Take Jay Sommers. In 1988, he won some $5 million in the Michigan state lottery. Only 20 at the time, he was the state’s youngest winner and a splashy poster boy for easy riches. These days?

Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery,” which first appeared in The New Yorker in the issue of June 26, 1948, is now so familiar as a cultural touchstone that it can be surprising to ...

Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery,” which first appeared in The New Yorker in the issue of June 26, 1948, is now so familiar as a cultural touchstone that it can be surprising to ...