Shirley Jackson

For more information on Shirley Hardie Jackson, visit Britannica.com.

Shirley Ann Jackson (born 1946), a theoretical physicist, was the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. at MIT. In 1995, President Bill Clinton appointed her as chairwoman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. During her tenure, Jackson has instituted massive crackdowns on the nuclear power industry's violations.

Shirley Ann Jackson is a theoretical physicist who has spent her career researching and teaching about particle physics - the branch of physics which uses theories and mathematics to predict the existence of subatomic particles and the forces that bind them together. She was the first African American woman to receive a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and she spent many years conducting research at AT & T Bell Laboratories. She was named professor of physics at Rutgers University in 1991 and is the recipient of many honors, scholarships, and grants.

Jackson was born on August 5, 1946, in Washington, DC. Her parents, Beatrice and George Jackson, strongly valued education and encouraged her in school. Her father spurred on her interest in science by helping her with projects for her science classes. At Roosevelt High School, Jackson attended accelerated programs in both math and science, and she graduated in 1964 as valedictorian. Jackson began classes at MIT that same year, one of fewer than twenty African American students and the only one studying theoretical physics. While a student she did volunteer work at Boston City Hospital and tutored students at the Roxbury YMCA. She earned her bachelors degree in 1968, writing her thesis on solid-state physics, a subject then in the forefront of theoretical physics.

Although accepted at Brown, Harvard, and the University of Chicago, Jackson decided to stay at MIT for her doctoral work, because she wanted to encourage more African American students to attend the institution. She worked on elementary particle theory for her Ph.D., which she completed in 1973. Her research was directed by James Young, the first African American tenured full professor in MIT's physics department. Jackson's thesis, "The Study of a Multiperipheral Model with Continued Cross-Channel Unitarity," was subsequently published in the Annals of Physics in 1975.

Jackson's area of interest in physics is the study of the subatomic particles found within atoms, the tiny units of which all matter is made. Subatomic particles, which are usually very unstable and short-lived, can be studied in several ways. One method is using a particle accelerator, a device in which nuclei are accelerated to high speeds and then collided with a target to separate them into subatomic particles. Another way of studying them is by detecting their movements using certain kinds of nonconducting solids. When some solids are exposed to high-energy particles, the crystal lattice structure of the atoms is distorted, and this phenomenon leaves marks or tracks that can be seen with an electron microscope. Photographs of the tracks are then enhanced, and by examining these photographs physicists like Jackson can make predictions about what kinds of particles have caused the marks.

As a postdoctoral student of subatomic particles during the 1970s, Jackson studied and conducted research at a number of prestigious physics laboratories in both the United States and Europe. Her first position was as research associate at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois (known as Fermilab) where she studied hadrons - medium to large subatomic particles that include baryons and mesons. In 1974 she became visiting scientist at the accelerator lab at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Switzerland. There she explored theories of strongly interacting elementary particles. In 1976 and 1977, she both lectured in physics at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center and became a visiting scientist at the Aspen Center for Physics.

Jackson joined the Theoretical Physics Research Department at AT & T Bell Laboratories in 1976. The research projects at this facility are designed to examine the properties of various materials in an effort to discover useful applications. In 1978, Jackson became part of the Scattering and Low Energy Physics Research Department, then in 1988 she moved to the Solid State and Quantum Physics Research Department. At Bell Labs, Jackson explored theories of charge density waves and the reactions of neutrinos, one type of subatomic particle. In her research, Jackson has made contributions to the knowledge of such areas as charged density waves in layered compounds, polaronic aspects of electrons in the surface of liquid helium films, and optical and electronic properties of semiconductor strained-layer superlattices. On these topics and others she has prepared or collaborated on over 100 scientific articles.

Jackson has received many scholarships, including the Martin Marietta Aircraft Company Scholarship and Fellowship, the Prince Hall Masons Scholarship, the National Science Foundation Traineeship, and a Ford Foundation Advanced Study Fellowship. She has been elected to the American Physical Society and selected a CIBA-GEIGY Exceptional Black Scientist. In 1985, Governor Thomas Kean appointed her to the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology. Then in the early 1990s, Governor James Florio awarded her the Thomas Alva Edison Science Award for her contributions to physics and for the promotion of science. Jackson is an active voice in numerous committees of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Science Foundation, where her aim has been to actively promote women in science. Her most recent assignment came in 1995, when she was appointed head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by President Bill Clinton.

Jackson is very involved in university life at Rutgers University, where in addition to being professor of physics she is also on the board of trustees. She is a lifetime member of the MIT Board of Trustees and was formerly a trustee of Lincoln University. She is also involved in civic organizations that promote community resources and developing enterprises. She is married and has one son.

Further Reading

Carwell, Hattie, Blacks in Science: Astrophysicist to Zoologist, Exposition Press, 1977, p. 60.

Notable Black American Women, Gale, 1992, pp. 565-566.

Blacks in Science and Medicine, Hemisphere, 1990, p. 130.

physicist; government official

Personal Information

Born Shirley Ann Jackson, August 5, 1946, in Washington, DC; daughter of Beatrice and George Jackson; married to Dr. Morris A. Washington; one son, Alan.
Education: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, B.S. in physics, 1968, Ph.D. in physics, 1973; postdoctoral education at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Batavia, IL, and European Center for Nuclear Research, Geneva, Switzerland.

Career

Condensed matter theorist and other positions, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, 1976-91; consultant, semiconductor theory, Bell Labs, 1991-95; physics professor, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, 1991-95; commissioner and chairman, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, May 1995--. Directorships: N.J. Resources Corp., Public Service Enterprise Group, Sealed Air Corp. CoreStates New Jersey National Bank, CoreStates Financial Corp.

Life's Work

"Shirley the Great." That's what Shirley Ann Jackson, age 4, declared to her mother she would someday be called. But, as Vice President Al Gore described in May of 1995 at Jackson's swearing-in ceremony for chairman of the nation's Nuclear Regulatory Commission, little Shirley was too young in 1950 to know the obstacles that could hinder even a smart and ambitious little black girl. "D.C. schools were still segregated," Gore said of the scenario for the Washington native in those years. "There's a wonderful school a few blocks away, but Shirley isn't allowed to walk through the doors. "And even at the high school level in Washington, the schools lack the small classes and modern labs that a budding scientist needs...to become Shirley the Great."

Fortunately, two historic events intervened to help Jackson rise to the top of her field and become the first African American woman to receive a doctoral degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and to be named a commissioner of the NRC. One was the U.S. Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, of 1954, which mandated the integration of schools. The second was the Soviet launch of Sputnik--a wakeup call to the U.S. government to start helping American scientists catch up.

Suddenly, "Shirley the Great" seemed more than possible. Suddenly, the outlook was dramatically improved for young Americans interested in and talented in science, whether male or female, white or black. And Jackson had the drive to succeed. It's not every American, after all, who's smart enough to figure out what makes a nuclear power plant tick and then deal with the complicated politics of "selling" that energy source to a frightened public.

She was born in Washington, D. C., on August 5, 1946, and grew up in the city's northwest district. The second daughter of Beatrice and George Jackson; her mother was a social worker, her father a postal worker. Early on, she showed a gift for science and was encouraged by her father, who got involved with her science projects, even the one involving live bumblebees that Shirley fed with sugar and collected in 30 jars jammed into the basement crawl space. Jackson told the Washington Post of her recollection of building soapbox go-karts with her sister, Gloria, and how this fed into her lifelong interest in "how things work." She also described how both her parents believed strongly in education and how this factor--together with an accelerated program in mathematics and science at Roosevelt High School--helped prepare her for the intellectual rigors ahead.

There were emotional rigors, as well, considering the proximity of Barnard, the excellent school to which Vice President Gore referred, just three blocks from Jackson's childhood home in the then-predominantly white Petworth area. But Shirley was black, so she and Gloria had to be driven miles across town to a black school. Despite this discrimination, "I had a good educational experience" in Washington, Jackson told the Post. "I had a supportive community and family." She was also a straight-A student at Roosevelt and valedictorian of her Class of 1964. Then, she left for college at MIT, still a rare destination for a black woman at that point, the height of the civil rights struggle. As Jackson said, "The biggest challenges were more after I left Washington."

In 1964 she was one of 45 women and a handful of African Americans in her 900-member freshman class. Jackson was unprepared for the loneliness, she told Science magazine. "The irony is that the white girls weren't particularly working with me, either," she said. The white women even refused to sit at the same cafeteria table with her and made it clear they didn't want her in their study groups. "I had to work alone," Jackson said. "I went through a down period, but at some level you have to decide you will persist in what you're doing and that you won't let people beat you down."

Rising above the social isolation, Jackson delved more and more into the scientific world she loved, discovering a particular niche in materials science. She thrived academically and upon her graduation in 1968, she was offered fellowship support to stay on for her Ph.D. in physics. Her specialization was theoretical elementary particle physics, and her graduate work was directed by James Young, the first full-time tenured black professor in the Physics department. She received her advanced degree in 1973, the first black woman at MIT to realize that goal in any academic category. But science was hardly Jackson's only interest, keenly aware of her own position as an African American, she lobbied MIT to admit more minorities and tutored at the YMCA in Boston's black neighborhood of Roxbury.

From graduate school, she moved on to the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, and the European Center for Nuclear Research in Geneva, Switzerland, for postdoctoral stints, working on theories of strongly interacting elementary particles. As she told Science about this time in her life, she simply got used to being one of the few women and blacks at meetings. "If you give a physics paper, it had better be good-- because people will remember," she said.

In 1976 she accepted a job at AT&T Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, N.J., where she combined her interest in theoretical particle physics with her employer's interest: gas, films, and semiconductors. She has admitted to Science that she was pretty much of a loner in the research world. But despite this aura, she still attracted the notice of another young physicist, Morris A. Washington, whom she later married. The couple have a son, Alan.

Jackson stayed at Bell Labs until 1991, when she re-entered the academic world as a professor of physics at Rutgers University in New Jersey. "I wanted to have graduate students, to build my own research groups," she told Science. Her career star was already rising: From the mid-1960s to through the late-1970s, she received no less than ten scholarships, fellowships, and grants from sources such as Martin Marietta Co., the National Science Foundation, and the Ford Foundation. She also studied at the International School of Subnuclear Physics in Erice, Sicily, and the Ecole d'ete de Physique Theorique in Les Houches, France.

In 1985, Jackson entered the public affairs realm with her appointment by then-governor of New Jersey Thomas Kean to the N.J. Commission on Science and Technology. She was re-appointed and confirmed for a five-year term in 1989. She also served on committees of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Science Foundation. And she published over a hundred scientific articles and abstracts. At each step, she promoted not just science, but the advancement of women in the field.

Corporate participation followed in the 1980s. She was invited onto the boards of the Public Service Enterprise Group in New Jersey, the N.J. Resources Corp., and Core States/New Jersey National Bank. She also served on an advisory panel to the Secretary of Energy examining the future of Department of Energy national laboratories and on a variety of research councils of the National Academy of Sciences and the Advisory Council of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations.

All of these appointments, of course, served Jackson well for the high honor to come. But the honor she has said gave her particular satisfaction was her election in June 1991--after 15 years as a term member--to life membership on the board of trustees of MIT. Thus, she became the ultimate insider at the same institution where once she had been a lonely female minority student on the outside looking in.

When President Bill Clinton nominated Jackson to the chairmanship of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 1995, she inherited far more than just an agency (located in Rockville, MD) with 3,000 employees and a $500 million annual budget; she also took on the job of regulating the safety of the United States' aging 110 nuclear power plants and of tackling the touchy politics of extending those plant licenses. In her lap was laid the twin dilemmas of mounting nuclear waste and the plants' dwindling storage space.

And all of this was occurring in 1995--the year of her appointment- -just nine years after the Chernobyl nuclear power disaster in Russia that had ended or damaged thousands of lives and threatened, via the long-term effects of radiation poisoning, to claim many more. In fact, The World Health Organization reported in 1995 that thyroid cancer among children had increased 100 percent in areas exposed to Chernobyl's fallout.

What's more, Chernobyl, so far away, was hardly the only concern. Americans were not about to forget the near-miss at Three Mile Island in 1979. And there were other, nuclear-related events in 1995: Environmental "guerillas" set up camp in the Mojave Desert at the site of a proposed nuclear waste dump saying it threatened Southern California's water. Joseph Rotblat, the British antinuclear activist, accepted the Nobel Prize, warning the world's scientists that they were responsible for spurning doomsday programs and exposing plans for weaponry. The NRC ordered Maine's Yankee power plant to reduce its power because it wasn't clear whether the plant could withstand even a small water leak in its cooling system. Federal regulators began investigating an incident at the Hope Creek power plant, where cooling water was misdirected for 19 hours before anyone noticed. And South Carolina Governor David Beasley reopened the Barnwell County, S.C., nuclear dump, underscoring the failed efforts of 15 years to make the Southern states join a federal compact for disposal of their nuclear waste.

This was the "hot" political environment Jackson entered in 1995. She responded with her usual directness and zeal. Days after taking office, The Energy Daily newsletter reported, she set off for the Tennessee Valley Authority to spend three days climbing ladders and exploring the internal workings of TVA's units. "I did climb around, looking at reactor cores really close up," Jackson told the newsletter. Her conclusion? "Hal is not running the plants," she said mischievously--referring to the evil computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey--"It's humans.

"That was the virtue of [the tour]. It helped put things into context--up close and personal." Jackson planned to visit every operating reactor during her five-year tenure, Energy Daily reported. "One should visit one's licensees," Jackson said. "I think when you go into the plants, one gets a sense of...the culture...what we used to call, when I was a student, the 'vibles.'" The newsletter continued: "Jackson, 48, comes across as tough, smart and nonsense."

And these were perhaps just the qualities she needed to deal with the controversy that erupted anew over nuclear power from the Time magazine cover story of March 4, 1996. The headline was "Blowing the Whistle on Nuclear Safety: How a showdown at a power plant exposed the federal government's failure to enforce its own rules." The story concerned Northeast Utilities' five power plants in New England, particularly Millstone Unit 1 in Waterford, CT. Engineers George Galatis and George Betancourt, blew the whistle to the NRC after two years of internal lobbying, with no success, against a major safety problem: Millstone was off-loading its full core. This meant that every 18 months when the reactor was shut down so fuel rods could be replaced, the old rods, still radioactive, were improperly placed in the requisite cooling pool all at once. In fact, federal guidelines require older plants like Millstone to move only one third of the rods into the pool. But Millstone's administrators wanted to save time and money.

Time's investigation and a report of the NRC's inspector general found that not only had the agency known of this violation and dangerous practice but that it had been going on for 20 years and that Millstone I had been issued waiver after waiver by the NRC. "The agency completely failed," NRC acting Inspector General Leo Norton told Time. "We did shoddy work. And we're concerned that similar lapses might be occurring at other plants around the country."

Jackson, as NRC chairman, went into overdrive to protect her agency. She ordered the agency's second whistle-blower study in two years and a nationwide review of all 110 plants to discover how many had been moving fuel in violation of standards. At a press conference on March 8, 1996, she told reporters: "For whatever else may be said about the article, it pointed to areas for improvement--technical, managerial, and legal--on the part of both the utility involved and the NRC. The fact that we already knew about the problems and were dealing with them is not a sufficient answer; they should not have occurred in the first place." In a letter to Time, however, she dismissed "any suggestion that the Millstone situation borders on an impending Chernobyl-type disaster."

Nonetheless, the NRC, under Jackson's direction, shut down all three Millstone plants. And the public waited for the NRC report. It was a moment both positive and negative for Jackson: negative because she faced a major crisis for the agency she headed, but also positive because during all the hubbub, no one seemed to be noticing any more that she was black or female or anything else besides a highly respected scientist with a big political football in her hands.

Awards

First African American woman awarded the Ph.D. in any subject from MIT; first African-American to become a commissioner of the NRC; fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; fellow of the American Physical Society; life member of the MIT Board of Trustees 1992--; former member of an advisory council to the secretary of energy; former member of research councils of the National Academy of Sciences and Advisory Council of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations; recipient, Governor's Award (Thomas Alva Edison Science Award) of the State of New Jersey, 1993; Honorary Doctor of Science, Fairleigh Dickinson, NJ, 1993; recipient of scholarships and fellowships from Ford Foundation, Martin Marietta Corp., National Science Foundation, and others.

Further Reading

Periodicals

• "Nuclear Warriors," Time magazine, March 4, 1996, p. 46.
• "New NRC Chairman Targes License Extension As Top Priority," The Energy Daily, August 22, 1995.
• "Women in Science '93--Gaining Standing--by Standing Out," Science, April 16, 1993, p. 392.
• "Equation for Success," The Washington Post, p. B13.

• Transcript of Shirley Ann Jackson press conference at Nuclear Regulatory Commission, April 9, 1996.
• Biographical materials and resume supplied by Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
• Transcript of Vice President Al Gore's Remarks at Swearing-in of Shirley Ann Jackson, White House Press Office, May 26, 1995.

— Joan Oleck

For the physicist, see Shirley Jackson (physicist).

Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson on the cover of one of her books, The Lottery
Born	14 December 1916(1916-12-14) San Francisco, California, U.S.1
Died	8 August 1965 (aged 48) Bennington, Vermont, U.S.
Occupation	Author, Novelist
Genres	Mystery, Horror
Influenced Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Nigel Kneale, Richard Matheson, Brian Freeman, Jonathan Lethem, Poppy Z. Brite,

Shirley Jackson (December 14, 1916, San Francisco, California - August 8, 1965, Bennington, Vermont) was an influential American author. A popular writer in her time, her work has received increasing attention from literary critics in recent years. She has influenced such writers as Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Nigel Kneale and Richard Matheson.^[1]

She is best known for "The Lottery" (1948), which suggests a deeply unsettling underside to bucolic small-town America. In her critical biography of Jackson, Lenemaja Friedman notes that when "The Lottery" was published in the June 26, 1948 issue of The New Yorker, it received a response that "no New Yorker story had ever received." Hundreds of letters poured in that were characterized by, as Jackson put it, "bewilderment, speculation and old-fashioned abuse." ^[2]

In the July 22, 1948 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle Jackson offered the following in response to persistent queries from her readers about her intentions:

Explaining just what I had hoped the story to say is very difficult. I suppose, I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village to shock the story's readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives.

Jackson's husband,the literary critic Stanley Edgar Hyman, wrote in his preface to a posthumous anthology of her short stories^[3] that "she wanted always to be interviewed, to explain or promote her work in any fashion, or to take public stands and be the pundit of the Sunday supplements. She believed that her books would not speak for her clearly enough over the years." Hyman insisted the darker aspects of Jackson's works were not, as some critics claimed, the product of "personal, even neurotic, fantasies," but that Jackson intended, as "a sensitive and faithful anatomy of our times, fitting symbols for our distressing world of the concentration camp and the Bomb," to mirror humanity's Cold War-era fears. Jackson may even have taken pleasure in the subversive impact of her work, as evidenced by Hyman's statement that she "was always proud that the Union of South Africa banned "The Lottery", and she felt that they at least understood the story.

Contents 1 Literary life 2 Adaptations 3 Magazines 4 Awards 5 Vermont vanishing 6 Literary studies 7 Shirley Jackson Awards 8 Bibliography 9 Sources 10 References 11 Further reading 12 Listen to 13 External links

Literary life

Born Shirley Hardie Jackson in San Francisco to Leslie and Geraldine Jackson, Shirley and her family lived in the community of Burlingame, California, an affluent middle-class suburb that would feature in Shirley's first novel The Road Through the Wall. The Jackson family then relocated to Rochester, New York, where Shirley attended Brighton High School and graduated in 1934. For college, she first attended the University of Rochester (from which she was "asked to leave") before graduating with a BA from Syracuse University in 1940.

While a student at Syracuse, Shirley became involved with the campus literary magazine, through which she met future husband Stanley Edgar Hyman, who would become a noted literary critic. For Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Harcraft's Twentieth Century Authors (1954), she wrote:

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 spent 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.

Although Jackson claimed to have been born in 1919 in order to appear younger than her husband, biographer Judy Oppenheimer determined that she was actually born in 1916. ^[4]

The Hymans eventually settled in North Bennington, Vermont, where Stanley Hyman became a professor at Bennington College while Shirley continued to publish novels and short stories while caring for their children Laurence (Laurie), Joanne (Jannie), Sarah (Sally), and Barry. Eventually the Hyman children would come to their own brand of literary fame as fictionalised versions of themselves in their mother's short stories. The Hymans were well-known for being colorful, generous hosts who surrounded themselves with literary talents, including Ralph Ellison. Both were enthusiastic readers whose personal library was estimated at over 100,000 books.

In addition to her adult literary novels, Jackson also wrote a children's novel, Nine Magic Wishes, available in an edition illustrated by her grandson, Miles Hyman, as well as a children's play based on Hansel and Gretel and entitled The Bad Children. In a series of short stories, later collected in the books Life Among the Savages and Raising Demons, she presented a fictionalized version of her marriage and the experience of bringing up four children. These stories pioneered the "true-to-life funny-housewife stories" of the type later popularized by such writers as Jean Kerr and Erma Bombeck during the 1950s and 1960s.

In 1965, Shirley Jackson died of heart failure in her sleep at the age of 48. Shirley suffered throughout her life from various neuroses and psychosomatic illnesses. These ailments, along with the various prescription drugs used to treat them, may have contributed to her declining health and early death. However, at the time of her death, Jackson was overweight and a heavy smoker. After her death, her husband released a posthumous volume of her work, Come Along With Me, containing several chapters of her unfinished last novel as well as several rare short stories (among them "Louisa, Please Come Home") and three speeches given by Jackson in her writing seminars.

With information for Jackson's debut novel, The Road Through the Wall (1948), he described Jackson as someone who practiced witchcraft. Hyman believed this image of Jackson would help promote sales of novels and film rights. She later wrote about witchcraft accusations in her book for young readers, The Witchcraft of Salem Village (1956). ^[5]

Her other novels include Hangsaman (1951), The Bird's Nest (1954), The Sundial (1958) and The Haunting of Hill House (1959), regarded by many, including Stephen King, as one of the important horror novels of the 20th Century. This contemporary updating of the classic ghost story has a vivid and powerful opening paragraph:

No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.

Adaptations

Eleanor Parker in Hugo Haas' Lizzie (1957), adapted from Shirley Jackson's The Bird's Nest (1954).

In addition to radio, TV and theater adaptations, "The Lottery" has been filmed three times, most notably in 1969 as an acclaimed short film which director Larry Yust made for an Encyclopædia Britannica educational film series. The Academic Film Archive cited Yust's short "as one of the two bestselling educational films ever".^[6]

• Eleanor Parker starred in Hugo Haas' Lizzie (1957), based on The Bird's Nest, with a cast that included Richard Boone, Joan Blondell, Marion Ross and Johnny Mathis.
• The Haunting of Hill House was adapted to film in 1963 with Julie Harris and Claire Bloom. Liam Neeson, Lili Taylor and Catherine Zeta-Jones headed the cast of a 1999 remake.
• Jackson's 1962 novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle was adapted for the stage by Hugh Wheeler in the mid-1960s. Directed by Garson Kanin and starring Shirley Knight, it opened on Broadway October 19, 1966. The David Merrick production closed after only nine performances at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, but Wheeler's play continues to be staged by regional theater companies.
• Joanne Woodward directed Come Along with Me (1982), adapted from Jackson's unfinished novel, with a cast headed by Estelle Parsons and Sylvia Sidney.

Magazines

In 1938, while she was studying at Syracuse, her first published story, "Janice," appeared, and the stories that followed were published in Collier's, Good Housekeeping, Harper's, Mademoiselle, The New Republic, The New Yorker, Woman's Day, Woman's Home Companion and other publications.

In 1996, a crate of unpublished stories was found in the barn behind Jackson's house. The best of those stories, along with previously uncollected stories from various magazines, were published in the 1996 collection, Just an Ordinary Day. The title was taken from one of her stories for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, "One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts." Jackson's papers are available in the Library of Congress.

Awards

• 1960 National Book Award nomination: The Haunting of Hill House
• 1962 One of Time's "Ten Best Novels" of 1962: We Have Always Lived in the Castle
• 1966 Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Short Story: "The Possibility of Evil" (The Saturday Evening Post, December 18, 1965)

Vermont vanishing

Shirley Jackson's novel eddie (1951) and her short-story "The Missing Girl" (from "Just an Ordinary Day", the 1995 collection of previously unpublished and/or uncollected short-stories) both contain certain elements similar to the mysterious real-life December 1, 1946, disappearance of 18-year-old Bennington College, Vermont, sophomore Paula Jean Welden, of Stamford, Connecticut. This event, which remains unsolved to this day, took place in the wooded wilderness of the Glastenbury Mountain near Bennington in southern Vermont, where Shirley Jackson and her husband were living at the time. The fictional college depicted in Hangsaman is based in part on Jackson's experiences at Bennington College, as indicated by Jackson's papers in the Library of Congress.^[7] Jackson's short story. ^[8]Donna Tartt's novel The Secret History also has a strong parallel with the Welden case.

Literary studies

Judy Oppenheimer covers Shirley Jackson's life and career in Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson (Putnam, 1988). S. T. Joshi's The Modern Weird Tale (2001) offers a critical essay on Jackson's work.

Darryl Hattenhauer provides a comprehensive survey of all of Jackson's fiction in Shirley Jackson's American Gothic (State University of New York Press, 2003). Bernice Murphy's recent "Shirley Jackson: Essays on the Literary Legacy" (McFarland, 2005) is a collection commentaries on Jackson's work.

According to the post-feminist critic Elaine Showalter, Jackson's work is the single most important mid-20th century body of literary output yet to be critically revalorized in the present day. In a March 4, 2009 podcast distributed by the renowned business publisher "The Economist," Showalter also revealed Joyce Carol Oates is currently editing a collection of Jackson's work to be published in the highly-esteemed Library of America series.

Shirley Jackson Awards

The first annual Shirley Jackson Awards for "outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror and the dark fantastic" were presented July 20, 2008 at the Readercon Conference on Imaginative Literature in Burlington, Massachusetts. The jurors were John Langan, Sarah Langan, Paul G. Tremblay and F. Brett Cox. The winners were:

• Novel: Generation Loss by Elizabeth Hand
• Novella: "Vacancy" by Lucius Shepard
• Novelette: "The Janus Tree" by Glen Hirshberg
• Short Story: "The Monsters of Heaven" by Nathan Ballingrud
• Collection: The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by Laird Barron
• Anthology: Inferno edited by Ellen Datlow^[9][10]

Bibliography

Novels The Road Through the Wall (1948) Hangsaman (1951) The Bird's Nest (1954) The Sundial (1958) The Haunting of Hill House (1959) We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962) Memoirs Life Among the Savages (1953) Raising Demons (1957) Story collections The Lottery and Other Stories (Farrar, Straus, 1949) The Magic of Shirley Jackson (Farrar, Straus, 1966) Come Along with Me (Viking, 1968) Just an Ordinary Day (Bantam, 1995) Short stories "About Two Nice People," Ladies Home Journal, July 1951. "Account Closed," Good Housekeeping, April 1950. "After You, My Dear Alphonse." New Yorker, Jan 1943. "Afternoon in Linen." New Yorker, Sept 4, 1943. "All the Girls Were Dancing," Collier’s, Nov 11, 1950. "All She Said Was Yes," Vogue, Nov 1, 1962. "Alone in a Den of Cubs," Woman’s Day, Dec 1953. "Aunt Gertrude," Harper’s, April 1954. "The Bakery." Peacock Alley, Nov 1944. "Birthday Party." Vogue, 1 Jan 1963. "The Box." Woman’s Home Companion, Nov 1952. "Bulletin," Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Mar 1954. "Call Me Ishmael." Spectre, Fall 1939 v1 n1. "A Cauliflower in Her Hair." Mademoiselle, Dec 1944. "Charles," Mademoiselle, July 1948. "The Clothespin Dolls." Woman’s Day, Mar 1953. "Colloquy." New Yorker, Aug 5, 1944. "Come Dance with Me in Ireland." New Yorker, May 15, 1943. "Concerning…Tomorrow." Syracusan, Mar 1939 v4 n6. "The Daemon Lover ['The Phantom Lover']," Woman's Home Companion, Feb 1949. "Daughter, Come Home." Charm, May 1944. "Day of Glory." Woman’s Day, Feb 1953. "Don’t Tell Daddy." Woman’s Home Companion, Feb 1954. "Every Boy Should Learn to Play the Trumpet." Woman’s Home Companion, Oct 1956. "Family Magician." Woman’s Home Companion, Sept 1949. "A Fine Old Firm." New Yorker, Mar 4, 1944. "The First Car is the Hardest." Harper’s, Feb 1952. "The Friends." Charm, Nov 1953. "The Gift." Charm, Dec 1944. "A Great Voice Stilled," Playboy, Mar 1960. "Had We but World Enough." Spectre, Spring 1940 v1 n3. "Happy Birthday to Baby." Charm, Nov 1952. "Home." Ladies Home Journal, Aug 1965. "The Homecoming." Charm, April 1945. "The House." Woman’s Day, May 1952. ”An International Incident.” New Yorker, Sept 12, 1943. "The Island." New Mexico Quarterly Review, 1950 v3. ”It Isn’t the Money.” New Yorker, Aug 25, 1945. "It’s Only a Game." Harper’s, May 1956.

"Journey with a Lady." Harper’s, July 1952. "Liaison a la Cockroach." Syracusan, April 1939 v4 n7. "Little Dog Lost." Charm, Oct 1943. "A Little Magic." Woman’s Home Companion, Jan 1956. "Little Old Lady." Mademoiselle, Sept 1944. "The Lottery." New Yorker, June 26, 1948. "Louisa, Please." Ladies’ Home Journal, May 1960. "The Lovely Night." Collier’s, 8 April 1950. "Lucky to Get Away." Woman’s Day, Aug 1953. "Men with Their Big Shoes," Yale Review, Mar 1947 "The Missing Girl," Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Dec 1957. "Monday Morning." Woman’s Home Companion, Nov 1951. "The Most Wonderful Thing." Good Housekeeping, June 1952. "Mother is a Fortune Hunter." Woman’s Home Companion, May 1954. "Mrs. Melville Makes a Purchase." Charm, Oct 1951. "My Friend." Syracusan, Dec 1938 v4 n4. "My Life in Cats." Spectre, Summer 1940 v1 n4. "My Life with R.H. Macy." New Republic, 22 Dec 1941. "My Son and the Bully." Good Housekeeping, Oct 1949. "Nice Day for a Baby." Woman’s Home Companion, July 1952. "Night We All Had Grippe." Harper’s, Jan 1952. "Nothing to Worry About." Charm, July 1953. "The Omen," Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Mar 1958. "On the House." New Yorker, Oct 30, 1943. "One Last Chance to Call." McCall’s, April 1956. "One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts," Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Jan 1955. "The Order of Charlotte’s Going." Charm, July 1954. "Pillar of Salt" Mademoiselle, Oct 1948. "The Possibility of Evil," The Saturday Evening Post, Dec 18, 1965. "Queen of the May." McCall’s, April 1955. "The Renegade," Harper's, Nov 1949. "Root of Evil." Fantastic, March-April 1953. "The Second Mrs. Ellenoy." Reader’s Digest, July 1953. "Seven Types of Ambiguity," Story, 1943. "Shopping Trip." Woman’s Home Companion, June 1953. "The Sneaker Crisis." Woman’s Day, Oct. 1956. "So Late on Sunday Morning." Woman’s Home Companion, Sept 1953. "The Strangers." Collier’s 10 May 1952. "Strangers in Town." Saturday Evening Post, 30 May 1959. "The Summer People," Charm, 1950. "The Third Baby’s the Easiest." Harper’s, May 1949. "The Tooth." The Hudson Review, 1949 v1 n4. "Trial by Combat." New Yorker, Dec 16, 1944. "The Villager," The American Mercury, Aug 1944. "Visions of Sugarplums." Woman’s Home Companion, Dec 1952. "When Things Get Dark." New Yorker, Dec 30, 1944. "Whistler’s Grandmother." New Yorker, May 5, 1945. "The Wishing Dime." Good Housekeeping, Sept 1949. "Worldly Goods." Woman’s Day, May 1953. "Y and I." Syracusan, Oct 1938 v4 n2. "Y and I and the Ouija Board." Suyracusan, Nov 1938 v4 n3. "The Witch." 1949. Children's works The Witchcraft of Salem Village (1956) The Bad Children (1959) Nine Magic Wishes (1963) Famous Sally (1966)

Sources

• King, Stephen. Danse Macabre. Everest House, 1981.
• Kosenko, Peter. "A Reading of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery". New Orleans Review, vol. 12, no. 1 (Spring 1985), pp. 27-32.
• Murphy, Bernice. Shirley Jackson: Essays on the Literary Legacy.
• Oppenheimer, Judy. Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson. New York: Putnam, 1988.
• Shapiro, Laura. Something from the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950s America.
• Shirley Jackson Papers. Library of Congress, Washington DC.

References

1. ^ Murphy, Bernice (2004-08-31). "Shirley Jackson (1916-1965)". The Literary Encyclopedia. http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2326. Retrieved 2006-05-09. 
2. ^ Friedman, Lenemaja. "Social Evil: The Lottery," Shirley Jackson. Twayne Publishers, 1975.
3. ^ Jackson, Shirley (June 1966). Stanley Edgar Hyman. ed (in English). The Magic of Shirley Jackson. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux. ISBN 0374651000. http://www.courses.vcu.edu/ENG-jkh/PW/The%20Magic%20of%20Shirley%20Jackson.htm. Retrieved 2009-03-28. 
4. ^ Joshi, S.T. The Modern Weird Tale. McFarland, 2001.
5. ^ Hattenhauer, Darryl. Shirley Jackson's American Gothic. (State University of New York Press, 2003).
6. ^ Potrzebie: Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"
7. ^ Shirley Jackson Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
8. ^ Powers, Tim. "Remember Paula Welden? 30 Years Ago," Bennington Banner, December 1, 1976.
9. ^ Shirley Jackson Awards
10. ^ F. Brett Cox

Further reading

• "The Witch" by Shirley Jackson (full text)

Listen to

• "The Lottery": NBC Short Story, NBC radio, 1951
• The Daemon Lover and the Lottery: As Read by Shirley Jackson, (Folkways Records, 1960)

External links

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Shirley Jackson

• The Haunted World of Shirley Jackson
• "Monstrous Acts and Little Murders" by Jonathan Lethem
• "Shirley Jackson: 'Delight in What I Fear'" by Paula Guran
• "Shirley Jackson: House and Guardians" by Kyla Ward
• "The Tall Man in the Blue Suit: Witchcraft, Folklore, and Reality in Shirley Jackson's The Lottery, or the Adventures of James Harris," book-length study by Håvard Nørjordet
• Works of Shirley Jackson
• Review of Hugo Haas' Lizzie (1957)
• Britannica Online: Shirley Jackson

Persondata
NAME	Jackson, Shirley
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Author, Novelist
DATE OF BIRTH	1916-12-14
PLACE OF BIRTH	San Francisco, California, United States
DATE OF DEATH	1965-8-8
PLACE OF DEATH	North Bennington, Vermont, United States

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