Full of wit and heartbreak, this volume shines, and Jackson’s singular prose never fails to entertain. Her cartoons, one of the most charming elements of the collection, also chronicle a marriage in decline. Two poignant letters were left unsent: one to Stanley, outlining the pain his womanizing, disregard, and mockery caused her-“indifference breeds indifference”-and another to her parents, reacting to their criticism of her appearance.
Primarily written to her agent and parents, the letters hit a high note in 1953, when the then-bestselling author and mother of four wrote to her parents that it was “the best year we’ve ever known.” But by 1955, Jackson’s downhill slide had begun: she got colitis and her health was failing, her marriage began to collapse, and her agoraphobia worsened. As the couple marries and starts a family, missives describe her burgeoning writing career and the comic escapades of being a mother. The letters begin with Jackson at college writing to her future husband, Stanley Hyman.
The life of Shirley Jackson (1916–1965)-as a mother and a writer-emerges in vivid detail in this collection of correspondence, edited by her son Hyman ( Let Me Tell You).
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