You want this book
The Shirley Jackson Awards will hold an online auction of a rare book to benefit the award. Peter Schneider has kindly donated a first edition of the 1899 publication of The Alleged Haunting of B----- House. Alleged Haunting of B----- House is edited by A. Goodrich-Freer and John, Marquess of Bute. While not a copy owned by Jackson, this important book in early psychical research is purported to be the book upon which The Haunting of Hill House is based.
The story of how Shirley Jackson was inspired to write The Haunting of Hill House is readily available in the many biographies and articles dealing with her work: While rummaging through boxes of books in a Vermont barn sale, Jackson came across a small volume that contained an account of a haunted house, as reported by a group of nineteenth-century psychic researchers.
The first edition of The Alleged Haunting of B----- House shows up only rarely on ABEBooks.com, and when it does it is almost exclusively British booksellers offering it for sale, at prices ranging from a low of $225 US to $680 US. The lower prices reflect the condition of the book which, in these cases, includes battered bindings and heavily foxed pages -- neither of which affects this volume offered for auction.
Go now. Auction ends soon!