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Richard Matheson: Collected Stories Vol. 1 edited by Stanley Wiater
01/02/2004 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
pub: Edge Books/Gauntlet Press. 399 page enlarged paperback. Price: $16.95 (US), $24.95 (CAN). ISBN: 1-887368-62-0. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.gauntletpress.com
More work of the legendary Twilight Zone scriptwriter Richard Matheson only this time covering his early short story tenure. This is the first of three volumes reprinting Matheson's Collected Stories 1989 limited edition.
With this number of pages per volume this reviewer is happy to be reading it in 28 story chunks than all at once. Then again, I'm a great believer in holding a book in my hands than struggling not to damage it.
Reading Matheson's earliest works, together with his own side comments on how what had been going through his head and self-assessment of how good the material was, is a great learning experience. Matheson's greatest strengths comes from describing a scene and producing instantly interesting characters with accompanying dialogue. A couple stories in this volume are solely dialogue based and is no wonder that they indicated his future in scriptwriting.
You're also seeing several stories in their original form before being adapted into Twilight Zone episodes. Although I haven't seen many of the original episodes in many a year, it would be interesting to compare the two formats.
The simplicity of Matheson's technique is more a focus on the importance of events which is also how TV work is put together.
This doesn't deny the quality of the work but shows a clean style is always an effective seller. With some of the stories I also got the inkling that Matheson didn't intend to become an SF author. He often cites that he literally tacked on an SF type ending to ensure he made a sell to a particular editor.
No doubt this reflects much of the early 50s where and how you could sell your stories.
To pick out individual stories as worth looking at is really difficult in Matheson's case. Even the odd couple stories I didn't think were particularly effective was also indicated that he thought could have been better as well. This really is a warts and all book and not just indicating his best material. Where the material is great makes it difficult to say something is better than others without slighting the rest.
It's interesting to observe that Matheson frequently uses a professional writer as his protagonist obviously using himself as a template. These days, such actions would be frowned on although Matheson does vary it with other professions to ensure this pattern is broken up.
This book should be on the reading list of all neo-writers to study Matheson's early technique and realise things haven't changed much in the past half century.
If you're just a reader then you'll going to find this some valuable time savouring a master in his development stage. If you're a developing or long-term writer, then now's the time to learn from a master. Can't wait for his next volume.
GF Willmetts
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