Despite a long writing career that included best-selling novels, plays, children's books, and humorous sketches, Shirley Jackson was best known to most readers as the author of "The Lottery," a chilling short story about ritual sacrifice in a small village. After the story's publication in the New Yorker, many critics began hailing Jackson as a master of the gothic horror tale (while many angry readers demanded to know what the story really meant). Jackson's willingness to disturb, disrupt, and sometimes anger her audience was not confined to her short tales; in novels such as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle, she repeatedly explored the darker facets of human nature and modern society. No matter how grim her theme, however, Jackson never forgot what she considered a writer's primary task: to tell a good story. In the Dictionary of Literary Biography, Martha...