Shirley Jackson (1919–65) wrote several books, including Hangsaman, Life Among the Savages, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. For the last twenty years of her life, she lived in North Bennington, Vermont. One of the most terrifying stories of the twentieth century, “The Lottery” created a sensation when it was first published in The New Yorker. “Powerful and haunting” and “nights of unrest” were typical reader responses. Widely anthologized, “The Lottery” is today considered a classic work of short fiction.This collection, the only one to appear during Shirley Jackson’s lifetime, combines “The Lottery” with twenty-four equally unusual or unsettling tales. Taken together, these writings demonstrate Jackson’s remarkable and commanding range—from the commonplace to the chilling, from the hilarious to the truly horrible—as a modern storyteller.This FSG Classics edition also features a new introduction to Jackson’s work by A. M. Homes.

“Jackson is unparalleled as a leader in the field of beautifully written, quiet, cumulative shudders.”—Dorothy Parker, Esquire

“[These] stories remind one of the elemental terrors of childhood.”—James Hilton, New York Herald Tribune

“In her art, as in her life, Shirley Jackson was an absolute original. She listened to her own voice, kept her own counsel, isolated herself from all intellectual and literary currents… She was unique.”—Newsweek