Shirley Jackson's Legacy

Shirley Jackson, perhaps the greatest writer of the horror/gothic fiction genre in 20th-century America, lived and worked for most of her renowned literary career, from 1945 until her untimely death in 1965, in North Bennington. She rose to national prominence in 1948 with the publication of her chilling short story "The Lottery,” about which she explained, "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 eldest son, Laurence Hyman, has recently gifted a large collection of Jackson's writings and personal effects to Bennington Museum. This presentation features Jamie Franklin, Bennington Museum's Director of Collections and Exhibitions, and Laurence Hyman, in a conversation about Jackson's literary legacy, focusing on items from the collection and her local ties.
This program was presented by the Bennington Historical Society on October 15, 2023 at Bennington Museum.