[PDF] The Lottery by Shirley Jackson ( Free download )

The story The Lottery is a horror classic of American literature. Shirley Jackson wrote it in 1948 in an inspirational rapture. she had the idea one day when he returned home with the purchase of the day and while he pushed the cart up the street with his daughter, he gave it shape in his sharp imagination. On arrival, she wrote the story in one fell swoop, with the feeling that he was dictating himself and did not need to make major corrections once it was finished. Perhaps from that sudden origin came the intensity of the story, his teeth sharp.

It was not understood by readers of The New Yorker, where it was first published a few weeks after it was written; many of them canceled their subscription to the magazine and a barrage of letters of protest, of possible interpretations and even insults, reached the newsroom and the hands of Shirley Jackson, who in the article Biography of a story, which can be read at Chosen Stories, published by Editorial Minúscula in 2015, reproduces some of the most surprising comments.

Many are the editions of the story, recent ones include the adaptation to the comic by Miles Hyman, grandson of Shirley Jackson, at the publisher Nørdica Libros, which allows you to savor the atmosphere and read emotions on the faces of the characters.

I say no more, I reserve the details of the argument for not depriving those who will read it for the first time of all its evil and terrifying delight.

Shirley Jackson  (San Francisco, 1916-1965) is one of those writers who have influenced the literature of some current writers, Stephen King, and Joyce Carol Oates, among others, have acknowledged being indebted to her. He lived in the peaceful Vermont community where he wrote his novels and short stories, including The Curse of the Hill House and We’ve Always Lived in the Castle.