Richard Matheson Popular Books

Richard Matheson Biography & Facts

Richard Burton Matheson (February 20, 1926 – June 23, 2013) was an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres. He is best known as the author of I Am Legend, a 1954 science fiction horror novel that has been adapted for the screen three times. Matheson himself was co-writer of the first film version, The Last Man on Earth, starring Vincent Price, which was released in 1964. The other two adaptations were The Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston, and I Am Legend, with Will Smith. Matheson also wrote 16 television episodes of The Twilight Zone, including "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet", "Little Girl Lost" and "Steel", as well as several adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories for Roger Corman and American International Pictures – House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, Tales of Terror and The Raven. He adapted his 1971 short story "Duel" as a screenplay, directed by Steven Spielberg as the television film of the same name that year. In addition to I Am Legend and Duel, nine more of his novels and short stories have been adapted as motion pictures: The Shrinking Man (filmed as The Incredible Shrinking Man), Hell House (filmed as The Legend of Hell House), What Dreams May Come, Bid Time Return (filmed as Somewhere in Time), A Stir of Echoes, Steel (filmed as Real Steel), and Button, Button (filmed as The Box). The movie Cold Sweat was based on his novel Ride the Nightmare, and Les seins de glace (Icy Breasts) was based on his novel Someone Is Bleeding. Both Steel and Button had previously been episodes of The Twilight Zone. Early life Matheson was born in Allendale, New Jersey, to Norwegian immigrants Bertolf and Fanny Matheson. They divorced when he was eight, and he was raised in Brooklyn, New York, by his mother. His early writing influences were the film Dracula (1931), novels by Kenneth Roberts, and a poem which he read in the newspaper Brooklyn Eagle, where he published his first short story at age eight. He entered Brooklyn Technical High School in 1939, graduated in 1943, and served with the Army in Europe during World War II; this formed the basis for his 1960 novel The Beardless Warriors. He attended the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri, earning his BA in 1949, then moved to California. Career 1950s and 1960s His first-written novel, Hunger and Thirst, was ignored by publishers for several decades before eventually being published in 2010, but his short story "Born of Man and Woman" was published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction's summer 1950 issue, the new quarterly's third issue, and attracted attention. It is the tale of a monstrous child chained by its parents in the cellar, written in the form of the creature's diary and using non-idiomatic English. Later that year, Matheson placed stories in the first and third issues of Galaxy Science Fiction, a new monthly. His first anthology of work was published in 1954. Between 1950 and 1971, he produced dozens of stories, frequently blending elements of the science fiction, horror, and fantasy genres. He was a member of the "Southern California Sorcerers" group in the 1950s and 1960s, a collective of west coast writers which included Charles Beaumont, Ray Bradbury, George Clayton Johnson, William F. Nolan, Jerry Sohl, and others.Matheson's first novel to be published, Someone Is Bleeding, appeared from Lion Books in 1953. In the 1950s, he published a handful of Western stories (later collected in By the Gun), and in the 1990s, he published Western novels such as Journal of the Gun Years, The Gunfight, The Memoirs of Wild Bill Hickok, and Shadow on the Sun. His other early novels include The Shrinking Man (1956, filmed in 1957 as The Incredible Shrinking Man, again from Matheson's own screenplay) and a science fiction vampire novel, I Am Legend (1954, filmed as The Last Man on Earth in 1964, The Omega Man in 1971, and I Am Legend in 2007). In 1960, Matheson published The Beardless Warriors, a non-fantastic, autobiographical novel about teenage American soldiers in World War II. It was filmed in 1967 as The Young Warriors, though most of Matheson's plot was jettisoned. Matheson wrote teleplays for several television programs, including the Westerns Cheyenne, Have Gun – Will Travel, and Lawman. He also wrote the Star Trek episode "The Enemy Within" (1966). However, he is most closely associated with the American TV series The Twilight Zone, for which he wrote more than a dozen episodes, including "Steel" (1963), "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (1963), "Little Girl Lost" (1962), and "Death Ship" (1963). For all of his Twilight Zone scripts, Matheson wrote the introductory and closing statements spoken by creator Rod Serling. He adapted five works of Edgar Allan Poe for Roger Corman's Poe series, including House of Usher (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), and The Raven (1963).For Hammer Film Productions, he wrote the screenplay for Fanatic (1965; US title: Die! Die! My Darling!), starring Tallulah Bankhead and Stefanie Powers and based on the novel Nightmare by Anne Blaisdell; he also adapted for Hammer Dennis Wheatley's The Devil Rides Out (1968). 1970s and 1980s In 1971, Mattheson's short story "Duel" was adapted into the TV movie of the same name. In 1973, Matheson earned an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his teleplay for The Night Stalker (1972), one of two TV movies written by Matheson, the other being The Night Strangler (1973), which preceded the TV series Kolchak: The Night Stalker. Matheson worked extensively with Curtis; the 1977 television anthology film Dead of Night features three stories written for the screen by Matheson: "Second Chance" (based on the story by Jack Finney); "No Such Thing as a Vampire" (based on Matheson's story of the same name); and "Bobby", an original script written for this anthology by Matheson. Three of his short stories were filmed together as Trilogy of Terror (1975), including "Prey" (initially published in the April 1969 issue of Playboy magazine), a tale of a Zuni warrior fetish doll. The doll later reappeared in the final segment of the belated sequel to the first movie, Trilogy of Terror II (1996), and "Bobby" from Dead of Night was refilmed with different actors for the second segment of the film. Other Matheson novels adapted into films in the 1970s include Bid Time Return (1975, released as Somewhere in Time in 1980), and Hell House (1971, released as The Legend of Hell House in 1973), both adapted and scripted by Matheson himself. In the 1980s, Matheson published the novel Earthbound, wrote several screenplays for the TV series Amazing Stories, and continued to publish short fiction. 1990s Matheson published four Western novels in this decade, as well as the suspense novel Seven Steps to Midnight (1993) and the darkly comic locked-room mystery novel Now You See It ... (1995), dedicated to Robert Bloch. He also wrote the screenplays for several movies, in.... Discover the Richard Matheson popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Richard Matheson books.

Best Seller Richard Matheson Books of 2024

  • The Stringer synopsis, comments

    The Stringer

    Jeff Somers

    Learn the Words. Get the blood. Rule the world. A standalone short story in the Ustari Cycle.Most people never learn what a Stringer isand their lives are better for it. Lem, howev...

  • Richard Matheson Suspense Novels synopsis, comments

    Richard Matheson Suspense Novels

    Richard Matheson

    Ordinary people face hairraising dangers in these four early suspense novels by the celebrated author of I Am Legend.The Shrinking Man In this scifi suspense classic adapted into m...

  • The Boom Bands synopsis, comments

    The Boom Bands

    Jeff Somers

    Learn the Words. Get the blood. Rule the world. A standalone short story in the Ustari Cyclethe gritty supernatural series that includes We Are Not Good People from the "exhilarati...

  • The Dark synopsis, comments

    The Dark

    Sharon Bolton

    ONCE, SHE SAVED HIS LIFE...NOW, HE'LL TAKE HERS.When a baby is snatched from its pram and cast into the river Thames, offduty police officer Lacey Flint is there to prevent disaste...

  • Nightmare At 20,000 Feet synopsis, comments

    Nightmare At 20,000 Feet

    Richard Matheson

    Personally selected by Richard Matheson, the bestselling author of I Am Legend and What Dreams May Come, the stories in Nightmare at 20,000 feet more than demonstrate why Matheson'...

  • He Is Legend synopsis, comments

    He Is Legend

    Christopher Conlon

    Richard Matheson, the New York Times bestselling author of I Am Legend, has inspired a generation of storytellers. Now an outstanding cast of top writers pays tribute to his legacy...

  • The Memoirs of Wild Bill Hickok synopsis, comments

    The Memoirs of Wild Bill Hickok

    Richard Matheson

    Wild Bill Hickok was a celebrity before there ever was a Hollywood. And he was dead before he was forty.Now Richard Matheson, Spur Awardwinning author of Journal of the Gun Years,...

  • Out of the Ruins synopsis, comments

    Out of the Ruins

    Preston Grassmann, Emily St. John Mandel, Carmen Maria Machado, China Miéville & Clive Barker

    A fresh postapocalyptic anthology: the end of the world seen through the salvage and ruins. Featuring Emily St John Mandel, Carmen Maria Machado and more.  WHAT WOULD YOU...

  • Journal of the Gun Years synopsis, comments

    Journal of the Gun Years

    Richard Matheson

    Back East, they told tall tales about Marshall Clay Halser, the fearless Civil War veteran who became known as the "Hero of the Plains" for his daring exploits in the Wild West. B...

  • The Gun Fight synopsis, comments

    The Gun Fight

    Richard Matheson

    John Benton was one of the toughest men ever to wear a Texas Ranger badge. But eight years ago, in August 1871, he hung up his guns for good.Or so he hoped.Then young Robby Coles ...

  • Duel synopsis, comments

    Duel

    Richard Matheson

    Remember that murderous semi chasing Dennis Weaver down a lonely stretch of desert highway? Duel, Steven Spielberg's acclaimed first film, was adapted by Richard Matheson from his ...

  • Remembrance synopsis, comments

    Remembrance

    Ray Bradbury

    Iconic author of Fahrenheit 451, The Martian Chronicles, and Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury believed that, someday, a collection of his letters could illuminate the ...

  • The Path synopsis, comments

    The Path

    Richard Matheson

    Richard Matheson's bestselling novel, What Dreams May Come, the basis for the hit movie starring Robin Williams, touched numerous readers with its convincing portrait of life after...

  • We Are Not Good People synopsis, comments

    We Are Not Good People

    Jeff Somers

    Learn the Words. Get the blood. Rule the world. The Ustari Cycle starts here.From the "exhilarating, powerful, and entertaining" (Guardian) storyteller of the Avery Cates series co...

  • Kagen the Damned synopsis, comments

    Kagen the Damned

    Jonathan Maberry

    Kagen the Damned marks the first installment of an exciting new series of dark epic fantasy novels from bestselling author Jonathan Maberry.Sworn by OathKagen Vale is the trusted a...

  • Invasion of the Body Snatchers synopsis, comments

    Invasion of the Body Snatchers

    Jack Finney

    Celebrate one of the earliest science fiction novels by rediscovering Jack Finney’s internationally acclaimed Invasion of the Body Snatcherswhich Stephen King calls a story “to be ...

  • Hunted Past Reason synopsis, comments

    Hunted Past Reason

    Richard Matheson

    The bestselling author of such classic novels as I Am Legend and What Dreams May Come, Richard Matheson is one of the twentieth century's acknowledged masters of suspense. Hunted P...

  • Conversations with the Father synopsis, comments

    Conversations with the Father

    Chris Matheson

    In Conversations with the Father, screenwriter and author Chris Matheson shares memories of his dad, famed horror and science fiction writer Richard Matheson. He recalls the warmth...

  • Reading Richard Matheson synopsis, comments

    Reading Richard Matheson

    Cheyenne Mathews

    Richard Matheson (1926–2013) was a prolific author and screenwriter whose career helped shape the horror and fantasy genres in literature, film, and television for over sixty years...

  • The Box synopsis, comments

    The Box

    Richard Matheson

    What if you were told that you could make a fortune just by pushing a button on a box? But pressing this button will simultaneously cause the death of another human being somewher...

  • Fixer synopsis, comments

    Fixer

    Jeff Somers

    Learn the Words. Get the blood. Rule the world. A standalone short story in the Ustari Cycle.The heroes of We Are Not Good People learn what “down and out” truly feels like when a ...

  • Last Best Day synopsis, comments

    Last Best Day

    Jeff Somers

    The second in a trilogy of three shorts from the “exhilarating…powerful and entertaining” (The Guardian) contemporary fantasy writer Jeff Somers, featuring the blood magician duo f...

  • The Beardless Warriors synopsis, comments

    The Beardless Warriors

    Richard Matheson

    In 1944, long before he wrote such classic novels as I Am Legend and What Dreams May Come, author Richard Matheson served as an eighteenyearold replacement in the 87th Division dur...

  • A Richard Matheson Collection synopsis, comments

    A Richard Matheson Collection

    Richard Matheson

    A Richard Matheson Collection discounted ebundle includes: Hell House, Somewhere in Time, What Dreams May ComeA collection of three novels by New York Time bestselling author Richa...

  • Legends of the Gun Years synopsis, comments

    Legends of the Gun Years

    Richard Matheson

    Together in one volume, the epic stories of two legendary gunfighters!Journal of the Gun YearsWinner of the Spur Award for Best Western NovelBack East, they told tall tales of Mars...

  • Flight or Fright synopsis, comments

    Flight or Fright

    Stephen King

    #1 New York Times bestselling author and master of horror Stephen King teams up with Bev Vincent of Cemetery Dance to present a terrifying collection of sixteen short stories (and ...

  • The Best of Richard Matheson synopsis, comments

    The Best of Richard Matheson

    Richard Matheson & Victor LaValle

    The definitive collection of terrifying stories by "one of the greatest writers of the 20th century" (Ray Bradbury), edited by awardwinning author Victor LaValleAmong the greats of...

  • Richard Matheson Thrillers synopsis, comments

    Richard Matheson Thrillers

    Richard Matheson

    Four classic novels of murder, madness, revenge, and survival by “one of the great names in American terror fiction” (Philadelphia Inquirer).  I Am Legend Named the best vampi...

  • Shadow on the Sun synopsis, comments

    Shadow on the Sun

    Richard Matheson

    Originally published as a massmarket Western in 1994, Shadow on the Sun has been out of print for years and was largely overlooked by horror fans and general readers. Now at last ...

  • Mammoth Books presents That Haunted Feeling synopsis, comments

    Mammoth Books presents That Haunted Feeling

    Barbara Roden, Chris Bell, John Gaskin, M.R. James, Michael Kelly, Reggie Oliver, Richard Christian Matheson & Stephen Jones

    Six short stories to shake you to your core.Out and Back by Barbara RodenAn abandoned amusement park attracts unwary thrill seekersThe Game of Bear Reggie Oliver & M. R. James...