Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Who's Richard Matheson? He Was Legend.



Richard Matheson died yesterday. He was an author far too few people recognize. Many of my age are surprised to learn the same person wrote I Am Legend and What Dreams May Come. He wrote Hell House, one of the most influential ghost stories ever told, and my personal favorite. When you gather up his pseudo-scientific vampires, his new-age Heaven, his house of skeptics chasing ghosts, and add in The Shrinking Man inspiring the film craze of tiny people in peril (it beat Fantastic Voyage by nine years), you begin to realize he kickstarted a great deal of the Science Fiction of the last sixty years.

I Am Legend alone was adapted by Vincent Price (as "The Last Man on Earth"), Charlton Heston (as "The Omega Man") and Will Smith (finally, as "I Am Legend"). If Smith's I Am Legend flick seemed too much like zombie fiction for you, you'll come to realize Matheson not only pushed the modern more secular vampire on us, but a lot of what George Romero pulled out to invent the modern zombie. George Romero says so.

Did you see Real Steel? That was an adaptation of his short story, simply titled "Steel." It had also been adapted for an episode of The Twilight Zone, a show he wrote for frequently. He was often writing the intros Rod Serling's voice made famous. And he's the guy who wrote the gremlin on the wing of a plane that only William Shatner could see.

Do you like old school Star Trek? He wrote for it from the first season, starting with "The Enemy Within." He's the guy who split Kirk into two Good and Evil captains.

Stephen Spielberg's first movie was Duel, an adaptation of Matheson's short story of the same name. Matheson wrote the screenplay for him.

Matheson was a significant influence on Stephen King, Neil Gaiman and Joe Hill. In fact if you go read any random Matheson story, you'll find his voice eerily similar to those three writers. That's because they learned it from him. Even Chris Carter, the mastermind of The X-Files, credits Matheson for inspiring his series.

For my generation, Matheson seems to be the legend nobody's heard of. I've only read his work in recent years, though he's rapidly become one of my most respected authors. That short, "Duel"? I was reading it for the third time on an Amtrak train, and ten pages in, unconsciously turned around to make sure I wasn't being tailed by a truck. On a train.

An author can only dream of influencing fiction as much as Matheson can. I don't believe it's possible to plan to do it; you might be able to game the market for a sales hit, but not to capture hearts and minds with idea after idea. Richard Matheson was a god of ideas.

Like I said for Ray Bradbury, I'm not sorry Richard Matheson died. Everyone dies, and he was 87. Instead, I'm profoundly grateful he spent some of those years contributing so much to our speculative fiction. Our canon is significantly more robust for his work.

18 comments:

  1. Thank you. I will go and track some of his work down.

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    1. It's quite worth it. Which books are you thinking of trying?

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  2. We're lucky to have had such men contribute to the writing world. Nice post John.

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  3. I knew he's written some of those things, but didn't realize the extent of his work or influence. Really amazing.

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  4. I've seen all three versions of "I Am Legend". Vincent Price's was the creepiest.

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    1. That one's my favorite too, Tony. But I cherished Price.

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  5. I've loved everything I've read from him, but I haven't read nearly enough of what he wrote. I need to fix that. What Dreams May Come was a brilliant book.

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  6. Indeed, the legend nobody ever heard of. To be that influential, yet remain mostly behind the scenes, takes a special kind of talent and humility.

    Of the three Legend movies, I've only seen The Omega Man. The original movie (Vincent Price) is available on archive.org for downloading, and I have yet to sit down and watch it. I guess it'll have to be some day/night when I'm by myself, because the girlies wouldn't be interested & would object to Mason seeing it.

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    1. Yeah, the Price Last Man on Earth probably isn't okay for Mason just yet. Not a terrible use of an evening alone, though.

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  7. I saw this death tweeted yesterday but didn't know what books he had written. I've only seen the movie versions of some of his stories. Maybe I should find the books and check them out and see what I'm missing.

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    1. I can't recommend them enough. I Am Legend is his most popular work, but anything I mentioned in the post above is worth your time. The only one I can't speak to is What Dreams May Come - I haven't read it yet, though I own it and intended to make it part of my October reading this year.

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  8. This is the first I've heard about it. What an incredible mind. There aren't enough superlatives.

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  9. I read the news yesterday. I knew about some of his works, but not all of them. He was certainly a talented and influential man.

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  10. Thanks John for the great post! I didn't know him but as Neil Gaiman said I knew a bit of his stories. I'll make sure to read the originals!
    Thanks again!

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  11. Great summary of Matheson's work. I heard his name first during an SF course in university (can't remember which sorry story of his we read, but I remember discussing him), and finally read I Am Legend a couple of years ago after seeing the film. I wish they'd done something closer to the original ending.

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  12. "What Dreams May Come" was one of the strangest, most intriguing books I've ever read; I had absolutely no idea I was reading an author I already knew and loved from Duel, Start Trek and Twilight Zone. I'm glad I know now, and will try to credit him more appropriately posthumously than I did when he was alive.

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  13. I'm a fan of his work, but had no idea he'd done some of those things. I've got a lot of reading to do. And I can't wait to tell my Trekkie hubby! By the way, that gremlin one has stuck with me ever since I saw it as a kid.

    Shannon at The Warrior Muse

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