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Shirley Jackson was born in San Francisco, California on December 14th 1916 and lived her young childhood years moving about cities. While becoming a brilliant, young, teenage girl, Jackson began to write short stories and poetry throughout her high school career. To further her studies, Jackson went on to attend the University of Rochester but only attended one semester before returning home where she wrote daily and helped out her parents. A year later Shirley Jackson returned to school choosing to attend Syracuse University this time where she published Janice, her first short story which was followed by many others. While there, she also served as the editor of a school newspaper. Coupled with her future husband, she launched a literary magazine titled Spectre around the time of her graduation. From there, she continued on to live a normal life by marrying, having children and being a stay at home mom. In the forties, her writing picked up again and her short story Come Dance With Me in Ireland, won the national award for the best short story. In 1948, The Lottery was published in the New Yorker and has become one of the most read short stories of the twentieth century. The Lottery and a few other of her published works went on to be produced for television and stage productions many times. Before her untimely death at the age of 48, Jackson received the Edgar Allen Poe Award for her ghost story The Haunting on House Hill and was also given the award of Outstanding Achievement from Syracuse. Her work has been praised and read by many since her death.