With Halloween so close, I figured I would pick a scary classic: Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House. Shirley Jackson is best known for her creepy, unforgettable short story, “The Lottery.” All of Shirley Jackson’s works have at their core the perversion of the normal into something quite sinister. The Haunting of Hill House takes the most domestic location of all, a home, and turns it into a Disneyland of horror. Two movies have been made of The Haunting of Hill House, the first 1963 version with Julie Harris, Richard Johnson, Russ Tamblyn, and Claire Bloom. The 1999 version featured Liam Neeson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Owen Wilson and Lili Taylor. But the novel tops both movies. It will put you in the Halloween spirit.
Both my favorite Halloween book and movie.
Why isn’t Shirley Jackson’s work better known, Patti? It’s a mystery to me…
Well Happy Halloween to you!
I wish I’d thought to do a Halloween / scary book, I’d have done HARVEST HOME by Thomas Tyron, one I read — and liked — back in 1973. I still may, a week late.
I like Thomas Tyron’s work, Rick. HARVEST HOME is truly a spooky book.
A great book, my favorite haunted-house book of all time. The first movie version is a classic. The less said about the more recent one, the better.
You’re right about the 1999 movie version of THE HAUNTING, Bill. What a disappointment!
Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal had quite a complimentary article about Jackson and HILL HOUSE. Her life was not an altogether happy one, and she died fairly young.
I’ll have to look up that WSJ article. You can tell from Jackson’s stories and novels that her life wasn’t a bed of roses, Drongo.
What Bill said goes for me too. When I read the book and saw the first movie I didn’t see how they could have cast anyone more perfect than Julie Harris. The remake, not so good.
Drongo is right, her life was difficult. I’ve read a lot about her and most of her stories.
My favorites among her books (other than this one) are the autobiographical ones about raising her four children (and her husband), Life Among the Savages and Raising Demons, which would make great Forgotten Books entries too.
Great minds think alike, Jeff. I have LIFE AMONG THE SAVAGES and RAISING DEMONS on my stack for future FORGOTTEN BOOKS.
FYI, I told Patti I’d do that next week, George.
Some parts of the book still remain with me after many many years, including the story of bad boy “Charles” in the kindergarten and her attempts to learn to drive.
Great stuff.
I’ll move those books off my stack then, Jeff. Looking forward to seeing you as part of the FORGOTTEN BOOKS cadre.
Oh, and I could have done THE OTHER by Tom Tryon. That scared me to death.
I remember reading a bio of Jackson called PRIVATE DEMONS. Has anyone done WE HAVE ALWAYS LIVED IN A CASTLE. I think so. Have to check. Actually she comes up on here fairly often among we of a certain age.
You’re right about THE OTHER by Thomas Tryon, Patti. Very scary! What ever happened to him?
Tryon died of stomach cancer in 1991.
How sad about Thomas Tyron, Drongo!
I don’t remember the name of the short story, but the one where a supposedly harmless older lady who cultivated roses was sending anonymous letters to her neighbors and setting everyone against each other was, in my mind, one of Jackson’s best. It’s commonplace to talk about the banality of evil, but Jackson really captured it in that short story.
I think the story you’re referring to is “The Possibility of Evil,” Deb. Shirley Jackson was a master of turning the mundane into something macabre.
I believe, Deb, that you refer to “One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts”…basically a humorous story (of the sly sort she preferred to do)…which Jackson couldn’t place with THE NEW YORKER or her other regular markets, so it was THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION’s gain (January 1955 issue, much anthologized since, and finally collected in the posthumous SJ collection JUST AN ORDINARY DAY, which rather clumsily takes its title from the story).
Now I’ll have to look up “Just an Ordinary Day,” Todd. I thought Deb might be referring to “The Possibility of Evil,” but you might be right.
I don’t remember the story I’m thinking about as being very humorous, Todd. The woman was sending letters to people telling them their children were retarded and their daughters were sexually active (in a time when such a thing was more shocking than it would be today), etc. At the end, her “poison pen” activities are discovered and she’s about to look out and see what the people have done to her roses. Does that jibe with what happens in “One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts”?
Nope, that’s not “Day”…and now I have to think of which one that is, because that one’s distantly familiar, too…other, somewhat similar stories, ranging from Richard Matheson’s “The Distributor” to Jerome Bixby’s “Trace” run through the mind…
Yes, it is “The Possibility of Evil,” Deb and Todd. Here’s the Wiki take: The Possibility of Evil” is a 1965 short story by Shirley Jackson. Published on December 18, 1965 in the Saturday Evening Post,[1] a few months after her death, it won the 1966 Edgar Allan Poe Award for best mystery short story.[2] It has since been reprinted in the 1996 collection Just an Ordinary Day.[3]
While not as well-known or read as her earlier classic, “The Lottery”, it has become more appreciated as Jackson’s talent and influence have become better appreciated outside the horror community since her death. It, too, is being assigned in high school English classes. 1966 Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best Short Story: “The Possibility of Evil”.
The possibility of evil is about an old lady named Miss. Strangeworth, who may be senile in a way. She treasures her roses, passed down from her grandmother, and those roses are her pride. In order to keep a town, which she thinks is hers, she tries to keep the town from becoming evil by sending letters with messages based on gossip to the townspeople about events in their lives that may be troubling, and creating suspicions among the people of the town. She does so secretly, and has done this for a year, but is foiled when she drops a letter directed to the Crane family about their baby. A boy who finds the letter, by the name of Harris, tries to call out to Miss Strangeworth, but being old, can not hear him, so Harris hand delivers the mail to the Crane family. The day after, Miss Strangeworth finds the letter’s envelope returned back to her (she had not put a return address) Written the same mysterious way, she had written hers. With a message inside, simply suggesting that she look at what used to be her rose garden.
Yes–that’s it exactly! Thanks so much. It’s a great short story.
I’m glad my memory didn’t fail me, Deb. You’re right: “The Possibility of Evil” is a terrific short story that stays in your mind long after you finish reading it.
Just not the title! I must’ve read it in either JUST or some anthology over the decades.
Tryon, of course, can also be fondly remembered for his rather unrewarding acting career, that at least allowed him to do well enough in the modest, amusing I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE.
Todd, you are amazing! Now I’ll have to track down I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE!
I still remember those creepy twins in the movie version of Tryon’s THE OTHER.
And of course, geezers will remember him as Texas John Slaughter (“made ’em do what they oughta”) from Disney.
Yeah, Jeff, I remember: “Texas John Slaughter made ’em do what they oughta, and if they didn’t, they died.” Pretty strong stuff from Disney!
I think I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE is much more artfully done than the average 50’s sf flick, and more serious and thoughtful than it’s pulpy title.
George, did you imagine Shirley Jackson would garner so many comments?