Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life (93 page)

438
   
“She lived on Alka-Seltzer”
: Interview with Sarah Hyman DeWitt, February 21, 2013.

438
   
“sulfa pills” . . . “lots of garlic”
: SJ to GJ and LJ, n.d. [May 1961].

438
   
“every time” . . . “thank heaven”
: Ibid.

439
   
“a lot of silk shirts”
: SJ to GJ and LJ, n.d. [September 1961].

439
   
“didn’t want to take”
: Interview with Laura Nowak, July 24, 2013.

439
   
“terror of such things” . . . “didn’t belong”
: SJ to GJ and LJ, n.d. [September 1961].

439
   
“there’s nothing like”
: SJ to GJ and LJ, n.d. [November 1961].

439
   
“No one has the desire”
: CB to SJ, September 21, 1961, SJ-LOC, Box 6.

439
   
“half-seriously” . . . “novel about lesbians”
: SJ-LOC, Box 14.

440
   
an unsent letter to Howard Nemerov
: Judy Oppenheimer,
Private Demons
(New York: Putnam, 1988), 232.

440
   
the summer of 1960
: The letter must date prior to September 3, 1960, because in her letter to Jeanne Beatty of that date, SJ refers to the book’s heroine as Merricat. She was named Jenny in a previous version.

440
   
“now, can you help me?”
: Owing to what appears to be a slip of SJ’s typewriter, it is possible to misread “now” as “how.” This could be the reason that Oppenheimer identified the addressee as Nemerov. But looking at the page closely, it’s clear that SJ intended to type “now”; the first word on the second line (“every,” unambiguously) has the same typographical irregularity.

440
   
“completely disintegrated
castle
”
: Unless not otherwise specified, all the quotes in this section come from the letter.

442
   
“four people have read”
: SJ to Jeanne Beatty, January 3, 1962.

442
   
In draft after draft
: Laurence Jackson Hyman generously shared with me some of SJ’s drafts and notes for the novel.

443
   
longtime family mansion
: In an early version, the house was named Blackwood Farm.

443
   
“She was the most”
: LOA, 438.

444
   
“Merricat, said Connie”
: Ibid., 435.

444
   
“neatening the house” . . . “against the world”
: Ibid., 421.

445
   
“with a musical cry”
: Ibid., 520.

445
   
“We are going to be”
: Ibid., 549.

445
   
Jackson’s friends would later say
: Oppenheimer,
Private Demons
, 234.

445
   
“We knew” . . . “self-conscious”
: Interview with Jai Holly, July 16, 2015.

445
   
reenact the scene
: Oppenheimer gives this as SJ’s strategy for
Hill House
, but Sarah Hyman DeWitt confirms that the book in question was actually
Castle
(Interview, February 21, 2013).

446
   
“those people deserved”
: LOA, 455.

446
   
“give anything”
: Ibid., 441.

446
   
“Yiddish Hawthorne”
: SEH, “Isaac Singer’s Marvels,”
The New Leader
, December 21, 1964.

446
   
“European in spirit”
: Isaac Bashevis Singer to SJ, January 26, 1963 [misdated 1962], SJ-LOC, Box 11.

446
   
“there were newspapers”
: Draft of
Castle
courtesy of Laurence Jackson Hyman.

447
   
“My name is”
: LOA, 421.

448
   
“All our land”
: Ibid., 459.

448
   
Sarah regularly managed
: Interview with Sarah Hyman DeWitt, February 17, 2013.

448
   
“Jay-Hey-Day” . . . “Salli’s Eve”
: SJ to Jeanne Beatty, December 29, 1959.

448
   
“She was always”
: Telephone interview with Elizabeth Greene, October 16, 2013. Greene also kindly shared an unpublished story she wrote about a visit to the Hyman house.

449
   
“he says he is a professional critic”
: SJ to GJ and LJ, February 1962.

449
   
“It was fluid”
: Interview with Jai Holly, July 16, 2015.

449
   
“the heart of our house”
: LOA, 472.

449
   
“All the Blackwood women” . . . “among the others”
: Ibid., 460.

450
   
“My book goes along”
: SJ to CB, February 21, 1962.

450
   
“What a relief”
: Pat Covici to SJ, June 24, 1960, SJ-LOC, Box 11.

450
   
“Don’t you rush”
: Pat Covici to SJ, February 2, 1960, SJ-LOC, Box 11.

451
   
“death cap”
: Pat Covici to SJ, June 11, 1962, SJ-LOC, Box 11.

451
   
“not a word” . . . “this one is
really
batty”
: SJ to GJ and LJ, n.d. [late April/early May 1962].

451
   
“a solid, substantial personality”
: John Barkham, “A Tale of Two Sisters,”
Saturday Review
, October 13, 1962.

452
   
“Only one woman alive”
: Orville Prescott, “Books of the Times,”
The New York Times
, October 5, 1962.

452
   
“the most eerie”
: Paul Carroll, “Rare Magic in a Novel,” syndicated review, November 14, 1962.

452
   
The Sound and the Fury
: Leslie J. Stanford, untitled review,
Jamestown
(N.Y.)
Post-Journal
, March 30, 1963.

452
   
“shocker” . . . “any of them”
: Barkham, “A Tale of Two Sisters.”

452
   
“no ghosts” . . . “human mind”
: Beatrice Washburn, “Shirley Jackson Creates Another ‘Spine Chiller,’ ”
Miami Herald
, undated clipping.

452
   
“one to read”
: “Hermitage,”
Boston Herald
, September 23, 1962.

452
   
“elegant distinction of style”
: Gilbert Highet, “We Have Always Lived in the Castle,” Book of the Month Club News, December 1962.

452
   
“a demon-touched angel”
: John Hutchens, “Shirley Jackson Leads Us Again to Haunted House,”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, November 11, 1962.

452
   
“Shirley Jackson looks”
: Max Steele, “ ‘I Like the Death Cup Mushroom,’ ”
New York Herald Tribune
, September 23, 1962.

452
   
“fanciful realism” . . . “apparent simplicity”
: KB, “Imaginary Lines,”
The New Leader
, December 10, 1962.

452
   
“manages the ironic miracle”
: “Nightshade Must Fall,”
Time
, September 21, 1962.

453
   
“camping on the brink” . . . “space”
: Guy Davenport, “The Dust Witch, the Red October Moon,”
National Review
, December 31, 1962.

453
   
“an alternative”
: Chab Hassan, “Three Hermits on a Hill,”
The New York Times Book Review
, September 23, 1962.

453
   
“This novel brings back”
: Dorothy Parker, “We Have Always Lived in the Castle,”
Esquire
, December 1962.

453
   
close to 30,000 copies
: Pat Covici to SJ, November 26, 1962, SJ-LOC, Box 11.

453
   
“Why oh why”
: GJ to SJ, September 1962, SJ-LOC, Box 2.

454
   
“you and I seem to think”
: CB to SJ, January 13, 1960, SJ-LOC, Box 5.

455
   
“that dreadful magazine”
: GJ to SJ, June 1960.

455
   
“i received”
: SJ to GJ, unsent letter, n.d. [c. September 1962], SJ-LOC, Box 3.

456
   
“with a refrigerator” . . . “simply fantastic”
: SJ to GJ and LJ, September 1962.

456
   
“I just remembered”
: GJ to SJ, October 1962.

17. WRITING IS THE WAY OUT

458
   
“with a spot of anxiety thrown in”
: SJ to GJ and LJ, n.d. [July 1962], SJ-LOC, Box 3.

459
   
“Laurie faces life” . . . “arrange for it”
: SJ to GJ and LJ, n.d. [May 1962].

459
   
“make him grow up fast”
: GJ to SJ, n.d. [June 1962], SJ-LOC, Box 2.

460
   
“all the women wearing flowered hats”
: SJ to GJ and LJ, n.d. [July 1962].

460
   
“wild with joy”
: SJ to Libbie Burke, September 5, 1962, KB-PSU.

460
   
“always very glad”
: SJ to GJ and LJ, n.d. [November 1962].

460
   
“She’d come over to our house”
: Interview with Laurence Jackson Hyman, February 16, 2013.

461
   
As her counselor, Stanley took
: SEH-LOC, Box 10.

461
   
marriage charm
: SJ-LOC, Box 9.

461
   
“Barbara chopped the vegetables”
: Interview with Sarah Hyman DeWitt, January 21, 2015.

462
   
“grandma and grandpa”
: SJ to GJ and LJ, n.d. [November 1962].

462
   
the sorts of gifts
: SJ-LOC, Box 51.

463
   
one of Kolatch’s first acts
: Interview with Myron Kolatch, April 9, 2013.

463
   
“an instant hit”
: Ibid.

463
   
“the literature of our time” . . . “blasts”
: SEH,
Standards: A Chronicle of Books for Our Time
(New York: Horizon, 1966), 279.

463
   
“the core, the nucleus”
: John Simon to SEH, June 21, 1965, SEH-LOC, Box 16.

463
   
“I still feel drawn”
: SEH, “The National Pastime,”
The New Leader
, August 6, 1962.

463
   
“Bellow is a word-spinner”
: SEH, “Saul Bellow’s Glittering Eye,”
The New Leader
, November 28, 1964.

464
   
“the most gifted”
: SEH, “The Artist as a Young Man,”
The New Leader
, March 19, 1962.

464
   
“the most fraudulent” . . . “dazzling ineptitude”
: SEH,
Standards
, 69–70.

464
   
“the awfulness” . . . “deranged”
: Ibid., 275–78.

464
   
“I believe their books”
: SEH,
The Tangled Bank
(New York: Atheneum, 1962), x.

465
   
“our wriggling ancestor”
Ibid., 447.

465
   
“merely to read” . . . “by comments”
: Harold Rosenberg, “Four Men Who Helped to Shape the Way We Think Today,”
The New York Times
, April 22, 1962.

465
   
“Mr. Hyman undertakes”
: Perry Miller, “Dubious,”
New York Herald Tribune
, April 22, 1962.

465
   
“an enormous instruction schedule”
: James Gray, “They Changed Our Minds,”
Saturday Review
, April 1962.

465
   
“Where his deductions”
: Ronald S. Berman, “Taken in by Metaphor,”
The Kenyon Review
25, no. 1 (Winter 1963).

466
   
Marx’s
Capital
: SJ to GJ and LJ, n.d. [February 1962].

466
   
“a quarter of a million words”
: SJ to GJ and LJ, n.d. [January 1962].

466
   
“He published a book”
: Martha MacGregor, “A Talk with Shirley Jackson,”
New York Post
, September 30, 1962.

467
   
“very smart” . . . “raised his voice”
: Interview with Barry Hyman, July 16, 2015.

467
   
“I could hear” . . . “It was very uncomfortable”
: Interview with Jai Holly, July 16, 2015.

468
   
“Barbara was her best friend”
: Interview with Sarah Hyman DeWitt, January 21, 2015.

468
   
“After the President’s broadcast”
: SJ to CB, October 23, 1962.

468
   
“a squirrel” . . . “an elephant”
:
Nine Magic Wishes
.

469
   
“arrogant little list”
: Harlin Quist to CB, December 12, 1962, SJ-LOC, Box 5.

469
   
“getting” . . . “magic wishes”
: SJ, “A Vroom for Dr. Seuss,”
LMTY
, 212–13.

469
   
“Jeanne?”
: SJ to Jeanne Beatty, November 13, 1962. This is the letter Beatty did not open.

469
   
“so i just won’t get the mail”
: SJ to GJ and LJ, n.d. [November 1962].

469
   
“so terrible that even the vermonters”
: SJ to GJ and LJ, n.d. [early 1963].

470
   
“all they did” . . . “analysis on record”
: SJ to GJ and LJ, unsent letter, n.d. [spring 1963].