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claire_fuller_writer 's review for:
The Letters of Shirley Jackson
by Shirley Jackson
This is a must read for any Shirley Jackson fans, and for anyone interested in writers and writing. It’s a whopper at 600 pages, and covers her letters from the age of 21 until she died in 1965, age 48.
What is so wonderful to see, although I suppose not that surprising is that she writes about different things to different people. We hear about how well her children are doing when she writes to her parents, about needing more money from her publishers when she writes to her literary agent, and perhaps with more truth about her life when she writes to a fan who becomes a friend. Then, suddenly there is a letter to her husband, Stanley which was probably never sent. The shock of this letter is tremendous.
I also loved getting snippets about how her writing was going, especially those about my favourite Jackson novel, We have Always Lived in the Castle.
There was a nice five degrees of separation moment for me when Jackson’s son, Barry meets the son of the English sculptor, Anthony Caro, when Caro was teaching at Bennington where Stanley taught. Barry goes to stay with them in England. Many years later, when I was studying sculpture at Winchester School of art, I met Caro when he came and gave a guest lecture.
What is so wonderful to see, although I suppose not that surprising is that she writes about different things to different people. We hear about how well her children are doing when she writes to her parents, about needing more money from her publishers when she writes to her literary agent, and perhaps with more truth about her life when she writes to a fan who becomes a friend. Then, suddenly there is a letter to her husband, Stanley which was probably never sent. The shock of this letter is tremendous.
I also loved getting snippets about how her writing was going, especially those about my favourite Jackson novel, We have Always Lived in the Castle.
There was a nice five degrees of separation moment for me when Jackson’s son, Barry meets the son of the English sculptor, Anthony Caro, when Caro was teaching at Bennington where Stanley taught. Barry goes to stay with them in England. Many years later, when I was studying sculpture at Winchester School of art, I met Caro when he came and gave a guest lecture.