Matheson in 2008, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There are a handful of writers who I adore. Writers who sent my imagination soaring when I was a young girl and made me want to become a writer. Writers who influenced me as I developed my own writing style. Richard Matheson is one of those writers. He passed away peacefully yesterday surrounded by his loved ones.
A science fiction and horror short story author and novelist, if you haven’t read his work, you’ve certainly heard of it: I Am Legend and What Dreams May Come were both made into popular movies, neither of which reflect the actual content of what Matheson wrote.
Honor the man. Read the words.
There was just something so new, so raw and disturbing about his work, especially his TV scripts. He will be missed, but he has left us with so much.
Brad, some of his work on the Twilight Zone was based on his short stories. There are some good Matheson short story anthologies published. Richard Matheson Collected Stories Volumes 1-3 are comprehensive, the editing is poor however, lots of typos, which does the stories a disservice. Still worth reading though.
However, much of his Twilight Zone work was written specifically for the show. The only writer who wrote more Twilight Zone scripts was Rod Serling himself. One of my favorite collections is Richard Matheson’s The Twilight Zone Scripts (Volume 2). It includes the story for Nightmare at 20,000 Feet. The one made famous with William Shatner!