Richard Matheson

[Dave]

Richard Burton Matheson

pen name: Logan Swanson (for screenplay credit of Last Man on Earth).

born Allendale, New Jersey: 20 February 1926

died Calabasas, California: 23 June 2013

Richard Matheson was an American author of science fiction, fantasy, horror and westerns, as novels and short stories, and a screenwriter.

Matheson was initially thought of as an SF writer, his first published short story being, Born of Man and Woman (1950) in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, a tale of a mutant child. He published several collections of work marketed as SF, but more of a blend of SF, horror and often western.

His first SF/ horror novel was I Am Legend (1954). concerning the only person left untouched by a pandemic that creates vampires. This has been filmed 3 times. He co-wrote the first version, Last Man on Earth, starring Vincent Price, (although unhappy with the rewrite). It was filmed as The Omega Man with Charlton Heston, and as I Am Legend with Will Smith.

Matheson had already adapted The Shrinking Man (1956), his second SF novel, as The Incredible Shrinking Man in 1957. Further screenwriting work followed with the Roger Corman directed, Edgar Allen Poe horror stories.

Matheson also wrote 16 television episodes of The Twilight Zone, including Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, Little Girl Lost, Death Ship and Steel.

He adapted his short story Duel (1971) in Playboy, as a TV movie, Steven Spielberg’s first significant work as a director.

Although he continued to publish SF and western novels, he began to be considered to be more of a horror author due to his film adaptations.

Other Matheson novels adapted into films in the 1970s include Bid Time Return (1975, released as Somewhere in Time in 1980); Hell House (1971, released as The Legend of Hell House in 1973); and What Dreams May Come (1978, filmed as What Dreams May Come in 1998).

The dominant theme in Matheson's work is character dilemma or paranoia, whether imagined in terms of gothic horror, or in some real or SF developed theme. Duel was inspired by a real event when a friend was tailgated by a large truck.

A list of his works is to be found here: Summary Bibliography: Richard Matheson

Wikipedia page: Richard Matheson - Wikipedia

 

[Randy M.]

Also wrote screenplays for successful made-for-TV movies, Trilogy of Terror, The Night Stalker and The Night Strangler (Stalker introduced the character of reporter, Carl Kolchak; and Strangler was a further adventure; both movies based on an at-the-time unpublished novel by Jeff Rice).

Until the Will Smith movie I figured Matheson as the least well-known writer whose works were known widely by my generation. I remember the halls of high school buzzing about the three TV movies I mention above, but I doubt any of my peers paid much attention to the screenwriter.

Stephen King has cited Matheson as his strongest influence, and you can see how he's drawn on Matheson in some of this plots for short stories.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

His very first published story, "Born of Man and Woman," may be the strongest debut story I've ever read.

 

[SilentRoamer]

I have read I Am Legend and The Shrinking Man - both I really enjoyed. There was a lot of psychology about physical power in The Shrinking Man and the dynamic that plays in relationships.

Interesting to think how many adaptions he was directly involved in and how translatable his stories were to other mediums.

Definetely interested to check out Born of Man and Woman and also the novel that inspired What Dreams May Come.

 

[Toby Frost]

I thought that both I Am Legend and The Shrinking Man were excellent. I wrote a review of The Shrinking Man a couple of years ago:

The Shrinking Man by Richard Matheson

Scott Carey is 6 feet 2 inches tall. He is a father, husband and provider for his family. One day, purely by chance, he is hit by a spray of radioactive insecticide, and he begins to shrink. He simply scales down, a little bit each day. As his height goes, so does his power – although the...

www.sffchronicles.com

 

[Randy M.]

Hell House is an efficient re-imagining of the set-up in Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. It doesn't have the resonance of Jackson's novel, and the ending doesn't quite convince me, still the journey to the ending is vivid and entertaining.

A Stir of Echoes is also pretty good, though my memory of the Kevin Bacon movie is that it is somewhat better.

 

[Rodders]

I read I Am Legend relatively recently and was hugely impressed at how good it really is. A wonderfully thoughtful story. I have The Incredible Shrinking Man on my Kindle to read.

 

[Phyrebrat]

Lovely to see this thread. Matheson is an outstanding horror storyteller too. I think there’s a lot of focus on IAL and HHH but he did so much more as can be seen in this thread.