Regular readers of this site don’t need another reminder of Richard Matheson’s greatness, but one’s certainly not going to kill you, either. THE TWILIGHT AND OTHER ZONES: THE DARK WORLDS OF RICHARD MATHESON is a tribute to one of fantastic fiction’s all-time greatest practitioners, with some big names contributing loving essays toward the man and his work.
Stanley Wiater, Matthew R. Bradley and Paul Stuve serve as editors of this collection — a mix of content old and new. Roughly half of the book is comprised of the tributes; the other half is a virtual checklist for Matheson completists, covering the prolific author’s novels, short stories, anthology appearances, comic adaptations, films, TV shows, stage plays and what he had for dinner last Wednesday. Okay, maybe not dinner.
Matheson has always remained a private person, so it’s nice to get a glimpse into his personal life, through Wiater’s remembrance of being allowed to interview him for a TV series, and William F. Nolan’s longtime friendship. Matheson’s wife and kids all contribute kind words, as well (they’re biased, obviously).
Jack Ketchum talks about how deeply affected he was at I AM LEGEND, while Dean Koontz does the same for HELL HOUSE. Harlan Ellison and David Morrell both discuss THE SHRINKING MAN, with the latter really delving deep into the novel’s sexual themes. Ed Gorman recommends a few Matheson works that aren’t among his top-of-mind ones, but are no less deserving of your attention.
The two most interesting pieces to me had to do with publishing. Gauntlet Press’ Barry Hoffman recounts his history with assembling limited editions of Matheson’s work, and it’s neat to see how a small, indie press approaches such projects. Similarly, Greg Cox reveals the wizard behind the curtain that is the editing process, discussing his nearly two-decade stint as Matheson’s publisher at Tor/Forge.
Matheson himself has a few words, via a transcript of a 1977 World Fantasy Convention speech, and chatting about his thoughts of all the screen adaptations of his stuff, in an interview with Matthew R. Bradley. As if that weren’t enough, Brian Lumley, Joe R. Lansdale, F. Paul Wilson, Gahan Wilson and Dennis Etchison throw in their two cents, too.
I walked away from this collection with a deeper appreciation for the legendary writer, as well as a short list of books I don’t yet have and need to check out. Thus, you can call this TWILIGHT a success. —Rod Lott
OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF RICHARD MATHESON:
• BLOOD LINES: RICHARD MATHESON’S DRACULA, I AM LEGEND, AND OTHER VAMPIRE STORIES by Richard Matheson
• BUTTON, BUTTON: UNCANNY STORIES by Richard Matheson
• HE IS LEGEND: AN ANTHOLOGY CELEBRATING RICHARD MATHESON edited by Christopher Conlon
• I AM LEGEND by Richard Matheson
• MATHESON UNCOLLECTED: VOLUME ONE 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
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the nice review. Glad you liked my essay, as well as those of the other contributors.
The Matheson juggernaut continues forward, btw. We have a new movie version of THE BOX due out in November, plus Forge will be reprinting all of Richard’s western novels in the next year or so. I’m personally having a good time reading through them all again . . . .
Glad to hear it! Matheson’s Westerns are some of his best writing, and they don’t get the attention they deserve.
Those Westerns are part of what I put on my to-get list, actually!