Richard Matheson's the Twilight Zone Scripts, Vol. 1

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Richard Matheson's The Twilight Zone Scripts: Volume One, 392 pp, ￯﾿ﾽeight scripts, 1st year thru 4th year. Memorable episodes such as "Nick of Time" staring William Shatner and "The Invaders" starring Agnes Moorehead. Published under EDGE BOOKS an imprint of Gauntlet Press.

SYNOPSIS

Richard Matheson's 14 original scripts for the acclaimed series The Twilight Zone published in two volumes -- ￯﾿ﾽ eight scripts in volume one, and six scripts ￯﾿ﾽalong with some one hour long episodes ￯﾿ﾽin volume two (available in Spring 2002).

Few authors had the flare and originality it took to write for the 1950's ￯﾿ﾽand 1960's series, and Richard Matheson was one of the best. One of the three main writers for the show (Rod Serling and Charles Beaumont being the other two), Matheson helped set the tone and shape the content for "The Twilight Zone". Now here in trade paperback are Matheson's scripts, previously available only in a limited edition hardback (it's long sold out). Each script is prefaced by wonderfully insightful anecdotes by editor Stanley Wiater, having spoken with Matheson at length on the project.

Gauntlet co-publisher Barry Hoffman says, "Because these scripts are a part of Matheson's literary legacy, we felt that an affordable edition of this book was needed in the mass market and should be kept in print indefinitely.

Richard Matheson's The Twilight Zone Scripts: Volume One is a must for Matheson fans and fans of The Twilight Zone!

FROM THE CRITICS

Tony Ross

"...Fortunately for Matheson's fans in particular, and Twilight Zone fans in general, his scripts for the show are being published in two books, the first which is out now, and the second due in Spring 2002... The collection is a fine testament to both Matheson and the show..."

Alba Petrella

"This volume gives the reader a manifold emotions, and these are motivated by the elements it is made up of. Firstly, it brings back the fondness, or doubtlessly the vivid memory, for a TV series, The Twilight Zone, whose contribution to the communication of passion for fantasy and horror literature in various historical moments has played a determining role. The material in the volume is composed, in fact, of several original scripts for The Twilight Zone by Richard Matheson, one of contemporary literature￯﾿ﾽs most fertile minds, and these are commented and introduced by Stanley Wiater, a writer himself, with a profound knowledge of the symbolic in this kind of narrative. Stanley Wiater￯﾿ﾽs intimate motives (an immediate passion for the TV series and therefore a cerebral and affective debt towards the authors, Rod Serling for a start) are superimposed by intellectual and artistic motives. He is the ideal person to edit this volume, and so he welcomes the reader into his prologue, he introduces every one of Matheson￯﾿ﾽs scripts and masterfully recreates the climate of those years, also thanks to the direct testimony of the writer who made Rod Serling￯﾿ﾽs TV series great...

The merit of this volume ￯﾿ﾽ edited by Gauntlet Press, and of its suggestive cover, that re-proposes the surrealistic images that characterized the fourth and fifth series of The Twilight Zone is above all in the gift of these scripts. They fully render the wealth and plasticity of Richard Matheson￯﾿ﾽs typical images and his use of fantasy in the inventions in both the dialogues and descriptions, which put him at the forefront of the great contemporary narrators."

Publishers Weekly

The 14 complete scripts in Richard Matheson's The Twilight Zone Scripts: Volume One, edited by Stanley Wiater, will be great fun for fans and scriptwriters. In the episode called "Invaders," tiny spacemen land at a desolate farmhouse and the lone occupant fights them off; in "A World of Difference," a man finds that his life is actually a movie in the process of being filmed. A second volume will follow in a year. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Richard Matheson's The Twilight Zones Scripts: Volume 2, edited by horror expert Stanley Wiater, collects six of Matheson's teleplays from Rod Serling's classic TV series. This has been a banner year for the veteran author, whose recent work includes a novel, Hunted Past Reason, and a children's book, Abu and the 7 Marvels.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Matheson's skill in creating empathy lends special strength to his work... The secret weapon he employs is his own sensitivity to the fears and innermost imaginings which are common to us all. — (Robert Bloch, author of Psycho)

Matheson is and always has been a writer's writer. His influence, a singularly compelling voice that runs through the contemporary history of science fiction, terror and horror literature, is better left for assessment by scholars and critics... He is the very best of the best, and archetype of what a career is supposed to be all about".  — (Dennis Etchison, author of Double Edge)

ACCREDITATION

Richard Matheson, author of I AM LEGEND, HELL HOUSE, WHAT DREAMS MAY COME, THE SHRINKING MAN and SOMEWHERE IN TIME to name just a few, was the primary writer other than Rod Serling for the original THE TWILIGHT ZONE. He penned 14 scripts, some of the most memorable to air. Matheson has also written numerous short stories and screenplays, among them DUEL, THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN and STIR OF ECHOES, all based on his fiction. He currently lives in California where he continues to write screenplays. He has just completed a new novel to be published in 2002.