Monday, October 18, 2010

What I'm Reading Now: Richard Matheson on Screen


 
"While Richard Matheson has enjoyed a formidable and richly deserved reputation in the literary world since his first professionally published short story, "Born of Man and Woman," appeared in the summer 1950 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, he has also occupied a unique, and arguably as important, place in the cinema and television of the fantastic for more than fifty years.  Beginning with The Incredible Shrinking Man in 1957, Matheson's cinematic oeuvre epitomized and in many ways propelled an overall renaissance in horror, science fiction, and fantasy films, a genre that had been in significant decline since the Golden Age horror films of the 1930s and '40s was supplanted by the mostly mediocre science fiction films of the 50s."

 -- Matthew R. Bradley. Richard Matheson on Screen: A History of the Filmed Works. Foreword by Richard Matheson. ("Introduction," page 3; McFarland; 2010).

2 comments:

  1. One of my all-time favorite sci-fi, fantasy, horror author/screenwriters (along with Harlan Ellison). This looks like a great book, John. Perhaps, when you're done you'll post a review? I hope so. I couldn't help but recognize that the three images on the book cover represent the three film adaptations of one of Matheson's more important works, I AM LEGEND. It's almost a year to the day I posted on something about that book, in fact. This time of year does make one look back at it and the author. Thanks for this, John.

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  2. Hi Le0pard13:

    I will definitely post a review when I finish this book. Matheson is an amazing writer, and I am a great admirer of his work. So far, the book is very, very good; very thorough and interesting!

    Thanks,
    John

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