Shirley Jackson(1916-1965)

Stephen King included her "The Haunting of Hill House"--the basis for the film La Maison du diable (1963)--in his top 100 favorite novels of all time. The list was published in his non-fiction book, "Danse Macabre", in which he also devotes a lengthy analysis of the opening paragraph of the novel. He has called the book one of the most important horror novels of the 20th century.

[about the hate mail she received upon the 1948 publication of her story "The Lottery"] If I thought this was a valid cross-section of the reading public, I would give up writing.