Editing Richard Matheson (section)

==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,<ref name=isfdb/> and attracted attention.<ref name="Guardian"/> 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-[[Idiom (language structure)|idiomatic]] English. Later that year, Matheson placed stories in the first and third issues of ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction]]'', a new monthly.<ref name=isfdb/> His first anthology of work was published in 1954.<ref name="Guardian"/> 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.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://rodserling.com/southern-california-sorcerers/ |last=Conlon |first=Christopher |title=Southern California Sorcerers |website=[[Rod Serling]] Memorial Foundation |date=October 31, 1999 |access-date=October 31, 2012}}</ref>

Matheson's first novel to be published, ''Someone Is Bleeding'', appeared from Lion Books in 1953.<ref name=isfdb/> In the 1950s, he published a handful of [[Western (genre)|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|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 (novel)|I Am Legend]]'' (1954, filmed as ''[[The Last Man on Earth (1964 film)|The Last Man on Earth]]'' in 1964, ''[[The Omega Man]]'' in 1971, and ''[[I Am Legend (film)|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 (film)|The Young Warriors]]'', though most of Matheson's plot was jettisoned. 

Matheson wrote teleplays for several television programs, including the [[Western fiction|Westerns]] ''[[Cheyenne (1955 TV series)|Cheyenne]]'', ''[[Have Gun – Will Travel]]'', and ''[[Lawman (TV series)|Lawman]]''.<ref name="NYTObit">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/26/books/richard-matheson-writer-of-haunted-science-fiction-and-horror-dies-at-87.html?_r=0|title=Richard matheson, Writer of Haunted Science Fictionand Horror, Dies at 87|newspaper=New York Times|access-date=June 26, 2013|first=Bruce|last=Weber|date=June 25, 2013}}</ref> He also wrote the ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series|Star Trek]]'' episode "[[The Enemy Within (Star Trek: The Original Series)|The Enemy Within]]" (1966). However, he is most closely associated with the American TV series ''[[The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series)|The Twilight Zone]]'', for which he wrote more than a dozen episodes,<ref name="NYTObit"/> including "[[Steel (The Twilight Zone)|Steel]]" (1963), "[[Nightmare at 20,000 Feet]]" (1963), "[[Little Girl Lost (The Twilight Zone)|Little Girl Lost]]" (1962), and "[[Death Ship (The Twilight Zone)|Death Ship]]" (1963). For all of his ''Twilight Zone'' scripts, Matheson wrote the introductory and closing statements spoken by creator [[Rod Serling]].<ref>
{{cite journal
 | last = Alexander
 | first = Chris
 | date = March 2011
 | issue = 301
 | title = The Legend of Richard Matheson
 | journal = Fangoria
 | location = New York City
 | page = 47
 | publisher = The Brooklyn Company, Inc. | quote = ...&nbsp;the things Serling said at the beginning and the end, in the wraparounds, which I wrote. I wrote all the wraparounds to my ''Twilight Zone'' episodes.}}</ref> He adapted five works of [[Edgar Allan Poe]] for [[Roger Corman]]'s Poe series, including ''[[House of Usher (film)|House of Usher]]'' (1960), ''[[The Pit and the Pendulum (1961 film)|The Pit and the Pendulum]] (1961)'', and ''[[The Raven (1963 film)|The Raven]]'' (1963).<ref name="Guardian"/> He was one of the key screenwriters in Corman's career.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.filmink.com.au/top-ten-corman-part-two-top-ten-screenwriters/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR2clQTrE4m5rieOcOGakJeraw6OnWdGitJp93Oe43GbNSsr8HqWOaOovEU_aem_AS2WH4eyyMsN5rT26gUjr-Xlwt06QIcwdteDnernKsa_FHY9LMUa56xblcdZO-wi66tDIp_SjgoEH_f1ZBKBWDhp|first=Sephen|last=Vagg|website=Filmink|date=13 May 2024|title=Top Ten Corman – Part Two: Top Ten Screenwriters}}</ref>

For [[Hammer Film Productions]], he wrote the screenplay for ''[[Fanatic (film)|Fanatic]]'' (1965; US title: ''Die! Die! My Darling!''), starring [[Tallulah Bankhead]] and [[Stefanie Powers]] and based on the novel ''Nightmare'' by [[Elizabeth Linington|Anne Blaisdell]]; he also adapted for Hammer [[Dennis Wheatley]]'s ''The Devil Rides Out'' (1968).<ref name="Guardian"/>

===1970s and 1980s===
In 1971, Mattheson's short story "Duel" was adapted into the [[Duel (1971 film)|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 film)|The Night Stalker]]'' (1972), one of two TV movies written by Matheson for producer [[Dan Curtis]], the other being ''[[The Night Strangler (film)|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 (1977 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 people|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 (film)|Somewhere in Time]]'' in 1980), and ''[[Hell House (novel)|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 (novel)|Earthbound]]'', wrote several screenplays for the TV series ''[[Amazing Stories (1985 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&nbsp;...'' (1995), dedicated to [[Robert Bloch]].

He also wrote the screenplays for several movies, including the comedy ''[[Loose Cannons (1990 film)|Loose Cannons]]'' (1990) and the television [[biographical film|biopic]] ''[[The Dreamer of Oz: The L. Frank Baum Story]]'' (1990), as well as a segment of ''[[Twilight Zone: Rod Serling's Lost Classics]]'' (1994) and segments of ''Trilogy of Terror II''. Matheson continued to write short stories, and two more of his novels were adapted by others for the big screen: ''[[What Dreams May Come (1978 novel)|What Dreams May Come]]'' (1998) and ''[[A Stir of Echoes]]'' (1999, as ''[[Stir of Echoes]]''). In 1999, Matheson published a non-fiction work, ''The Path'', inspired by his interest in psychic phenomena.<ref name="Guardian"/>

===21st century===
Many previously unpublished novels by Matheson appeared late in his career, as did various collections of his work and previously unpublished screenplays. He also wrote new works, such as the suspense novel ''Hunted Past Reason'' (2002)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://bloody-disgusting.com/news/17958/ |last=Miska |first=Brad |title=What Screams May Come: A Look at the Legendary Richard Matheson |website=[[Bloody Disgusting]] |date=November 4, 2009}}</ref> and the children's illustrated fantasy ''[[Abu and the 7 Marvels]]'' (2002).