Sold Date: August 15, 2021
Start Date: August 8, 2021
Final Price: $85.00 (USD)
Bid Count: 1
Seller Feedback: 939
Buyer Feedback: 0

The Daemon Lover and The Lottery As Read By Shirley Jackson
This auction is for the ultra scarce LP of Shirley Jackson reading her own stories.
This is a MUST HAVE ITEM for any fan of Shirley Jackson or horror novels! There weren't many of these made. Don't miss this opportunity to own this RARE and TREASURED article of history! This is the only sound recording Shirley Jackson made before her death!
Condition: the cover does have seam splits: on the top it's about 4 inches, on the bottom edge it's just over 10 inches. On the back of the cover someone has written "Humanities".
The record cosmetically looks near-perfect, as seen in the pictures. I listened to it and it sounded like there were possibly 5 skips on Side 1 "The Lottery" and 1 skip on Side 2 "The Daemon Lover" but it is hard to tell because the source recording was made in haste and by a non-professional.
Also included is the almost impossible to find booklet with the text of both "The Lottery" and "The Daemon Lover". The booklet does have some writing in it - some brackets throughout "The Daemon Lover" but "The Lottery" is clean.
Includes brown cardboard backing as well.
Please see photos for a better idea of the condition.
Here is a description of the making of this rare, historic recording from the Shirley Jackson biography "Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life" by Ruth Franklin:
"Grudgingly, Jackson agreed to record "The Lottery" for Folkways Records in 1959. Along with her recording of "The Daemon Lover," on the B side, it is the only recording of her voice that still exists. The agoraphobia of her late years had not yet begun, but she preferred to avoid New York City if possible, and refused to make a special trip to do the recording. Laurence, then a technically adept senior in high school, did it for her on a reel-to-reel recorder at Bennington. Jackson, nervous, brought along a glass of bourbon; the clink of ice cubes in her glass is occasionally audible. Her voice is low, with the slightest hint of an English affectation. She reads the story calmly, almost without expression. A sharpness enters her tone only when Tessie Hutchinson begins to speak. Jackson's voice ascends shrilly as she reads the lines: "It isn't fair, it isn't right." She gives the final line of the story a curious inflection: "And then they were upon her." Like the pointed collar around the throat of the dog Lady in "The Renegade," the recording cuts off abruptly before her voice has a chance to die out, making the last line sound like a question: And then they were upon her? The irony is audible. They have been upon her all along."