Richard Matheson (1926-2013)

Matheson was a brilliant fantasist whose clean prose carved the conceptual landscape for much of what we experience in the realm of film and television today. From his fertile mind came potent episodes for THE TWILIGHT ZONE, STAR TREK, NIGHT GALLERY, and AMAZING STORIES. His novel I AM LEGEND—a seminal influence for Stephen King among other subsequent authors—was filmed thrice, though it seems each successive version lessened his work.

He adapted Poe for Corman, DRACULA for Curtis (with Palance as a memorable Vlad turned vampire), and his DUEL helped launch Spielberg. THE NIGHT STALKER showed us how the harsh, seedy and predatory world of Las Vegas could be made even more brutal with the addition of a vampire with the noiresque reporter Kolchak hot on his trail. 

HELL HOUSE, a novel riffing on Jackson’s THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, unashamedly celebrates his admiration for her elegant storytelling, and adds a far more explicit erotic aspect that still awaits a proper cinematic adaptation. There is so much more. He was even composing a symphony influenced by the style of Gustav Mahler, whose Ninth Symphony was the catalyst for time travel in Matheson’s novel BID TIME RETURN.

Read his tales. I would admonish you to watch the products of his screenplays—but you most likely already have. He was a master and his legacy has become the foundation for much that we have seen and will see for many years to come. We will always be moved by his dark dreams.

Hail Richard Matheson!

—Magus Peter H. Gilmore