She had never driven far alone before. The notion of dividing her lovely journey into miles and hours was silly; she saw it [...] as a passage of moments, each one new, carrying her along with them, taking her down a path of incredible novelty to a new place. The journey itself was her positive action, her destination vague, perhaps nonexistent. [...] Or she might never leave the road at all, but just hurry on and on until the wheels of the car were worn to nothing and she had come to the end of the world.

Born Shirley Hardie Jackson in San Francisco California to Leslie and Geraldine Jackson Shirley and her family lived in the community of Burlingame California an affluent middle-class suburb that would feature in Shirley's first novel The Road Through the Wall (1948). In addition to the aforementioned Hangsaman her other novels include The Bird's Nest (1954) and The Sundial (1958). Hill House not sane stood by itself against its hills holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more.

She has influenced such writers as Neil Gaiman Stephen King Nigel Kneale and Richard Matheson. Jackson may even have taken pleasure in the subversive impact of her work as evidenced by Hyman's statement that Shirley Jackson "was always proud that the Union of South Africa banned 'The Lottery' and Shirley Jackson felt that they at least understood the story". In her critical biography of Jackson Lenemaja Friedman notes that when "The Lottery" was publiShirley Jacksond in the June 26 1948 issue of The New Yorker it received a response that "no New Yorker story had ever received".