Shirley Jackson: Critism

Critisism of Shirley Jackson's Work

June 28, 1948 was the day that The New Yorker published Shirley Jackson's story "The Morning of June 28, 1948." The story was not liked very much by the public, nor her very own parents. The New Yorker received many letters commenting on the story, asking why Shirley would write a story like this one and the people wanted to know what the story was really about. This assured Jackson over and over again that if this were the only story she had ever written or published there would be people to never forget her name. Shirley believed this was just another story. She found that writing the story went quickly and easily from beginning to end. She believed the story to be serious, strait forward and was pleased with the ease in which it was written. Her agent did not care too much for the story either, yet her job was to sell it, not to like it. One of Shirley's most terrifying aspects of publishing stories and books was the realization that they are going to be read, and read by strangers. Shirley was quite upset with the letters and thought that having the story published caused an ugly outcome for her and her career. Millions of people and her mother had taken a pronounced dislike towards her. The New Yorker never published any comment of any kind about the story in the magazine, but did issue one publicity release saying that the story received more mail than any other piece of fiction they had ever published. Years later the story was anthologized, dramatized, televised and even made into a ballet. Since then the general tone of the early letters, in which Jackson once received, had finally changed. People were sending letters that were polite and this showed Shirley that people had begun to take a liking to her once ridiculed story.

Biography Critisism Review Works