RAISING DEMONS

First UK edition, first printing. Signed by the author. Inscribed presentation copy Original black paper-covered boards with gilt titles to the spine, in the Frieda Nichols illustrated dustwrapper. A very good copy, the binding firm with the slightest lean to the spine, the upper board with a few light scuffs, the spine tips and bottom corner of the lower board a little bumped. There is faint offsetting to the endpapers, slight exposed webbing at the gutter of the title page (the binding remaining firm), short closed tears to the bottom edges of pages 65-74 as if knocked during reading, and longer closed tears to the bottom edges of pages 60, 61 and 187, which present more as printing or binding anomalies as they are very clean and lack any associated creasing. The contents are otherwise clean and without previous owners' stamps or inscriptions. Complete with the rubbed, nicked and creased original dustwrapper that is faded to the spine, with minor chipping to the head of the spine and flap folds, closed tears to the foot of the spine and front flap, and loss to the bottom edge of the rear flap. Not price-clipped (12s 6d on the front flap). Scarce in inscribed state.

Inscribed by Shirley Jackson in black ink on the front free endpaper "For Eleanor and Franklin [Ford]. / with love. / Shirley. / 1957". A sequel to Jackson's 1953 title 'Life Among the Savages', a series of fictionalised short stories about Jackson's life as a mother and wife, originally published in magazines such as Good Housekeeping and Woman's Home Companion, edited together into one text. 'Raising Demons' follows the same format, starting soon after 'Savages' ends, and is full of wacky, comedic stories about Jackson's four characterful children, her academic husband and their eccentric life together. A distinct departure from her usual gothic literary fare (though maintaining her unmistakable wit and style), Jackson's humorous domestic memoirs were a resounding and welcome commercial success following the lukewarm reception to her second novel, the 1951 eerie coming-of-age story 'Hangsaman'. The proceeds of the memoirs granted Jackson a previously unknown level of financial security and allowed her to buy the house in which she would write her masterpieces 'The Haunting of Hill House' and 'We Have Always Lived in the Castle'. An excellent example of a scarce inscribed Jackson title.