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Author: Shirley Jackson
Published: 1949
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Company, New York
First edition/early impression (‘1949’ on title page; no mention of reprints oncopyright page; no ‘fs’ on copyright page; grey boards; black lettering tospine; yellow topstain); US; hardback with second state dust wrapper (notprice-clipped, showing $3.50; address on back is 101 Fifth Avenue); covered inclear, removable protective wrapper
Shirley Jackson’s first published collection of short stories; and, indeed,the only collection of her stories to appear during her lifetime. It was hersecond published work, preceded in the previous year, 1948, by her debut novel TheRoad Through the Wall.
Across 25 stories and an epilogue, the book explores the dark undercurrentsof everyday American life, tracking themes of psychological isolation,misogyny, conformity, and latent societal cruelty.
The most famous of the stories contained in this collection is the titlestory, The Lottery, a foundational masterpiece of dystopian fiction andpsychological horror, which first appeared in the 26th June 1948 issue of TheNew Yorker. Publication of the story there sparked the most severe negativepublic reaction in The New Yorker’s history, with complainants labellingthe story as, amongst other things, \"perverted,\" \"vicious,\"and \"gratuitously cruel”.
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