Private Demons: The Life of Shirley Jackson

by Judy Oppenheimer

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0399133569
• ISBN13: 9780399133565
• Release Date: July 1988
• Publisher: Putnam Adult
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.3" x 1.2" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

Cheap, trash journalism with little to nothing concerning THE WRITING of this famed author

Private Demons fails to offer any insight into the books and writing; at times it is obvious the biographer hasn't even READ the novels since she doesn't get character names or plot correct. There is a concentration on the darkness and between the bed sheets in Jackson't life. You never learn from THIS biography the creation of the books. Happily a far better biography has recently surfaced and, while not perfect, is a far better and insightful read.

Deserves more than five stars.

PRIVATE DEMONS is the best biography I've ever read in my life. I first read it years ago when it first came out, and am on my second copy. Shirley Jackson was an interesting and complex woman with talent to burn. She was comfortable with penning the pyscological/creepy/haunted house types of novels and equally comfortable turning out humorous short pieces about her family life. She was a genius with both. More than one reader has experienced a little cognitive dissonance when realizing that Jackson wrote both "The Lottery" and "Charles". "THAT'S the SAME author?" is a constant refrain. Author Judy Oppenheimer does an outstanding job of bringing this tremendous writer to life, as well as doing her fans a great service by bringing Jackson's name and reputation back to the literary forefront. Through skillful writing and research and generous interviews with Jackson's 4 children and many friends, the reader is mesmerized by the too-brief life that was behind Jackson's multifacted talent. Writing this book could not have been an easy task, since Shirley Jackson contained multitudes, to quote Walt Whitman. PRIVATE DEMONS may be out of print now, but search your secondhand bookstores both in your city and online, and track down this treasure of a biography. You will not be sorry.

A life of contradictions

She never states her reasons but I assume what made me buy this book are the same reasons that drew the writer, Judy Oppenheimer, to write about Shirley Jackson. It is an effort to try and understand the mind and influences behind such masterpieces as the "Lottery", "We have always lived in the castle" or "Hangsaman". Was she mad? Was she full of fears? What were the influences which worked upon her? Did she - could she - have a normal family life? and how in god's name did she think of all these ideas, were they based on her personal experience? This is a very good read, partly because of the intriguing heroine and partly due to the good writing (quite dramatic at times). The bottom line is that I did get the answers to most of my questions. This is a very thorough life story, which even continues after Jackson's untimely death, telling us what happened to all the major people in her life. This account presents Shirley Jackson from every possible angel: a daughter, a wife, a mother, neighbour and friend, and a writer too - but never only a writer. A very troubled person living a life of many contradictions. I guess I never expected her to have been a regular person. I always wonder about Biographies. Is it all true? It seems that the biographers know more about the person then he knew about himself. We read about Jackson's most intimate details of life (Stanley and Shirley's first night together is just one example), about her inner most thoughts. I believe that the author has had to develop her own theories or choose among the options that were given to her by the many close people surrounding Shirley Jackson ("she made good friends", was one of the things Judy Oppenheimer says about Jackson in her final notes). The writer however presents many seemingly "open" issues as facts. A good example would be the true meaning of Jackson's famous story "The Lottery". There are several versions regarding the creation of this story, a few of them given by Jackson herself. Oppenheimer presents all versions but claims that the "the Lottery" was the purest, most direct expression to Jackson's knowledge of human evil and the painful awareness of anti-Semitism she has acquired over the years. Another example could be Shirley and Stanley marriage which was full of contradictions (he always remained "the important figure" around the house), and many infidelities from Stanley's side. One says you can never tell what goes on between a couple but Oppenheimer seems to be quite confident of her conclusions. I am quite sure she had her sources to term her hypothesis as facts. At other times the writer chooses to take a neutral stand. For example, was Shirley's marriage to Stanley "her greatest fortune or her worst calamity"? we are left to decide for our own. The book is filled with little details and is based upon dozens of interviews (Jackson's children are a major source). The writer states comments and references made by a host of friends and relatives - no

Excellent work

Just discovered the works of Shirley Jackson, although I'd been familiar with The Lottery since high school. Awesome, totally original writer. I will never tire of reading the first paragraph of "The Haunting of Hill House." The sheer skillful power of her writing ... as Stephen King wrote, she never had to raise her voice. Dug out a short, unsatisfying bio of Ms. Jackson by some German academic, then discovered Ms. Oppenheimer's work. A terrific biography, reads like a great story should. I can empathize somewhat with the Jackson offspring, since I, too, had a mother who was a writer and a giant personality and an overindulger in food and drink. But my mother cleaned up her health and lived till age 77 while Ms. Jackson's overworked heart gave out at age 49, truly a shame.

Brilliant Biography of a Nearly-Forgotten American Master

Shirley Jackson is best known as the author of the chilling short story, "The Lottery", which most every high school student is still required to read. Her eerie novels such as "The Haunting of Hill House" have long been beloved of readers of gothic fiction and ghost stories. But the author herself, who died in 1965, was almost forgotten until Judy Oppenheimer's fine biography restored her to public consciousness. Oppenheimer's book is a model of what a literary biography should be! All the threads of Jackson's life story, her conventional upbringing by parents obsessed with respectability and social-climbing, her chaotic but deeply satisfying marriage, her complicated relationships with her children, are skillfully woven together, to show us how each contributed to her art. All this, and the book is a delightful, detail packed read, the often comic images of Jackson's home life brought vividly into focus by Oppenheimer's precise, effortless prose. This book led me to rediscover Shirley Jackson, her work, and the woman herself - - her genius, her struggles, her very humanness. Truly, an achivement for any biographer!