Life Among The Savages / Raising Demons
Barry, Sally, Joanne, and Laurence Hyman (from left to right), aged one, four, seven, and ten, from a photo session for Life Among the Savages in 1952.
Laurie is a small-town mayor, inadequately informed and positive, Jannie a Games Mistress with a bright voice; Sally is a vague stern old lady watching the world with remote disapproval, and Barry a small intrepid foot soldier, following unquestioningly and doggedly. There are sometimes a couple of nervous creatures hovering in the background, making small futile gestures and tending to laugh weakly. Their function is, of couse, unmistakable. They are there to glue the heads back on dolls, sharpen pencils, and pay out weekly allowance." - Shirley Jackson
Although now better known for her haunting fictions, in the 1950s Shirley Jackson charmed millions with her best-selling domestic reminiscences, Life Among the Savages (1953) and Raising Demons (1957), affectionate, hilarious, and sophisticated tales of dubious parental equilibrium in the face of four children, their friends both real and imaginary, assorted dogs and cats, criminal household help, impudent teachers, and other minutiae of domestic existence. In Shirley Jackson's hands the chaos and crises of 1950s Vermont family life become something else entirely, and the two books give further evidence of Jackson's remarkable insight into people - especially children - and why they behave as they do.