It was eventually translated into dozens of languages and adapted for radio, television and the stage. 'The Lottery' generated the most mail in the history of The New Yorker, with many readers expressing confusion about underlying meanings and anger over its disturbing ending.ĭespite the backlash, 'The Lottery' became one of the most significant short stories of its era. 'The Lottery'Īlso in 1948, The New Yorker published Jackson's short story, 'The Lottery.' The tale, which starts as a seemingly benign account of an annual event in smalltown America, takes a dark turn when the event is revealed to be a gruesome sacrifice. Her first novel, The Road Through The Wall, was published in 1948. She began to write professionally, her works appearing in such publications as The New Yorker, Redbook, The Saturday Evening Post and The Ladies' Home Journal. She attended the University of Rochester and then Syracuse University, where she became fiction editor of the campus humor magazine.Īfter graduating in 1940, Jackson moved to New York City. Jackson was born on December 14, 1916, in San Francisco, California, and grew up nearby in Burlingame.

Jackson, who also wrote such novels as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, died of heart failure in 1965. Among her early works was 'The Lottery,' the highly controversial and famous short story about a village that partakes in an annual death ritual. Writer Shirley Jackson was born in 1916 in California.

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