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Author Guide

Shirley Jackson Books in Order

Complete reading list for one of the greatest American authors of the 20th century — from The Haunting of Hill House to We Have Always Lived in the Castle.

About

Shirley Jackson (1916–1965) was an American author who is now considered one of the most significant writers of the 20th century. In her own lifetime she was both celebrated and dismissed — celebrated for her craft, dismissed for writing horror when horror was not considered serious. She was a meticulous stylist and a master of psychological unease: the sense that something is wrong before anything demonstrably is. The Haunting of Hill House (1959) has never been out of print and is widely regarded as the greatest American haunted house novel. We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962) was shortlisted for the inaugural World Fantasy Award when it was given retroactively. Her short story The Lottery (1948), published in The New Yorker, generated more letters than any story the magazine had previously printed — most of them furious. Stephen King called her "one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century."

Where to start: The Haunting of Hill House for psychological gothic horror. We Have Always Lived in the Castle for something stranger and more intimate. Both are short — read them both.

All Shirley Jackson Books

Listed in publication order.

1
The Road Through the Wall cover
The Road Through the Wall
1948
Jackson's debut novel. A California suburban street in the 1930s, where propriety conceals cruelty. Less well-known than her later work.
Buy
2
Hangsaman cover
Hangsaman
1951
A college girl's disintegrating sense of reality. Possibly based on a real campus disappearance. Deeply strange and deeply good.
Buy
3
The Bird's Nest cover
The Bird's Nest
1954
A woman with multiple personalities — Jackson's most experimental novel.
Buy
4
The Haunting of Hill House cover
The Haunting of Hill House
1959
Essential
Four people investigate a notoriously haunted house. The definitive American haunted house novel. Adapted twice for film and once for Netflix.
Buy
5
We Have Always Lived in the Castle cover
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
1962
Masterpiece
Two sisters live in isolation in their family home. Told by Merricat, one of the most distinctive narrators in American fiction.
Buy
6
The Lottery and Other Stories cover
The Lottery and Other Stories
1949
The Lottery
Her first collection, including the legendary title story — the most controversial short story published in The New Yorker.
Buy

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best Shirley Jackson book?
The Haunting of Hill House for its sustained, controlled, atmospheric dread. We Have Always Lived in the Castle for its more intimate and equally disturbing portraiture. Both are short — read them both.
Is The Lottery a novel or a short story?
A short story, first published in The New Yorker in 1948. It is collected in The Lottery and Other Stories. It is one of the most anthologized short stories in American literature.
Did Shirley Jackson write horror?
She resisted the label but yes. She wrote psychological horror — the kind that builds through atmosphere and implication rather than explicit violence. Her work is more interested in social horror and the horror of female powerlessness than in supernatural mechanics.

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