Matheson, Richard

Richard Matheson was born on February 20, 1926 in Allendale (state of New Jersey ) in the family of Bertolph and Fanny Matheson, immigrants from Norway . The writer's childhood passed in Brooklyn ( New York ). His first story, which Richard wrote at the age of eight, was published in the local newspaper The Brooklyn Eagle ^[3] .

In 1943, after graduating from the Brooklyn Technical School , Matheson enters military service and participates in the Second World War as part of the infantry, which he later writes about in his autobiographical novel, “Beardless Warriors” ( 1960 ).

After the war, Richard Matheson studied journalism at the University of Missouri and in 1949 received a bachelor 's degree in journalism.

In 1951, he moved to California , and July 1, 1952 marries Ruth Ann Woodson. The couple gives birth to four children, three of whom are Chris , Richard Christian and Ali - later, like his father, will become writers and screenwriters.

Having read fairy tales and science fiction stories as a child, he realized his dream of becoming a professional writer - in 1950, the magazine “The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction” published his first fantastic story about a mutant child with unnatural vocabulary “Born of Man and Woman” (translated as “Born by a man and a woman” and “Born by people”), ^[3] and in 1954 a whole collection of his stories will be published under the same name. Matheson once admitted that as a father of four children, he would not have written such a story as “Born by People”.

After moving to California in 1951, he soon turned to writing stories full of chilling horror , mysticism , and fantasy (“White Silk Dress”, “Drink My Blood”, “The Witch's War”, 1951; “Crazy House”, “Corresponding to the Crime” , 1952; "House of Massacre", "Wet Straw", 1953, etc.). He does not disdain the detective genre - in 1953 his novels “Fury on Sunday” and “Someone Is Bleeding” were published.

Some of Matheson's stories have an original ending ( sketches “Third from the Sun”, 1950); “Deadline”, 1959 and “Button, Button”, 1970), others carefully examine the characters of heroes (“Trespass”, 1953; “Being”, 1954 and “Mute”, 1962), while others are saturated with satire on genre cliches (“The Funeral” ", 1955 and" The Doll that Does Everything ", 1954).

In 1954 ^[3] “I Am Legend” appeared, his classic novel about the pandemic of vampirism caused by the spread of the virus, and about the last person in the world inhabited exclusively by vampires . The idea of ​​the novel appeared under the impression of the film “Dracula” when Matheson said to himself: “what if there is a whole world instead of one vampire ?!” ^{[4] The} novel “I Am A Legend” was filmed four times: “The Last Man on Earth” (1964 ), Omega Man (1971), I Am Omega , I Am Legend (both 2007), and not only glorified the author, but also spawned a series of works about vampires of various authors in the 1970s . ^[four]

Matison was also no less famous for the film adaptation of The Shrinking Man (1957, The Shrinking Man, another name for The Way Down ). Having reduced to the size of a cucumber under the influence of radioactive fallout, the hero of the novel is forced to fight his own cat, a spider living in the basement, which has become a formidable force for him.

In the late 1950s, Matheson became the screenwriter of the American International Pictures film company, which made a significant contribution to the development of horror films - Richard adapts a number of works by Edgar Allan Poe (scenarios The Fall of the Asher House , 1960; The Well and the Pendulum , 1961; Horror Stories , 1962 and Raven , 1963). Working on the works of Edgar Allan Poe , Richard made comic notes in the script, and “Crow” turned into a sparkling comedy.

In 1962, together with Charles Beaumont, he wrote a script based on the novel by Fritz Leiber “The Witch” (“Night of the Eagle” in England and “Burn, witch, burn” in the USA). Matheson turns to the work of Jules Verne and writes scripts for films based on his two novels, The Creator of the World and Robur the Conqueror. Matheson’s brilliant stories are published in five collections (1961-1970) of the series “Shock” (“Crickets”, “First Anniversary”, 1960; “Girl of My Dreams”, “Ah, this Julia!”, 1963; “Production”, 1969; and many others). He combined most of his stories (86 works) in the collection “The Collection of Stories of Richard Matheson” (1989). In 1986, all the scripts written by Matheson for the series Twilight Zone came out as a separate book.

In 1971, the film “ Duel ” was directed by Stephen Spielberg . ^[5] The scenario was based on Matheson’s personal experience, when he and his friend, returning along a deserted road after playing golf, were chased for a long time by a heavy truck, whose paranoid driver turned a usual duel into life and death. In 1972, Matheson adapted Jeff Rice ’s novel “The Night Stalker” for the movie, in 1973 - his own novel “The Hell House” for the film “The Legend of the Hell House”, ^[4] in 1975 - creates the “Terror Trilogy” ", And in 1980," Somewhere in Time "appears. Matheson regularly wrote scripts for the television series Twilight Zone, ^[5] including the famous series Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, The Invaders, Steel, and others. In 1986, Matheson publishes all of his scripts in this series as a separate book. Matheson was often published, and is the record holder for the number of variants of his last name (Matson, Mafson, Matheson) on the covers of books.

In the 1990s , Matheson is still in the saddle - he publishes a series of Western books (Journal of the Gun Years, The Gun Fight, By the Gun). ^[4] In 1998, based on his novel “What Dreams May Come”, they shot the film “ Where Dreams May Come,” starring Robin Williams , ^[4] and in 1999 there was another film adaptation called “Echo of Echo”. The next master’s novels are published (“Abu and the 7 Marvels” and “Hunted Past Reason”, 2002; “Come Fygures, Come Shadowes”, 2003).

Three of his four children (Chris, Richard Christian and Ali) followed in his father's footsteps and became writers and screenwriters. The most famous father’s namesake, Richard Christian Matheson, adds confusion when discussing authorship of works. Together they wrote the story “Where there is a desire” (1980).

The last major work of the author was the novel "Generations", published in 2012 ^[6] .

Richard Matheson died on June 23, 2013 in Los Angeles, USA.

• Bibliography of Richard Matheson

(The list is incomplete)

• 1957 - The Incredible Shrinking Man (adaptation of the novel " The Shrinking Man ")
• 1964 - The Last Man on Earth (The film adaptation of the novel "I am a Legend")
• 1971 - The Omega Man / The Omega Man (film adaptation of the novel "I am a Legend")
• 1971 - The Duel (adaptation of the story "Duel")
• 1973 - The Legend of Hell House (adaptation of the novel "Hell House")
• 1974 - Icy chest / Les seins de glace (based on the novel “Someone's Bleeding”)
• 1975 - Trilogy of Terror / Trilogy of Terror /
• 1977 - Under cover of night / Dead of Night
• 1980 - Somewhere in Time (film adaptation of the novel "The Big Return in Time")
• 1996 - Trilogy of Terror 2 /
• 1998 - What Dreams May Come (adaptation of the novel "Where Dreams Come ")
• 1999 - Echo of Echo / Stir of Echoes (film adaptation of the novel “Echo of Echo”)
• 2007 - I am a legend / I am Legend (adaptation of the novel "I am a Legend")
• 2009 - Package / The Box (adaptation of the story "Button, Button")
• 2011 - Real Steel / Real Steel (film adaptation of the story "Steel Man")

Rewards

The acclaimed American writer and screenwriter in the horror genre, Richard Burton Matheson, has received many diverse awards:

• Edgar A. Poe (in the detective genre ).
• Hugo (in science fiction ).
• “The Golden Spur” (“Spur” - for Western ).
• Award for the World Fantasy Award in the category Best novel for Somewhere in Time (1976).
• Bram Stoker Award (Richard Matheson: Collected Stories, 1990).
• Bram Stoker Award (Lifetime Achievement Award, 1991, cumulative).
• Writers Guild Award (The Living Legend of Horror, 2000).
• Grand Master of Horror (1993).
• Winner of the World Fantasy Award , (1984).

Recognition

• Many of Matheson’s works are difficult to classify as one particular genre, and critics have nicknamed him “the destroyer of genres.”
• Ray Bradbury considered Matheson "one of the most significant writers of the XX century " ^[7] .
• Stephen King called Matheson “the author who influenced me the most as a writer” ^[7] .
• Dean Kunz admitted that "we have become clearly richer, having Richard Matheson among us."

• Richard Matheson at the Internet Movie Database
• Richard Matheson in the library of Maxim Moshkov
• Bibliography on the Fantasy Laboratory website