she enters the “collegiate arena”. Looking around she sees, what to her appears to be conniving, vain, deceitful, unintelligent, immature, standoffish girls. She befriends her English teacher and his spouse, both of whom are seen as “dysfunctional human beings.” The teacher drinks and meets young female students outside of class, for what he calls “extra-curricular activities.” Although Natalie appears to be slowly adapting to the “collegiate scene”, this all escalates when she meets a strange girl named Tony.