Sad news for fans of genre fiction everywhere. Richard Matheson has died at the age 87.
What’s always surprised me is how few people know his name, even though he was easily one of the most influential authors of our age. To quote Neil Gaiman on his Twitter account, “[Matheson] was a giant, and YOU KNOW HIS STORIES, even if you think you don’t.” We especially, as zombie lovers, should know who he is, because zombies simply wouldn’t exist as they do today without this man. His novel, I Am Legend, was what inspired George Romero to make the original Night of the Living Dead, which in turn gave us the zombies we all know and love today. None of it would exist without Mr. Matheson.
But not only that, he gave us a lot of stories that we all know, and inspired a lot of horror writers. Stephen King and Anne Rice specifically are known for citing him as an inspiration for some of their works. Matheson was a very prolific author with novels, short stories, and screenplays galore. In addition to I Am Legend he wrote: The Incredible Shrinking Man; Stir of Echos; What Dreams May Come; screenplays for Star Trek, Alfred Hitchock and some of the best episodes of The Twilight Zone, (such as “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet,” “Steel,” and “Third From the Sun.”)
To be quite honest, I could go on for quite a long time about the many, many reasons that Richard Matheson was one of the greatest writers of our age and why you should get more familiar with his work. So to prevent myself from writing an entire biography I’m just going to say this: He was a literary genius and a master of his craft. He influenced us in more ways than we can count and most of us never knew it. A bright light of genre fiction has gone out. Let us celebrate his life by reading his works and watching the TV episodes and films that were inspired by his works. Me, I’ll be re-reading I Am Legend and watching some more of The Twilight Zone for the next few days. I hope you’ll stop by your local library and see if they have any of his books there.
