Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life (78 page)

Read Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life Online

Authors: Ruth Franklin

Tags: #Literary, #Women, #Biography & Autobiography

22

“one of the prettiest girls”
: Undated newspaper clipping, courtesy Laurence Jackson Hyman.

22

In an unpublished story
: SJ-LOC, Box 15.

23

“The pregnancy”
: Interview with Jai Holly, July 16, 2015.

23

“Seeing her”
: Louise Albert to SJ, October 18, 1945, SJ-LOC, Box 43, folder 1.

23

“She was a lady”
: Interview with Laurence Jackson Hyman, February 17, 2013.

24

“I don’t think”
: Interview with Barry Hyman, July 22, 2013.

24

“Geraldine wanted”
: Interview with Jai Holly, July 16, 2015.

25

The unofficial motto
: Joanne Garrison,
Living in Burlingame Is a Special Privilege: Burlingame Centennial, 1908–2008
(Burlingame: Burlingame Historical Society, 2007), vii.

25

“far enough away”
: “Dorothy and My Grandmother and the Sailors,” LOA, 108–13.

26

“like something out of England”
: Garrison,
Living in Burlingame
, 6.

26

“perhaps the most exclusive hometown”
: Ibid., 17.

27

“new, modern, spick and span”
: Elbert Hubbard,
A Little Journey in San Mateo County
(East Aurora, N.Y.: Roycroft Shop, 1915), 19, quoted in ibid., 43.

27

“You are a stranger”
: Garrison,
Living in Burlingame
, 58.

27

a town modeled on Burlingame
: SJ’s brother noted the similarities when the book came out. “I understand that I’m not to be surprised if I find myself in it. . . . I certainly recognize the setting and I’m sure most of the characters will seem somewhat familiar.” Barry Jackson to SJ, April 1, 1948, SJ-LOC, Box 2.

29

In her notes
: SJ-LOC, Box 27.

29

“The weather falls”
:
RTW
, 1.

30

the only Jewish child
: It is unlikely that there were any Jews in Burlingame at the time. The town’s first synagogue was established in 1955.

30

“the first book”
: Oppenheimer,
Private Demons
, 125.

30

“a wilful child”
: GJ to SJ, n.d. [September 1962].

30

“gawking at nothing”
:
CAWM
, 19.

31

her little brother
: Interview with Jai Holly, July 22, 2013.

31

“died of Christian Science”
: Ibid.

31

“one of my grandmother’s”
: “Hex Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar,”
LMTY
, 199.

32

“Writing used to be”
: “Autobiographical Musing,”
LMTY
, 191.

33

the lock on the desk broken
: Keys, which often give a false sense of security, are an important symbol in SJ’s work. In the story “Like Mother Used to Make,” having the key to another person’s apartment creates a sense of false ownership. In “Trial by Combat,” a woman whose privacy
is invaded in a rooming house learns that the same key can be used to open many doors; in
Hangsaman
, Natalie finds out the same thing about her dorm, to her horror. See also “Desk,” SJ-LOC, Box 19, for a description of the scene of invaded privacy.

33

“He was not”
: Interview with Jai Holly, July 22, 2013.

33

Her excitement
: Lenemaja Friedman,
Shirley Jackson
(New York: Twayne, 1975), 18.

33

“lonely wood”
: For “The Pine Tree” and other childhood poems, see SJ-LOC, Box 13.

34

“two for a nickel” . . . “unladylike”
: Draft of “The Clothespin Dolls,” SJ-LOC, Box 13.

34

“so careful” . . . “sanity”
: SJ-LOC, Box 42.

35

“worked overtime”
: SJ-LOC, Box 1.

35

“My mother told us”
: “Dorothy and My Grandmother and the Sailors,” LOA, 108–13.

35

“My mother used to be”
: SJ-LOC, Box 13.

36

“I do believe”
:
Raising Demons
, 125.

36

Hawthorne is said
: Malcolm Cowley, introduction to
The Portable Hawthorne
(New York: Viking, 1948), 6–7.

36

The earliest surviving diary
: Most of SJ’s diaries can be found in SJ-LOC, Box 1.

37

“write down just what”
: SJ-LOC, Box 1.

37

“A lady doesn’t”
: Interview with Sarah Hyman DeWitt, February 17, 2013.

37

“You have too many”
: GJ to SJ, n.d. [October 1962].

38

“Shirley—it would be very interesting”
: SJ-LOC, Box 1.

38

a tablet-size notepad
: SJ-LOC, Box 42.

38

“my girl-shy violinist”
: SJ-LOC, Box 42.

38

she kept both diaries simultaneously
: It’s possible that the datebook was intended as a decoy diary that SJ kept more accessible in case her mother went looking through her desk; finding the more innocent diary, GJ would have been less likely to probe further.

39

“Today I shall write”. . . “you don’t know it”
: SJ-LOC, Box 42.

39

“To my friend”
: SJ-LOC, Box 42.

40

she began a new diary
: SJ-LOC, Box 1.

40

She also started a five-year diary
: SJ-LOC, Box 1.

40

“horribly unhorrifying”
: SJ-LOC, Box 1.

40

“Wrote all evening”
: SJ-LOC, Box 1.

40

“I’ve been” . . . “yellow streak”
: SJ-LOC, Box 1.

41

“Somehow I think”
: “The Intoxicated,” LOA, 5–9.

41

“This is the last time”
: SJ-LOC, Box 1.

41

“Get thee behind me”
: SJ-LOC, Box 1.

41

undated story fragment
: SJ-LOC, Box 42.

2. THE DEMON IN THE MIND

43

“an odd corner”
:
Hangsaman
, 3.

43

“the sweet sharp sensation”
: Ibid., 10.

44

“ultimate publication”
: Ibid., 30.

44

“her bruised face”
:
Hangsaman
, 44.

44

“sticky touch”
: Judy Oppenheimer,
Private Demons
(New York: Putnam, 1988), 26–27.

44

“I feel like a package”
: SJ-LOC, Box 1.

45

“the ruination of what” . . . “Absolved of sin”
: SJ-LOC, Box 1.

46

“Golly, how I hate this town”
: SJ-LOC, Box 1.

46

“people were on”
: Telephone interview with Marion Strobel, August 12, 2015.

46

Alta Williams
: SJ-LOC, Box 14.

46

“the sick inadequate feeling”
: “Autobiographical Musing,”
LMTY
, 192.

47

“She used to wear”
: Oppenheimer,
Private Demons
, 34.

47

“didn’t give a darn”
: Interview with Strobel, August 12, 2015.

48

“We just don’t know”
: Ibid.

48

“odd duck”
: Ibid.

48

“i hate that school”
: “Scapegoat,” SJ-LOC, Box 18. The story’s title suggests that SJ wrote it after reading
The Golden Bough
during her sophomore year at Rochester, and its action mimics the rituals of imitative magic Frazer describes.

48

“My father doesn’t like”
: “Catharine,” SJ-LOC, Box 15. The draft in SJ’s archive is a revised version, hence the normal capitalization.

48

“fat, and badly dressed” . . . “proud of them”
: “The Lovely Night,” SJ-LOC, Box 17.

49

“When have I ever”
: Letter inserted in 1933 diary, SJ-LOC, Box 1.

49

“I was just wondering”
: Dorothy Ayling to SJ, December 16, 1933, SJ-LOC, Box 4.

49

“Sometimes after I read”
: Dorothy Ayling to SJ, April 14, 1934, SJ-LOC, Box 4.

49

“I beg your pardon”
: SJ-LOC, Box 42.

49

“Hereafter see that”
: SJ-LOC, Box 1.

50

“Irish has gone” . . . “To be happy”
: SJ-LOC, Box 1.

50

an ornamental mask
: SJ to GJ and LJ, June 16 [1958], SJ-LOC, Box 3.

50

“a study of the grotesque”
: Quoted in Pierre Louis DuChartre,
The Italian Comedy
, trans. Randolph T. Weaver (London: George G. Harrap and Co., 1929), 17. In college, SJ teased SEH that this was the only book she had ever read that he hadn’t.

51

“of acrobatics and unseemly noises”
: Ibid., 134.

51

“I can’t understand”
: SJ-LOC, Box 1.

51

“Knowing myself to desire”
: SJ-LOC, Box 1.

52

“Life is such a casual thing”
: SJ-LOC, Box 1.

52

“There’s a little covered wagon”
:
RTW
, 111.

53

The 1934 University of Rochester admissions application
: University of Rochester file on SJ, University of Rochester Archives, Rochester N.Y. Archivist Melissa Mead graciously provided me with this material.