[Syracuse: Syracuse University], 1938.
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Softcover. First edition. Foreword by A.E. Johnson. 21pp. Near fine in wood-patterned paper wrappers with a few minute creases and tiny stains. A collection of prose and verse from the 1937-38 sophomore class in Creative Writing at Syracuse University, taught by Johnson. Notable for containing Shirley Jackson's first published story, "Janice." A very short tale, told primarily in dialogue, of a disaffected college student who casually recounts her suicide attempt. This inaugural yet fully mature effort was a clear indicator of the understated psychological horror for which Jackson would become well known. In addition, it was directly through the publication of this story that she attracted the attention of her future husband, the critic Stanley Edgar Hyman. Although the two did not know each other prior to its publication, he was also a student at Syracuse and upon seeing a copy of *The Threshold* was so taken with the quality and impact of the story that he immediately sought her out and wooed her (Oppenheimer, *Private Demons*, pp. 52-56). *The Threshold* was not a campus periodical, but rather a one-off publication, and thus was particularly prone to being discarded. Jackson later published three pieces in the campus humor magazine *The Syracusan*, and with Hyman, produced four issues of a campus literary journal called *Spectre*. A lovely copy of a rare booklet; we know of only two other copies.
Item #318541