''The Lottery and Other Stories'' is a

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2022. * January 2 – Luis ...

short story collection by American author

Shirley Jackson Shirley Hardie Jackson (December 14, 1916 – August 8, 1965) was an American writer known primarily for her works of horror and mystery. Over the duration of her writing career, which spanned over two decades, she composed six novels, two m ...

. Published by Farrar, Straus, it includes " The Lottery" and 24 other stories. This was the only collection of her stories to appear during her lifetime. Her later posthumous collections were ''Come Along with Me'' (Viking, 1968), edited by Stanley Edgar Hyman, and ''Just an Ordinary Day'' (Bantam, 1995) and ''Let Me Tell You'' (Random House, 2015), edited by her children Laurence Jackson Hyman and Sarah Hyman Stewart. Jackson's original title for this collection was ''The Lottery or, The Adventures of James Harris''. Characters named James Harris appear in the stories "The Daemon Lover," "Like Mother Used to Make," "Elizabeth" and "Of Course." Other characters with the surname Harris appear or are referenced in "The Villager," "The Renegade," "Flower Garden," "A Fine Old Firm" and "Seven Types of Ambiguity." The collection also contains a short excerpt from the traditional ballad " The Daemon Lover," in which the title character's name is James Harris. The book bears the dedication "For my mother and father".

The second, third, and fourth sections are prefaced by quotations from ''

Saducismus Triumphatus ''Saducismus triumphatus'' is a book on witchcraft by Joseph Glanvill, published posthumously in England in 1681. The editor is presumed to have been Henry More, who certainly contributed to the volume; and topical material on witchcraft in Swe ...

'', a 17th century book about

witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have ...

, by

Joseph Glanvill Joseph Glanvill (1636 – 4 November 1680) was an English writer, philosopher, and clergyman. Not himself a scientist, he has been called "the most skillful apologist of the virtuosi", or in other words the leading propagandist for the approa ...

. I *"The Intoxicated" *"The Daemon Lover" *" Like Mother Used to Make" *"Trial by Combat" *"The Villager" *"My Life with R. H. Macy" II *"The Witch" *"The Renegade" *"After You, My Dear Alphonse" *"

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English and French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*karilaz'' (in Latin alphabet), whose meaning was " ...

" *"Afternoon in Linen" *"Flower Garden" *"Dorothy and My Grandmother and the Sailors" III *"Colloquy" *"Elizabeth" *"A Fine Old Firm" *"The Dummy" *"Seven Types of Ambiguity" *"Come Dance with Me in Ireland" IV *"Of Course" *"Pillar of Salt" *"Men with Their Big Shoes" *"The Tooth" *"Got a Letter from Jimmy" *" The Lottery" V *"Epilogue"

Reception

Anthony Boucher William Anthony Parker White (August 21, 1911 – April 29, 1968), better known by his pen name Anthony Boucher (), was an American author, critic, and editor who wrote several classic mystery novels, short stories, science fiction, and radio d ...

and

J. Francis McComas Jesse Francis McComas (June 9, 1911 – April 19, 1978) was an American science fiction editor. McComas wrote several stories on his own in the 1950s using both his own name and the pseudonym Webb Marlowe. He entered publishing in 1941 as a sal ...

praised the volume as "a brilliant collection of naturalistic glimpses of a world with terrifying holes in it.""Recommended Reading," ''

F&SF ''The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction'' (usually referred to as ''F&SF'') is a U.S. fantasy fiction magazine, fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House, a subsidiary of Lawrence E. Spivak, Lawrence Spiva ...

'', February 1950, p.105 Reappraising the book in 2011 for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers '' The Observer'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the ...

'', Stephanie Cross wrote:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lottery and Other Stories, The 1949 short story collections Short story collections by Shirley Jackson Farrar, Straus and Giroux books

Contents

Reception

See also

References