Richard Matheson On Screen

Matthew Bradley, author of Richard Matheson on Screen, posted recently that his book is now available for purchase. I haven't read it... yet -- but it looks interesting. He got a pretty good guy to write the forward; Richard Matheson!

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Bradley certainly has the credentials to offer up a book about Matheson. His own website notes, "He is the author of Richard Matheson on Screen: A History of the Filmed Works, the editor of Matheson’s Duel & The Distributor, and the co-editor (with Stanley Wiater and Paul Stuve) of The Richard Matheson Companion, revised and updated as The Twilight and Other Zones: The Dark Worlds of Richard Matheson. Bradley has written introductions to limited editions of Matheson’s I Am Legend, Hell House, Noir: Three Novels of Suspense, and What Dreams May Come" http://bradleyonfilm.wordpress.com/about/

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McFarland offers this description of the book: "Though innumerable biographies have been written about novelists, playwrights, and poets, screenwriters are rarely granted this distinction, even ones as prolific and successful as Richard Matheson. He has occupied a unique position in cinema as the writer or original author of films from The Incredible Shrinking Man in 1957 through I Am Legend in 2007. This book documents his rise to prominence, parallel literary career, and role in the horror and science fiction renaissance. In chronological order, the exhaustively indexed narrative examines each film written by Matheson or based on his work, with sections devoted to episodic television (including The Twilight Zone) and unproduced projects."

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The book is listing at $45 and can be purchased here: http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-4216-4

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King and Matheson:

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I'm most familiar with Richard Matheson from The Twilight Zone. However, he appears to be a favorite of Stephen King.

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King has talked about how Matheson inspired him. He wrote in the introduction to I Am Legend, "When people talk about genre, I guess they mention my name first, but without Richard Matheson I wouldn’t be around. He is as much my father as Bessie Smith was Elvis Presley’s mother. He came when he was needed, and these stories hold all their original hypnotic appeal."

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The novel Cell is dedicated to Matheson. His familiarity with Matheson's work is evident in Danse Macabre, where Matheson gets no less than eight mentions.

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King and his son Joe Hill partnered with Matheson in an audio book called Road Rage. King and Hill wrote "Throttle" while Matheson contributed his novella "Duel." Duel was made into a movie by Spielberg.

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Marriage

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Matheson offers an interesting insights on marriage and writing. This is from William P. Simmons interview with Matheson which originally appeared in Cemetery Dance magazine.

Matheson says, "you can see my mentality change in the stories which I published in chronological order. In my earlier stories, when I lived by myself in Brooklyn, marriage was like some frightening phenomenon to me. It did not turn out well in my stories. Then I came to California, met my wife, fell in love, and got married. So after that scary things happened to the man and his wife. Then we had children. And that changed my attitude even more. Scary things now happened to me, my wife, and my children. They became a part of my life. Every writer, I think, only profits by being married and having a family.

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When Simmons asked if there was more he wanted to say on the subject, Matheson said, "To get married and have a family, is to grow up and mature. It’s the only way. You can read philosophy books for a hundred years, but if you don’t get married and have a family you will never get it. They soften you and shape you, mature you. Absolutely." http://www.rodserling.com/wsimmons/Richard_Matheson.htm

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Makes me interested in reading things by King before he was married. Of course, most of that kind of stuff is strictly off limits to us mortals.

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Brian Keene:

That king has eclipsed Matheson in popular culture is expressed by Brian Keene (a wonderful author in his own right who does not like being compared to Stephen King). Keene retells this conversation with his mother:

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My mother often calls to tell me that Stephen King is on The Today Show, Good Morning America, Entertainment Tonight, or whatever else she’s watching. She clips articles from Time Magazine and People, and gives them to me when I come to visit. And then she says, “Why don’t you go on these shows?”
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“I don’t know, Mom. I’ve been featured twice in The New York Times. And Fangoria put me on page sixteen! They never put authors at the front of the mag. Doesn’t that count for something?”
“Yes, but you haven’t been on The Today Show like Stephen King.”
“I was on The History Channel, Mom.”
“But not with Matt Lauer. You should ask Stephen King to get you an interview with Matt Lauer.”
“You should investigate some of these new Alzheimer’s medications.”
“I bet Stephen King is nice to his mother.”
“I doubt it. She probably asks him if he knows Richard Matheson.”
“Who?”
“Exactly.” http://www.briankeene.com/?p=2289

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That's funny!

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Okay, there's a lot more connections to be made in the future. But I just wanted to say that it's exciting to have a new Matheson book out.