“THE STORY EVERYONE KNOWS”: FIRST EDITION OF JACKSON’S THE LOTTERY

JACKSON, Shirley. The Lottery, or The Adventures of James Harris. New York: Farrar, Straus, 1949. Octavo, original gray cloth, original dust jacket. $2800.

First edition, first issue, of Jackson’s second book, featuring her early masterpiece, “The Lottery.”

With its initial publication on June 26, 1948, Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" became "likely the most controversial piece of fiction ever published in the New Yorker, resulting in hundreds of canceled subscriptions, later adapted for television, radio and ballet" and now residing "in the popular imagination as an archetype… the story everyone knows even if they don't remember Shirley Jackson's name" (Lethem, Salon). In this, the first edition of her collected stories, Jackson threaded "a loose unity on the 25 stories… [and] the lottery becomes a symbol of vulnerability" (ANB). First issue, with publisher's stylized "fs" on copyright page.

Book near-fine, with a couple tiny spots of soiling to interior, slightest soiling to spine, and mildest toning to extremities. Dust jacket extremely good, with faint foxing and light rubbing mainly to extremities. A desirable copy.