<P> Explaining just what I had hoped the story to say is very difficult . I suppose, I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village to shock the story's readers with a graphic dramatization of the pointless violence and general inhumanity in their own lives . </P> <P> Jackson lived in North Bennington, Vermont, and her comment reveals that she had Bennington in mind when she wrote "The Lottery". In a 1960 lecture (printed in her 1968 collection, Come Along with Me), Jackson recalled the hate mail she received in 1948: </P> <P> One of the most terrifying aspects of publishing stories and books is the realization that they are going to be read, and read by strangers . I had never fully realized this before, although I had of course in my imagination dwelt lovingly upon the thought of the millions and millions of people who were going to be uplifted and enriched and delighted by the stories I wrote . It had simply never occurred to me that these millions and millions of people might be so far from being uplifted that they would sit down and write me letters I was downright scared to open; of the three - hundred - odd letters that I received that summer I can count only thirteen that spoke kindly to me, and they were mostly from friends . Even my mother scolded me: "Dad and I did not care at all for your story in The New Yorker," she wrote sternly; "it does seem, dear, that this gloomy kind of story is what all you young people think about these days . Why don't you write something to cheer people up?" </P> <P> The New Yorker kept no records of the phone calls, but letters addressed to Jackson were forwarded to her . That summer she regularly took home 10 to 12 forwarded letters each day . She also received weekly packages from The New Yorker containing letters and questions addressed to the magazine or editor Harold Ross, plus carbon copies of the magazine's responses mailed to letter writers . </P>

A summary on the lottery by shirley jackson