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Jackson's most famous novel is The Haunting of Hill House (1959), a National Book Award nominee, which was adapted for the big screen as The Haunting in 1963 by Robert Wise. This is the opening paragraph of Hill House:
Is that not the best opening paragraph of any horror novel ever? Jackson's work was a major influence for the likes of Richard Matheson, Neil Gaiman and Stephen King. In fact, King will tell you, in Dance Macabre, that Hill House is the best haunted house story ever published. Jackson also wrote a couple of memoirs, one titled Life Among the Savages, which she noted was a 'disrespectful memoir of her children.' For a complete bibliography go here. Her papers are archived at the Library of Congress.
No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself against its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright, bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence lay steadily against the wood and stone of Hill House, and whatever walked there, walked alone.
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Bonus: You can even listen to a reading of "The Lottery" from NBC Radio, 1951.
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