About the Book
The first career retrospective of terrifying stories by "one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century" (Ray Bradbury), as selected by award-winning author Victor LaValle
Among the greats of twentieth-century horror and fantasy, few names stand above Richard Matheson. Though known by many for novels like I Am Legend and his sixteen Twilight Zone episodes, Matheson truly shines in his chilling, masterful short stories. Since his first story appeared in 1950, virtually every major writer of science fiction and fantasy has fallen under his influence, including Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Peter Straub, and Joe Hill, as well as filmmakers like Stephen Spielberg and J. J. Abrams.
Matheson revolutionized horror by taking it out of Gothic castles and strange cosmos and into the darkened streets and suburbs we recognize as our own. He infused tales of the fantastic and supernormal with dark explorations of human nature, delving deep into the universal dread of feeling alone and threatened in a dangerous world. The Best of Richard Matheson brings together his greatest hits as chosen by Victor LaValle, an expert on horror fiction and one of its brightest talents, marking the first major overview of Matheson's legendary career.
About the Author :
Richard Matheson (1926-2013) was born in New Jersey and started living and working in California in 1951. In addition to novels in the mystery, science fiction, horror, fantasy, and western fields, he wrote many film and television scripts, including "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" from The Twilight Zone. He also wrote episodes of Have Gun, Will Travel, Night Gallery, and Star Trek. Several of his novels and stories have been made into movies, including The Shrinking Man, I Am Legend, and What Dreams May Come (starring Robin Williams). Over the course of his career he won the World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award, the Bram Stoker Award for Life Achievement, the Hugo Award, the Edgar Allan Poe Award, the Golden Spur Award, and the Writer's Guild Award.
Victor LaValle is the author of the short-story collection Slapboxing with Jesus and the novel The Ecstatic, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. Victor LaValle is the author of the short-story collection Slapboxing with Jesus and the novel The Ecstatic, a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award. Donald Corren is a stage, television, and voice actor whose work has been featured on and off Broadway, in regional theaters, and behind animated characters. He was trained in the theater division of the Juilliard School.
Peter Berkrot is a veteran of both stage and screen, having appeared in Caddyshack, Brotherhood, Unsolved Mysteries, and more. A prominent acting coach and a regular contributor to the award-winning news program Frontline, he was the director of narration for the Emmy-nominated The Truth About Cancer. His voice can be heard on television, radio, video games, documentaries, and industrials. An Audie Award nominee and the winner of multiple Earphones Awards, he has recorded over 170 audiobooks. Richard Powers has published thirteen novels. He is a MacArthur Fellow and received the National Book Award. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Overstory, and Bewilderment was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
Hillary Huber is a multiple Audie Award finalist, an AudioFile Earphones Award winner, and an AudioFile Best Voice. She has recorded over 550 titles, spanning many genres. A huge fan of audiobooks, when she's not narrating one, she's listening to one! Traber Burns worked for thirty-five years in regional theater, including the New York, Oregon, and Alabama Shakespeare festivals. He also spent five years in Los Angeles appearing in many television productions and commercials, including Lost, Close to Home, Without a Trace, Boston Legal, Grey's Anatomy, Cold Case, Gilmore Girls, and others.
Scott Brick has narrated bestsellers and Pulitzer Prize winners for every major publisher, over 1000 titles since his debut in 1999, including Jurassic Park, The Hunt for Red October, In Cold Blood, and many more. In addition to two Grammy nominations, eight Voice Arts Awards, and over sixty Earphones Awards, he's also received seven Audie Awards, including two for his work on the Dune saga. In 2004, AudioFile magazine named Brick "one of the fastest-rising stars in the audiobook galaxy," and in 2017 he was an inaugural inductee into Audible's Hall of Fame.
Robertson Dean has recorded hundreds of audiobooks in most every genre. He's been nominated for several Audie Awards, won eight Earphones Awards, and was named one of AudioFile magazine's Best Voices of 2010. He lives in Los Angeles, where he records books and acts in film, TV, and (especially) on stage. Devon Sorvari is an Earphones Award-winning and Audie Award-nominated narrator. She graduated from NYU's Circle in the Square program and the Classical Studio.
Kevin Kenerly, an Earphones Award-winning narrator, earned a BA at Olivet College. A longtime member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, he has acted in more than twenty seasons, playing dozens of roles.
Review :
"[A] welcome, Halloween-timed retrospective collection...Only Matheson could make you believe in these preposterous-seeming stories. And leave you wanting more."
-- "Los Angeles Times"
"Make[s] a strong case for Richard Matheson as the most influential American writer of 'fantastika' between Lovecraft and Stephen King."
-- "Washington Post"
"Matheson...was the master of a particular kind of story in which puzzlement turns gradually to acceptance of an impossible-seeming reality and ultimately to full-blown panic...Matheson's horror is for grown-ups, those who have lost the easy credulity of the very young...He's an ideal writer to read right now, because--as grown-ups know--we live in unbelievable times."
-- "New York Times Book Review"
"Richard Matheson is one of the giants of genre writing, and his talents are on full display...This collection demonstrates the indelible influence he had on speculative literature."
-- "Publishers Weekly"
"Tension and scares aplenty...These chilling page-turners still hold up, serving as an excellent starting point for a new generation of readers."
-- "Kirkus Reviews"
