Editing Richard Matheson (section)

===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"/>