As I’ve said before, Richard Matheson has probably influenced more writers than any other author alive. Three generations of men and women have borrowed both his singular storytelling skills and the peerless ways he structures his fiction, short and long alike. Barry Hoffman at Gauntlet Press has created a unique Matheson library of TV and film scripts, short novels and short stories new and old. Now he’s begun MATHESON UNCOLLECTED: VOLUME ONE.

Here, we have a range of short stories, all of them excellent, plus an aborted novel from the 1950s about a married couple aboard a transport rocket ship headed to a moon colony where humans have already set up shop The richness of ideas and emotions make for an unfinished piece of writing that makes you wish Matheson had finished it.

“The Enemy Within” was one of the STAR TREK’s first true standouts. Here, you’ll find the shooting script for the episode. Tony Albarella’s comments throughout the book are extremely well-done and never more so than when he discusses the history of this script. Gene Rodenberry had an ego — yes, he did.

When you take a few steps back to appreciate the astonishing amount of exemplary work that Matheson has done in every field of fiction, you’ll see why he is considered the true master and why Gauntlet’s Matheson library is so important. —Ed Gorman

Buy it at Amazon or Gauntlet Press.

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• BLOOD LINES: RICHARD MATHESON’S DRACULA, I AM LEGEND, AND OTHER VAMPIRE STORIES by Richard Matheson
• BUTTON, BUTTON: UNCANNY STORIES by Richard Matheson
• I AM LEGEND by Richard Matheson
• THE RICHARD MATHESON COMPANION edited by Stanley Wiater, Matthew R. Bradley and Paul Stuve
• RICHARD MATHESON’S THE TWILIGHT ZONE SCRIPTS: VOLUME TWO edited by Stanley Wiater
• WOMAN by Richard Matheson