Jackson, Shirley (1951) ‘Hangsaman’, US signed and inscribed first edition – association copy

Shirley Jackson (1951) ‘Hangsaman‘, US first edition, first printing, published by Farrar, Starus and Young. Signed and inscribed by the author on the ffep: “To John Speirs | with regards | Shirley Jackson | april 1951”.

Provenance: John Speirs was a British literary critic and author. He contributed extensively to the influential quartely magazine Scrutiny (1932-1953) founded by F.R. Leavis. Speirs and Shirley Jackson’s husband, Stanley Edgar Hyman, new each other in the small literary critics circle. Thus, it is no surprise that Jackson would inscribe a copy for him.

Condition: at least a very good copy in a very good dust jacket with little flaws commensurate with age. The baords are a little rubbed to the edges with the spine tips lightly pushed. There are no other scribbles inside the book and the text is clean throughout. The dust jacket has small chips and shows typical edgwear. It is clipped with a new USD 3 price stamped at the foot of the front flap as common.

Hangsaman is Jackson’s second novel following her debut The Road Through the Wall (1948) Her breakthrough came with the short story The Lottery, originally published in The New Yorker magazine (June 1948) and later included in the short-story anthology of the same name in 1949. Her masterpiece The Haunting of Hill House (1959) made her immortal as a gothic and horror writer, with both, the aforementioned short story and novel regarded among the best horror and literary writing of 20th century Americana.

In recent years Shirley Jackson has gained in popularity and readership not least due to the successful and excellent  The Haunting of Hill House (2018) TV-adaptation. The biography Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life (2016) by Ruth Franlin won many awards and also renewed interest in reading Jackson’s work. The film Shirley (2020) starring Elisabeth Moss who plays Jackson falls into the recent revival. Interestingly, the film is set during Jackson’s writing of Hangsaman.

Hangsaman is scarce as a first edition with very few copies ever coming on the market even unsigned. We can trace no other inscribed copy sold at auction in the past twenty years.