Jackson had long struggled with anxiety and depression, but now she began to experience panic attacks, leading her to worry that she was psychopathic or insane. ... Jackson and Hyman eventually settled in North Bennington, Vermont, after he was hired as an instructor at Bennington College.

Did Shirley Jackson suffer any tragic moments in her life?

But as Franklin's subtitle, “A Rather Haunted Life,” suggests, Jackson also had a tragic private life: She was a fragile, damaged and often desolate person, subject not just to the trials that beset ambitious women of her generation but to torments all her own. ... Jackson's husband was both an ally and an antagonist.

What was Shirley Jackson personality?

High-strung, energetic and forceful, Jackson was known for her wit, her sarcasm, her quick judgments, her intense likes and dislikes. But she was also prey to a wide spectrum of disabling fears and anxieties, which she could master only in her writing. (''I have always loved to use fear,'' she said once.