Richerd Matheson was the master of the Anthologies. For a time, an anthology could not be printed without a Matheson short story. We had these Scholastic magazine as young students, and they had "Born of Man and Woman" in the magazine. Our teacher thought the story was ill suited for children. Our school's library had had numerous anthologies with the better pulp stories in them. That's were I read "The Monkey's Paw", and "A voice in the Fog." As young child you could read Richerd Matheson, Shirly Jackson, Fritz leiber, Saki. Then something happened, and everyone was reading Goose Bumps.
Definitely, I will read Matheson as soon as possible. I like to read short stories. I recommended to you Daphné Du Maurier, “Don't look now”, very good, you will like her. She also wrote “The Birds”, Hitchcock did the movie based on her story. Cortazar is a good short stories' writer, playing with the fantastic, strange and mystery. By the way, I started to read “The Terror”, that you recommended some weeks ago and… I love it! Have a good day and I wish you a good new year!
Hah that thumbnail made me smile so hard. Hilarious! I Am Legend totally blew me away when I first read it. I've always wanted to read more from him. He reminds me a bit of Philip K. Dick, with his short stories that really make you think and have very interesting ideas. Definitely my type of fiction! Thanks for the video!
Button, Button was filmed as The Box, with Cameron Diaz. His novel Hell House was filmed by you Brits as Legend of Hell House. And his book Stir of Echoes was filmed with same title and Kevin Bacon.
Clive Barker…Books of Blood Joe Hill…..20th century ghost stories Peter Straub…..Magic Terror Highly recommend these…also Bentley Little..The Collection
I have read Matheson’s collections _Button, Button_ and _Nightmare at 20,000 Feet._ Both are great. For other short stories that take an idea and run with it, I recommend science fiction writer Larry Niven. He has some great collections such as _All the Myriad Ways, Neutron Star,_ and _Tales of Known Space._
The actor in the film duel that you couldn’t remember is Dennis Weaver. Excellent story and ranks as one of my top films ever. I will explore this author further now
Thanks for a really excellent overview of Richard Matheson's work. He is indeed a giant in this field, but there are so many fine authors with splendid collections out there that it becomes a bit of an impossibility to compile a list! I am really in love with the much older type of supernatural / horror stories : people like Algernon Blackwood, John Metcalfe, Oliver Onions, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, E. F. Benson and M.R. James. These guys are always good for a shiver or two. Other favourites include Robert Bloch, Elizabeth Walter and Ray Bradbury. There is one particular multi-author collection that will always remain one of my treasured possessions. Lie Ten Nights Awake was published as a paperback original by Hodder and Stoughton in 1967. The editor was the famous Herbert van Thal. Some of the contributors were William Sansom, John Burke and Anthony Burgess. You are probably very familiar with this book. I've always regarded it as a classic, if only for a truly unsettling story called The Green Boy by Mariana Villa-Gilbert.
It is a pity that Beaumont got early onset Alzheimer’s at 34 and died of it at 38. I am certain he would have been as big as Matheson and Bradbury if he had lived.
@@Zozette27 I understand death. What I don’t understand is losing your mind and there being nothing you can do about it. It’s especially sad to see it happen to someone as young as Beaumont even though it bothers me to see it happen to someone a hundred years old.
Ahhh this video was such a pleasure to see. Richard Matheson is easily a contender for my favourite writer and I was collecting his short story books when I was a teenager so they’ve been a big part of my life. I need to do my favourite Matheson stories.
Dennis Weaver was the actor in Duel. He was also Chester on Gunsmoke for many years. Duel is one of my all-time favorite films, what a great thrilling story that could actually happen to anyone especially in this day and age.
Hi Olly, Button, Button was filmed in 2009 as The Box, by director Richard Kelly most well known for Donnie Darko. Kelly never replicated the success of his first film, Southland Tales was a disaster and The Box was not well received. I Have no idea what he's doing today. it's a shame, Donnie Darko is a wonderful film which he directed when he was only 26 years old.
Thanks so much for this review! From the novels I’ve read so far, Matheson is one of my favourite authors but I’ve never read his short stories, so will definitely check these out! I love his writing style. It’s so clear and you’re right it really pulls you in.
We read the Button, Button story at school and it left quite an impression! I found it wonderfully morbid. The class had a discussion about what we would have done if we got the button. And also what we thought of the ending and the implication of it.
If your a fan of the Matt Scudder or Amos Walker novels by Lawrence Block and Loren D. Estleman respectively, you'll love their short stories. They really seem to have a grasp of the shorter form of mystery story, which can't be said for everyone. The short story is a difficult thing to master. Of course there's also Hammett and Chandler who started in the pulps and perfected the short story before they published any of their longer novels.
Excellent choice Olly! Matheson was a wonderful author in every genre he tried. Especially the Westerns. Even won the Spur Award for best novel.👍 A quite nice man too. Got to meet him in 1993 & we corresponded after that. Couldn't believe someone as famous as he was took time to reply.
re Duel: Dennis Weaver. He can write in any genre, a sign of a good/great writer I think. I stay away from writers that only write in one genre (eg. Jordan, Sanderson). Those two Westerns are GREAT !! Dont wait until JoTR, read them now !
I love the story, The Near Departed, about the guy who’s coordinating the details of his wife’s funeral with a funeral director. The last line still creeps me out. Shadow on the Sun is a great Matheson Horror/Western novel worth checking out. And, as far as short story collections, I’ve been recommending Adam Nevill’s Wyrd and Other Derelictions. I’ve never read anything quite like it.
Great review, Olly. I agree, Matheson was an amazing writer. I have just picked up the Penguin edition on Kindle. Can't wait to get into it. One of my favourite short story writers is Roald Dahl. Like Matheson, he's a master of the unexpected. Can I also recommend Dahl's adult novel, My Uncle Oswald (If you haven't already read it). I real departure from his children novels but no less brilliant.
Before I saw your comment I asked Olly about Roald Dahl, too. He's written some good ones for Hitchcock presents. I'd like to hear more about his work for grown-ups. 🤗
@@joanthompson5606 Absolutely. Many of Dahl's short stories feature in episodes of the excellent British series, Tales of The Unexpected, which he also hosted. As I said, his very adult novel, My Uncle Oswald is brilliant and one of my favs. He has many editions of adult short stories and if you search them out, I'm sure complete collections won't be too hard to find. Short story collections include, Kiss Kiss, Over To You, Switch Bitch and Someone Like You. Enjoy!
Richard Matheson wrote some great short stories, and I've always felt that horror works so much better in the shorter format! I'd recommend Nadia Bulkin's collection She Said Destroy, and Paula D. Ashe's We Are Here to Hurt Each Other.
I love his short stories. His son Richard Christian Matheson is an excellent short story writer too. He put out a few collections in the 1990s. There are too many short story writers I love. Some of my favorite contemporary horror short story writers include: John Langan, Laird Barron. Reggie Oliver, Mark Samuels, Richard Gavin, Joe R. Lansdale. Some of my favorite literary (but still weird) short story writers include: Bruno Schulz and Dino Buzatti.
Olly, I picked up the Penguin Classics copy when it was a deal on BookBub for $2 - just before the reading challenge began. ☺️ I think it was money well spent! 👏🏻As you say, can’t wait to dip into it. - 📚MJ
Great video! I’m much happier reading short stories lately than novels, my current favorite is Brian Evenson, he’s definitely on the weird side of literary horror. I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never actually read any Richard Matheson, though I’ve enjoyed many of his screen adaptations. Another book to add to the 2023 pile!
I love Richard Matheson, you may not like my favorite novel, it is Bid Time Return, which became the movie Somewhere In Time. My favorite of his several Twilight Zones is Little Girl Lost, it is so haunting that a hole in our Universe could appear in a little girl's room and she would get lost in another world just by falling out of bed. I had the honor of meeting him at reading of his new book at the time and a signing, he was a very nice man.
I am quite addicted to your posts! Almost all fantastic and interesting! Keep up the great work! Love your descriptions and synopsises ! I have a couple novels of his - one became a Kevin bacon staring movie and that one was really good! (Stir of echoes I think !?!). Also read that fantastic short story about the terrorizing Zulu doll warrior guy ! Awesome how he makes that story seem so vivid it somehow becomes highly plausible and very very scary! Great author! And yes, the I am legend praise (for the book - will smith movie was only okay- read the book first folks- it is quite good!)
Of course I love Stephen Kings short stories, like Skeleton Crew! Such great stories that really stick with you. Or the one with “1408”, I think it’s in Everything’s Eventual. Will have to check out your recommendations too! Take car Olly, have a good night! 😊🇨🇦
Here’s a recommendation for you! I like the short stories of Michael Marshall Smith. His anthology ‘What You Make It’ has some creepy stuff in. My favourite in the book is ‘Hell Hath Enlarged Herself’. It’s similar to Stephen King’s ‘The End of the Whole Mess’.
@@CriminOllyBlog I tend to read a lot of horror anthologies, and I noticed that Smith was often represented in many "best of" anthologies, and that his stories were always the best or one of the best tales in these books. Then I bought a few of his collections, and they were terrific. I must admit, though, that I have yet to read any of his novels.
If you like Richard Matheson you will like Charles Beaumont. He wrote a lot of short stories several of which were turned into scripts for The Twilight Zone. I used to buy short story collections if they had just one of his stories because at that time they didn't have published collections of his. Give him a try.
I read I Am Legend back in the day before the movies and I agree, the book is much better than either of the films. Oddly I haven’t read any of his short stories although I saw the Serling adaptations when they first aired and I’m currently making my way through the entire series on BluRay. My favorite short story author is Chekhov, his work is brilliant and he wrote quite a number of classic tales that are well worth reading.
I'm from Mexico, I knew about Richard Matheson through the movies and the twilight zone, great stories... it is almost impossible to find a Richard Matheson antology in spanish, so I bought the penguin anthology 😊... I feel curious about Shirley Jackson, she is not very known in my country.
I love Matheson, also JGBallard (Drowned World, Empire of the Sun) and David Brin (The Postman). And B Traven is one of my favorite short western story writers.
Matheson is a favorite. I also loved Charles Beaumont (who also wrote for Twilight Zone) and the 1980s writer Dennis Etchison, mentored under Beaumont.
Hi Olly. Matheson is great, I think "Stir of Echoes" is too long for the Anthologies so is difficult to hunt down, but worth it. In one of your " Q&A's" you mentioned reading some Bukowski and I think it's pretty much accepted that his best books are the short story collections " Tales of Ordinary Madness" and " The Most Beautiful Woman in Town". Keep up the good work.
Glad you made this video. For as prolific and as respected as matheson is by the reading community as well as other writers and directors, there’s not one list of best Richard matheson novels or best short stories on google that I saw. And his books have remarkably few ratings on goodreads. Kinda sad, and it seems like outside of I am legend even horror readers don’t know a ton of his stuff. However what a great career he had, novels, short stories, screenplays for television and film. Quite prolific. I compare him and Bradbury, they both wrote sci-fi/fantasy/horror and matheson had all the twilight zone episodes, Bradbury had the Bradbury theater, and both wrote tons of great short stories.
I have the 4 volumes of his SHOCK! Collections, which I must compare with the collections you have. Interestingly, a good number, probably most of the Matheson stories that were adapted for film, or TV, were adapted by Matheson himself. I second the recommendation for Charles Beaumont's stories, if you can find them. Also the British author. Elizabeth Walter, who had 5 original collections published in the 60s & 70s, plus a sort of best of from Arkham House. None of those are easy to find, or cheap, but there's a complete collection of her short stories that was published a few years ago from Shadow Publishing, which is not a bad price considering the size of it. I wish I could remember who edited it. 😉 Interestingly, she had 4 of her stories adapted for TV, and the only one that was done well, was adapted by Richard Matheson.
Phillip K Dick's short stories are also often filmed, and are excellent. Joe R Lansdale's horror / speculative short fiction is very entertaining - funny and schocky.
Have you ever read the Rod Serling short story collections? If you like the shape of the Twilight Zone that's one way to go. He's not as soulful of a writer as Matheson but you do get the snap. And it's Dennis Weaver in Duel. The king of US made-for-tv movies. He also starred in the series McCloud as a folksy small-town sheriff on loan to the NYPD. And at one point McCloud battles Dracula because, y'know, the 70s. It's on YT as McCloud Meets Dracula if you want to question existence.
Never read Matheson, might have to pick a copy up of the penguin classics. I read penguin classic M.R James - Ghost stories over Christmas, quite enjoyed some of those.
Matheson was indeed great, but I don’t know that I’d rank him clearly ahead of Howard Waldrop, James Tiptree Jr, Robert Aickman, Gene Wolfe, J.G. Ballard….
Robert Aickman is my favorite writer. His work is so unsettling in such unique ways. Not very prolific, but just about everything he wrote is outstanding.
Good evening, sir. I have the Penguin edition of Matheson's stories. Some very good ones have been selected for this collection. However, there is one story which is not there in this book. It's called "The Likeness of Julie". I read this story years ago in some old book in a library. Would you please kindly look it up? I believe the story was written by Richard Matheson.
Olly! You're a great Yeti, scaring the 💩out of capt. Kirk. Maybe a bit of a non sequitur, but watching 'Hitchcock presents' reruns, I've noticed many of those were written by Roald Dahl. Do you know about his non-children's writing? I'm very curious. I've heard he was a real meanie and not well-liked....
Richerd Matheson was the master of the Anthologies. For a time, an anthology could not be printed without a Matheson short story. We had these Scholastic magazine as young students, and they had "Born of Man and Woman" in the magazine. Our teacher thought the story was ill suited for children. Our school's library had had numerous anthologies with the better pulp stories in them. That's were I read "The Monkey's Paw", and "A voice in the Fog." As young child you could read Richerd Matheson, Shirly Jackson, Fritz leiber, Saki. Then something happened, and everyone was reading Goose Bumps.
Saki is an author I need to revisit. I read a collection of his as a teenager and really liked it.
Definitely, I will read Matheson as soon as possible. I like to read short stories. I recommended to you Daphné Du Maurier, “Don't look now”, very good, you will like her. She also wrote “The Birds”, Hitchcock did the movie based on her story. Cortazar is a good short stories' writer, playing with the fantastic, strange and mystery. By the way, I started to read “The Terror”, that you recommended some weeks ago and… I love it! Have a good day and I wish you a good new year!
So glad you’re enjoying the Terror!
I need to read Du Maurier, I still haven’t tried anything by her. Thank you!
Hah that thumbnail made me smile so hard. Hilarious! I Am Legend totally blew me away when I first read it. I've always wanted to read more from him. He reminds me a bit of Philip K. Dick, with his short stories that really make you think and have very interesting ideas. Definitely my type of fiction! Thanks for the video!
LOL glad you liked the thumbnail! I had fun making it
Button, Button was filmed as The Box, with Cameron Diaz. His novel Hell House was filmed by you Brits as Legend of Hell House. And his book Stir of Echoes was filmed with same title and Kevin Bacon.
Thank you!
Clive Barker…Books of Blood
Joe Hill…..20th century ghost stories
Peter Straub…..Magic Terror
Highly recommend these…also Bentley Little..The Collection
Yeah I still think the Books of Blood is a towering achievement in modern horror
I have read Matheson’s collections _Button, Button_ and _Nightmare at 20,000 Feet._ Both are great.
For other short stories that take an idea and run with it, I recommend science fiction writer Larry Niven. He has some great collections such as _All the Myriad Ways, Neutron Star,_ and _Tales of Known Space._
Thanks! I’ve only read Niven’s bigger stuff so will have to check out the shorts
The actor in the film duel that you couldn’t remember is Dennis Weaver. Excellent story and ranks as one of my top films ever. I will explore this author further now
Thank you! I really want to rewatch Duel now!
Thanks for a really excellent overview of Richard Matheson's work. He is indeed a giant in this field, but there are so many fine authors with splendid collections out there that it becomes a bit of an impossibility to compile a list! I am really in love with the much older type of supernatural / horror stories : people like Algernon Blackwood, John Metcalfe, Oliver Onions, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, E. F. Benson and M.R. James. These guys are always good for a shiver or two. Other favourites include Robert Bloch, Elizabeth Walter and Ray Bradbury. There is one particular multi-author collection that will always remain one of my treasured possessions. Lie Ten Nights Awake was published as a paperback original by Hodder and Stoughton in 1967. The editor was the famous Herbert van Thal. Some of the contributors were William Sansom, John Burke and Anthony Burgess. You are probably very familiar with this book. I've always regarded it as a classic, if only for a truly unsettling story called The Green Boy by Mariana Villa-Gilbert.
I have read hardly any of those authors! I will need to check them out once I'm off my book buying ban - thanks for the recommendations!
If you like Matheson, read Charles Beaumont. He also contributed a lot of great Twilight Zone episodes.
Yes love the Beaumont one with the psych patient and the fairground.
I liked the Beaumont story ‘Free Dirt’.
I’m definitely going to check him out. Thanks for the recommendation!
It is a pity that Beaumont got early onset Alzheimer’s at 34 and died of it at 38. I am certain he would have been as big as Matheson and Bradbury if he had lived.
@@Zozette27 I understand death. What I don’t understand is losing your mind and there being nothing you can do about it. It’s especially sad to see it happen to someone as young as Beaumont even though it bothers me to see it happen to someone a hundred years old.
Ahhh this video was such a pleasure to see. Richard Matheson is easily a contender for my favourite writer and I was collecting his short story books when I was a teenager so they’ve been a big part of my life. I need to do my favourite Matheson stories.
You should definitely do that video. Cheers, Gareth!
Dennis Weaver was the actor in Duel. He was also Chester on Gunsmoke for many years. Duel is one of my all-time favorite films, what a great thrilling story that could actually happen to anyone especially in this day and age.
Dennis Weaver also played McCloud on TV.
Thank you! It's been so long since I've seen Duel!
@@CriminOllyBlog it’s hard to believe it’s over 50 years old now
@@tyler2610 gosh yeah I suppose it is! Wow
Hi Olly, Button, Button was filmed in 2009 as The Box, by director Richard Kelly most well known for Donnie Darko. Kelly never replicated the success of his first film, Southland Tales was a disaster and The Box was not well received. I Have no idea what he's doing today. it's a shame, Donnie Darko is a wonderful film which he directed when he was only 26 years old.
I always wondered what else he had made. DD really was a special movie
@@CriminOllyBlog Don't bother with the special edition though, the exposition and info dumps really detract from the experience.
Thanks so much for this review! From the novels I’ve read so far, Matheson is one of my favourite authors but I’ve never read his short stories, so will definitely check these out! I love his writing style. It’s so clear and you’re right it really pulls you in.
You're so welcome! He really is great isn’t he
@@CriminOllyBlog he is! And it’s so nice to him being discussed more!
We read the Button, Button story at school and it left quite an impression! I found it wonderfully morbid. The class had a discussion about what we would have done if we got the button. And also what we thought of the ending and the implication of it.
I thought the ending of that one was really great!
If your a fan of the Matt Scudder or Amos Walker novels by Lawrence Block and Loren D. Estleman respectively, you'll love their short stories. They really seem to have a grasp of the shorter form of mystery story, which can't be said for everyone. The short story is a difficult thing to master. Of course there's also Hammett and Chandler who started in the pulps and perfected the short story before they published any of their longer novels.
I really need to try some Block short stories!
Excellent choice Olly! Matheson was a wonderful author in every genre he tried. Especially the Westerns. Even won the Spur Award for best novel.👍
A quite nice man too. Got to meet him in 1993 & we corresponded after that. Couldn't believe someone as famous as he was took time to reply.
Oh wow. That’s really great!
40000 feet was also remade in the forest Whitaker series and the Jordan peele series.
re Duel: Dennis Weaver. He can write in any genre, a sign of a good/great writer I think. I stay away from writers that only write in one genre (eg. Jordan, Sanderson). Those two Westerns are GREAT !! Dont wait until JoTR, read them now !
That’s a very good rule!
I love the story, The Near Departed, about the guy who’s coordinating the details of his wife’s funeral with a funeral director. The last line still creeps me out.
Shadow on the Sun is a great Matheson Horror/Western novel worth checking out.
And, as far as short story collections, I’ve been recommending Adam Nevill’s Wyrd and Other Derelictions. I’ve never read anything quite like it.
I really need to read some Adam Nevill! And I've heard great things about Shadow of the Sun!
Great review, Olly. I agree, Matheson was an amazing writer. I have just picked up the Penguin edition on Kindle. Can't wait to get into it. One of my favourite short story writers is Roald Dahl. Like Matheson, he's a master of the unexpected. Can I also recommend Dahl's adult novel, My Uncle Oswald (If you haven't already read it). I real departure from his children novels but no less brilliant.
Before I saw your comment I asked Olly about Roald Dahl, too. He's written some good ones for Hitchcock presents. I'd like to hear more about his work for grown-ups. 🤗
@@joanthompson5606 Absolutely. Many of Dahl's short stories feature in episodes of the excellent British series, Tales of The Unexpected, which he also hosted. As I said, his very adult novel, My Uncle Oswald is brilliant and one of my favs. He has many editions of adult short stories and if you search them out, I'm sure complete collections won't be too hard to find. Short story collections include, Kiss Kiss, Over To You, Switch Bitch and Someone Like You. Enjoy!
@@hairylittlewombat Fantastic! This is all news to me...I will look up his work for sure. Thanks 😊!
@@joanthompson5606 Awesome! I'd love to know your thoughts.
Yeah, huge fan of Dahl's short stories! I do have My Uncle Oswald as well, but haven't read it yet
Karen Black shout-out! Trilogy of Terror is such a milestone TV movie -- that final segment, anyway.
Yeah it's amazing!
Richard Matheson wrote some great short stories, and I've always felt that horror works so much better in the shorter format! I'd recommend Nadia Bulkin's collection She Said Destroy, and Paula D. Ashe's We Are Here to Hurt Each Other.
Yeah I do think the short story is something that suits horror well. I’ll have to check out those collections.
I love his short stories. His son Richard Christian Matheson is an excellent short story writer too. He put out a few collections in the 1990s. There are too many short story writers I love. Some of my favorite contemporary horror short story writers include: John Langan, Laird Barron. Reggie Oliver, Mark Samuels, Richard Gavin, Joe R. Lansdale. Some of my favorite literary (but still weird) short story writers include: Bruno Schulz and Dino Buzatti.
I'll have to check some of those out! Thanks for the recs
Olly, I picked up the Penguin Classics copy when it was a deal on BookBub for $2 - just before the reading challenge began. ☺️ I think it was money well spent! 👏🏻As you say, can’t wait to dip into it. - 📚MJ
It's a great read. Fantastic author.
It's so good!
Agreed!
Great video! I’m much happier reading short stories lately than novels, my current favorite is Brian Evenson, he’s definitely on the weird side of literary horror. I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never actually read any Richard Matheson, though I’ve enjoyed many of his screen adaptations. Another book to add to the 2023 pile!
I've not read Evenson, I'll have to check him out! Hope you enjoy Matheson when you get to him!
Love the thumbnail 🤣
Thank you!
I love Richard Matheson, you may not like my favorite novel, it is Bid Time Return, which became the movie Somewhere In Time. My favorite of his several Twilight Zones is Little Girl Lost, it is so haunting that a hole in our Universe could appear in a little girl's room and she would get lost in another world just by falling out of bed. I had the honor of meeting him at reading of his new book at the time and a signing, he was a very nice man.
I am quite addicted to your posts! Almost all fantastic and interesting! Keep up the great work! Love your descriptions and synopsises ! I have a couple novels of his - one became a Kevin bacon staring movie and that one was really good! (Stir of echoes I think !?!). Also read that fantastic short story about the terrorizing Zulu doll warrior guy ! Awesome how he makes that story seem so vivid it somehow becomes highly plausible and very very scary! Great author! And yes, the I am legend praise (for the book - will smith movie was only okay- read the book first folks- it is quite good!)
Thank you! So glad you're enjoying the channel. Stir of Echoes is one I haven't tried yet.
My favorite short story collections have been by Ray Bradbury and Darcy Coates so far!
Oh! I didn’t know Coates had written short stories!
Of course I love Stephen Kings short stories, like Skeleton Crew! Such great stories that really stick with you. Or the one with “1408”, I think it’s in Everything’s Eventual.
Will have to check out your recommendations too! Take car Olly, have a good night! 😊🇨🇦
Yeah King is very good, although i do think his short stories (like his novels) can be a bit hit or miss
1408 still creeps me out. I can’t watch the movie! 😳
You're made me want to read for first time, probably overdue , thank you.
Hope you enjoy!
I definitely want to check out some of his short stories. I’ve read three of his books so far.
They're great!
Wonderful review of a great writer.
Thank you, Michael!
Love Matheson. Total master of short and long form. Would also recommend Bradbury's October Country and Harlan Ellison's Strange Wine.
Yeah I really need to read more of both Bradbury and Ellison. Thanks!
Here’s a recommendation for you! I like the short stories of Michael Marshall Smith. His anthology ‘What You Make It’ has some creepy stuff in. My favourite in the book is ‘Hell Hath Enlarged Herself’. It’s similar to Stephen King’s ‘The End of the Whole Mess’.
Agreed. Michael Marshall Smith is one of the best short story writers around today.
Thank you! I’ve read at least one of his novels (Spares I think) but not tried his short stories
@@CriminOllyBlog I tend to read a lot of horror anthologies, and I noticed that Smith was often represented in many "best of" anthologies, and that his stories were always the best or one of the best tales in these books. Then I bought a few of his collections, and they were terrific. I must admit, though, that I have yet to read any of his novels.
If you like Richard Matheson you will like Charles Beaumont. He wrote a lot of short stories several of which were turned into scripts for The Twilight Zone. I used to buy short story collections if they had just one of his stories because at that time they didn't have published collections of his. Give him a try.
He sounds like someone I definitely need to check out. Thanks Rick!
Well since you asked: Dennis Etchinson is probably my person favourite. start with one of his first 2 collections, ones called RED DREAMS.
I haven’t read Etchison. Will have to check him out. Thank you!
@@CriminOllyBlog you may have done but not know, he did a lot of those novelisations you like to read including THE FOG and HALLOWEEN III.
@@themiddleplace Ah! I think I read his novelisation of The Fog years ago!
I read I Am Legend back in the day before the movies and I agree, the book is much better than either of the films. Oddly I haven’t read any of his short stories although I saw the Serling adaptations when they first aired and I’m currently making my way through the entire series on BluRay. My favorite short story author is Chekhov, his work is brilliant and he wrote quite a number of classic tales that are well worth reading.
I bet that's a great experience rewatching them all!
I'm from Mexico, I knew about Richard Matheson through the movies and the twilight zone, great stories... it is almost impossible to find a Richard Matheson antology in spanish, so I bought the penguin anthology 😊... I feel curious about Shirley Jackson, she is not very known in my country.
I love Matheson, also JGBallard (Drowned World, Empire of the Sun) and David Brin (The Postman). And B Traven is one of my favorite short western story writers.
I've not read B Traven! Will have to look them up
Matheson is a favorite. I also loved Charles Beaumont (who also wrote for Twilight Zone) and the 1980s writer Dennis Etchison, mentored under Beaumont.
I don't think Ive read either Etchison or Beaumont -thanks for the recs!
Great video Olly
Thank you!
Hi Olly. Matheson is great, I think "Stir of Echoes" is too long for the Anthologies so is difficult to hunt down, but worth it. In one of your " Q&A's" you mentioned reading some Bukowski and I think it's pretty much accepted that his best books are the short story collections " Tales of Ordinary Madness" and " The Most Beautiful Woman in Town". Keep up the good work.
Thanks Arlene. I still haven’t gotten round to Bukowski so might try and hunt down his short stories.
The Best of collection is one I hope to pick up sometime soon once I have finished the Read What You Own Challenge.
I think you'll really love it
Glad you made this video. For as prolific and as respected as matheson is by the reading community as well as other writers and directors, there’s not one list of best Richard matheson novels or best short stories on google that I saw. And his books have remarkably few ratings on goodreads. Kinda sad, and it seems like outside of I am legend even horror readers don’t know a ton of his stuff. However what a great career he had, novels, short stories, screenplays for television and film. Quite prolific. I compare him and Bradbury, they both wrote sci-fi/fantasy/horror and matheson had all the twilight zone episodes, Bradbury had the Bradbury theater, and both wrote tons of great short stories.
What about Harlan Ellison?
brilliant stuff. so much material, too.
He’s one I definitely need to read more by
I have the 4 volumes of his SHOCK! Collections, which I must compare with the collections you have. Interestingly, a good number, probably most of the Matheson stories that were adapted for film, or TV, were adapted by Matheson himself.
I second the recommendation for Charles Beaumont's stories, if you can find them. Also the British author. Elizabeth Walter, who had 5 original collections published in the 60s & 70s, plus a sort of best of from Arkham House. None of those are easy to find, or cheap, but there's a complete collection of her short stories that was published a few years ago from Shadow Publishing, which is not a bad price considering the size of it. I wish I could remember who edited it. 😉
Interestingly, she had 4 of her stories adapted for TV, and the only one that was done well, was adapted by Richard Matheson.
Love that final Matheson connection! I’ll have to check Beaumont and Walter out as keen to expand my knowledge of short story writers
Octavia Butler has a short story collection called Bloodchild that is very good
I'll have to try that, I loved Parable of the Sower
I recently read a great little collection of short stories called Black Gate Tales by Paul Draper.
I'll look that up! Thank you
Hell house is still my favourite from when I read it when I was 9!
That does seem VERY young to have read that book!
Phillip K Dick's short stories are also often filmed, and are excellent. Joe R Lansdale's horror / speculative short fiction is very entertaining - funny and schocky.
Yeah, PKD is great. It's been ages since I read his short fiction though
我超级喜欢Richard Matheson 的 《bid time return 》
Have you ever read the Rod Serling short story collections? If you like the shape of the Twilight Zone that's one way to go. He's not as soulful of a writer as Matheson but you do get the snap.
And it's Dennis Weaver in Duel. The king of US made-for-tv movies. He also starred in the series McCloud as a folksy small-town sheriff on loan to the NYPD. And at one point McCloud battles Dracula because, y'know, the 70s. It's on YT as McCloud Meets Dracula if you want to question existence.
Wow I need to watch McCloud meets Dracula!
And no I haven’t read the Serling collections but they sound great
Never read Matheson, might have to pick a copy up of the penguin classics. I read penguin classic M.R James - Ghost stories over Christmas, quite enjoyed some of those.
Matheson is really great! I read some MR James recently too
Matheson was indeed great, but I don’t know that I’d rank him clearly ahead of Howard Waldrop, James Tiptree Jr, Robert Aickman, Gene Wolfe, J.G. Ballard….
Robert Aickman is my favorite writer. His work is so unsettling in such unique ways. Not very prolific, but just about everything he wrote is outstanding.
I really do need to check all of those out - Aickman and Tiptree in particular
Good evening, sir.
I have the Penguin edition of Matheson's stories. Some very good ones have been selected for this collection.
However, there is one story which is not there in this book.
It's called "The Likeness of Julie". I read this story years ago in some old book in a library.
Would you please kindly look it up? I believe the story was written by Richard Matheson.
Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll see if I can find that one
I think Shirley Jackson is up there too. No doubt Matheson is a heavyweight.
Jackson is great, although I’d label her crime/horror rather than SF/horror
💚🖤
Olly! You're a great Yeti, scaring the 💩out of capt. Kirk. Maybe a bit of a non sequitur, but watching 'Hitchcock presents' reruns, I've noticed many of those were written by Roald Dahl. Do you know about his non-children's writing? I'm very curious. I've heard he was a real meanie and not well-liked....
LOL! And yes I do know about Dahl's adult fiction. I've read a fair bit of it and really like it. And yes, not sure he was a terribly nice person IRL