Top image: I Am Legend concept art.
Over the years, I’ve preached the gospel of Richard Matheson to anyone who would listen. There’s a spiel I used to do at Tor sales conferences, whenever we were presenting a new Matheson title, which went something like this:
“Even if you’ve never read one of his books or stories, or recognize his name, you know Richard Matheson. It was impossible to grow up in America and the world without being exposed to his work. The gremlin on the wing of the plane? Matheson. That Star Trek episode where Kirk split into two people? Matheson. The Incredible Shrinking Man, Somewhere in Time, Duel, The Night Stalker, What Dreams May Come? Matheson. That new robot boxing movie? Matheson.”
And that’s not even mentioning all those cool old Vincent Price movies he scripted for Roger Corman. Or the story that was turned into an episode of Family Guy. (Really.) Or all times his work has been parodied on The Simpsons. It was almost impossible to imagine what the genre would be like without his many, many contributions.
Richard and I began working together in 1992, when I eagerly volunteered to edit his new novel,Seven Steps to Midnight, which had just been acquired by Tor. I confess to being a bit intimidated at first. Richard was a living legend who had literally been writing classics before I was born. Heck, I had celebrated my high school graduation by seeing The Legend of Hell House at a Seattle movie theater and had been arguing for years that I Am Legend was the most important vampire novel since Bram Stoker’s Dracula. But I soon discovered that Richard was anything but intimidating. In the twenty-plus years we worked together, he was always remarkably soft-spoken, courteous, and open to editorial suggestions. He was no prima donna.
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