Shirley Jackson

Shirley Jackson
Shirley Jackson was born on December 14, 1919 to an affluent family in San Francisco, California. As a child, and later as an adult, she rebelled against the restrictions that her parents and society placed on her. These restrictions were due to the fact that she was female and in a high economic class. As a child, Shirley was interested in sports and literature. Shortly before attending high school, she began writing poetry and short stories. Jackson was plain and overweight, a constant embarrassment to her very socially conscious mother. She embarrassed her Protestant family even more when she married Stanley Edgar Hyman, who was Jewish. After Shirley and Stanley got married, they moved to North Bennington, Vermont where Stanley taught English at a college and Shirley worked on her writings, while raising her four children. Jackson chose to spend her free time writing, particularly in journals. Because Jackson based her life on rebellion, she wrote to su...