American writer Shirley Jackson was BOTD in 1916. Born in San Francisco, California, her family relocated to Rochester, New York, when she was a teenager. She studied at Syracuse University, where she met and later married the literary critic Stanley Hyman. They settled in rural Bennington in Pennsylvania, where Hyman taught at Bennington College, and raised four children. They had a loving if turbulent marriage, marked by Hyman’s frequent affairs with his students, leading to Jackson reluctantly agreeing to an open relationship. Her debut novel, The Road Through the Wall, based on her upbringing in California, was published in 1948. In June that year, she became an overnight sensation after her short story The Lottery was published New Yorker magazine. A chilling portrait of the residents of a fictional country town mundanely going through the motions of an annual pagan sacrifice, the story generated record numbers of letters to the magazine, with hundreds of New Yorker readers cancelling their subscriptions and Jackson and the magazine receiving hate mail. (Jackson later reported that the tone of the letters changed over time, with some readers asking where the “lotteries” were being held and if they could attend and watch). She continued her examination of banal everyday evil in short stories published in the New Yorker and other magazines, publishing the pointedly-titled memoir Life Among the Savages in 1953. She received widespread praise for her 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House, a psychological horror tale about a group of would-be psychics who are lured to a rundown mansion to investigate supernatural phenomena, which was later filmed by Robert Wise. Her final novel, 1962’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, portrayed two sisters living as social outcasts in rural Pennington after being accused of poisoning their parents. Uncomfortable with celebrity and reluctant to discuss the meaning of her work, Jackson became progressively more reclusive, suffering from anxiety, agoraphobia and alcohol abuse. She died in her sleep in 1965, after suffering a heart attack, aged 48. Hyman released a collection of her unpublished work, Come Along With Me, in 1968. Now considered one of America’s most talented writers, her work has been hugely influential on 20th century horror and suspense fiction, influencing writers including Sylvia Plath, Stephen King, Donna Tartt, Sarah Waters and Ottessa Moshfegh. The Lottery remains one of the most anthologised short stories in American literature, inspiring radio, television and film adaptations and a 2016 graphic novel (illustrated by Jackson’s grandson Miles Hyman). In 2007, the Shirley Jackson Awards were established in her honour, awarding achievements in psychological suspense and horror fiction. She was played by Elisabeth Moss in the 2020 biopic Shirley.