Shirley Jackson

by firecracker

Posted to WritersAndGenres on 2003-12-14 06:29:00

Today is the birthday of Shirley Jackson, short story writer, novelist and author of “The Lottery”. According to the Writer’s Almanac, a daily digest of literary tidbits put out by Minnesota Public Radio:

One day, she sat down and wrote a story about a small New England town where one resident is ritually chosen by lottery each year to be stoned to death. She finished the story in two hours and sent it off to The New Yorker, where it was published as “The Lottery” in 1948. The story generated more reader response than any story ever published by The New Yorker up to that point. Hundreds of readers wrote to the magazine, demanding to know what the story meant, or asking to cancel their subscriptions because they were so disturbed.

Have you read “The Lottery”? What are your thoughts on this story and the original reaction? Have you ever read a story or piece that disturbed you in a similar way?

-fc