Perfect Additions
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Shirley Jackson (1918–65) was one of the greatest American gothic writers of the 20th century – an heir to the tradition of Hawthorne and Poe. Jackson was brought up in California and educated in Syracuse, New York, where she met the man she would marry. The couple settled in North Bennington, Vermont, where Jackson spent the last 20 years of her life. Her career writing short stories was lucrative, and for some time she was highly regarded as the author of Life Among the Savages (1952), a witty fictionalised memoir about life as a mother; but this work has now been eclipsed by Jackson’s reputation as the author of horror and ghost-story masterpieces such as the controversial short work ‘The Lottery’ (1948, Folio 2025) and the novels The Haunting of Hill House (1959, Folio 2022) and We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962, Folio 2023).
Donna Tartt is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist. After studying at the University of Mississippi, she moved to Bennington College, known for its courses in liberal arts, including writing. Her first novel, The Secret History (1992), went on to become a bestseller and her second novel, The Little Friend (2002), won the WH Smith Literary Award. The Goldfinch (2013) won many literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction in 2014.