Richard Matheson - The Original Stories: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

In the first three parts of this ongoing series, I looked at Richard Matheson's short fiction appearances in Playboy, the Sci-Fi Pulps and the Mystery Digests. For this installment, I turn my attention to his work that appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.

My goal is to include basic bibliographic information, cover shots and interior illustrations where possible, and a listing of the subsequent Matheson collections in which the stories appeared. I plan to interject other bits of trivia along the way, and if there's anything in particular you'd like to see, please let me know by posting a comment. -John Scoleri

The Original Stories - Part 4: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is where it all began. With the Summer 1950 issue, Richard Matheson saw his first piece of short fiction published. No other magazine published as many of Matheson's stories as F&SF, the most recent of his 20 appearances is on the newsstand as I write this in the Fall of 2010.

"Born of Man and Woman"
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
Summer 1950, Vol. 1 No. 3

Subsequent appearances: Collected Stories HC, Born of Man and Woman, Third From the Sun, Duel: Terror Stories, Collected Stories TP v1

Editorial Comment: Mr. Richard Matheson lives in Brooklyn, is 23 years old, and has never published a story before. These simple, direct facts we can tell you about the author. Nothing so simple could be said of his story or the protagonist who tells it with a mind such as you have never met, house in a body you have never imagined. Read on... and learn to know your not inconceivable kinsman.

Notes: In the book, The Eureka Years: Boucher and McComas's Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 1949-1954 (Bantam, 1982), we're treated to the initial correspondence between the editors and Matheson. In December of 1949, they expressed an interest in purchasing his story "Born of Man and Woman," provided that the magazine lived to see its third issue. 

"We do hope that you will let us hold BORN," Boucher writes, "and that it will be far from the last Matheson story we publish."

Matheson replied:

Dear Mr. Boucher,

I hope it won't shock you to learn it is the first story I ever sold in my life. I have written for years, of course. I can only suggest that my lack of success, until now, has been due to a very limited effort at marketing my work.

Things were certainly about to change for Richard Matheson.

"Through Channels"
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
April 1951, Vol. 2 No. 2
Subsequent appearances: Collected Stories HC, Born of Man and Woman, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet: Horror Stories, Collected Stories TP v1

Editorial Comment: It is a source of lasting satisfaction to us that this magazine published Richard Matheson's first story, the unforgettable "Born of Man and Woman." Happily, his talent seems inexhaustible; here is one of several Matheson tales we have in store for you—one with an altogether different technique and approach from his perceptive study of a mutant's tragedy, but a story that demonstrates equally well the Matheson ability to hint at terror too awful to be told directly.

Notes: "Through Channels" was published as a signed, limited edition chapbook by Bill Munster of Footsteps Press in 1989. The chapbook was illustrated by 80s small press mainstay Allen Koszowski, and includes an appreciation by Vincent Price and an afterward by Roger Corman. 552 copies were printed and signed by Matheson, 52 of which were also signed (in red) by Vincent Price.

"Dress of White Silk"
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
October 1951, Vol. 2 No. 5

Subsequent appearances: Collected Stories HC, Born of Man and Woman, Third From the Sun, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet: Horror Stories, Collected Stories TP v1

Editorial Comment: Richard Matheson's first published story, "Born of Man and Woman," is probably, to judge from your letters, the most popular single story we've printed to date—an astonishing record for a short-short by a beginner. Since that classic (about to be reprinted in the Bleiler-Ditky Best Science Fiction Stories 1951), Matheson has published many stories here and elsewhere, admirable tales but never quite equaling the sheer originality and shock-impact of his first. Now at last, in "Dress of White Silk," we think that Dick Matheson has done it again. That's introduction enough.

Notes: "Dress of White Silk" was the Matheson story chosen for reprinting in The Eureka Years, which also includes a letter from Matheson to the editors regarding the story:

Dear Tony,

As you suggest, I'll assume momma to be some type of were-creature who does not necessarily change on the outside. I'll work in that ring finger idea. (I never knew of that before.) [in story "Dress of White Silk"]*

As to the dress I'll try to make it clearer what I mean. I had visualized that what was left of momma's powers were in the dress she had once worn during those times she traipsed around digesting the good citizens of the town. The leaves and smell bags were meant to be some sort of abortive power like garlic with the vampire. I'll see if I can bring it out better.

Best, Dick

P.S. Just looked at my own hand. Ye gads!

*I suppose it is common knowledge that one identification of a werewolf can be made by establishing that the ring finger is longer than the middle finger of the hand. Personally, I had to check it out with better-versed supernaturalists.

"SRL Ad"
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
April 1952, Vol. 3 No. 2

Subsequent appearances: Collected Stories HC, Born of Man and Woman, Third From the Sun, Duel: Terror Stories, Collected Stories TP v1

Editorial Comment: When Elmer Davis composed the constitution of that noblest of bibliophilous and bibulous organizations, the Baker Street Irregulars, he included a warning as to the dangers of meetings consisting of only two members: "If said two are of opposites sexes, they shall use care in selecting the place of meeting, to avoid misinterpretation (or interpretation either, for that matter)." But he added: "If such two persons of opposite sexes be clients of the personal column of the 'Saturday Review of Literature,' the foregoing does not apply; such persons being presumed to let their consciences be their guides." As a matter of fact one eminent Irregular, the foremost living authority on The Lion's Mane, later committed the highly respectable action of acquiring a wife through an SRL Ad; but most of the entries in that most provocative of advertising media seem aimed at less conventional objectives. A sustained perusal of SRL personals would, one feels sure, cause Sherlock Holmes to rate the American journal even above the agony columns of London newspapers as " the most valuable hunting-ground that ever was given to a student of the unusual." Precisely how unusual a quarry may be flushed in that hunting-ground is here related by Richard Matheson—in an interplanetary prose which only a Matheson could conceive and execute.

Notes: In an interview with Stanley Wiater for Collected Stories TP v1, Matheson notes that he was receiving the Saturday Review of Literature at the time, and F&SF editor Anthony Boucher liked his idea of an alien using the personal ads to correspond with someone.

"Disappearing Act"
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
March 1953, Vol. 4 No. 3

Subsequent appearances: Collected Stories HC, Born of Man and Woman, Third From the Sun, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet: Horror Stories, Collected Stories TP v1

Editorial Comment: In the two and a half years since young Dick Matheson published his first story (the by now classic "Born of Man and Woman" in F&SF, Summer, 1950), he has appeared in very nearly every science fiction market of any importance, he has been reprinted twice in the Bleiler-Ditky annual Best volumes and by just about every other anthologist in the field, and he has acquired a wife so stunning as to appear outstanding at a science fiction convention also attended by Bea Mahaffrey and Evelyn Gold. We publish all of these cheerful Mathesoniana as counterweight to the following story, a bitterly cheerless picture of a completely unsuccessful writer, and the ineluctable force of an ill-advised prayer.

Notes: "Disappearing Act" was adapted for the first season of The Twilight Zone by Rod Serling as "And the Sky was Opened." The episode was directed by Douglas Heyes, writer/director of Ann-Margret's Kitten with a Whip and three of the more popular episodes of Boris Karloff's Thriller.

"The Test"
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
November 1954, Vol. 7 No. 5

Subsequent appearances: Collected Stories HC, The Shores of Space, The Shrinking Man & Others, Duel: Terror Stories, Collected Stories TP v2
 
Editorial Comment: Science fiction readers need no footnotes on the brilliant career of Richard Matheson, from his classic first story "Born of Man and Woman" (F&SF, Summer, 1950) to his just-published first fantasy novel, I Am Legend (Gold Medal). And "The Test" is too true and moving a story to need any introduction beyond this: that it treats, poignantly and perceptively, a many-valued human problem to which even the advanced future will find no simple answer.

Notes: This issue also includes what may very well be the first review of Matheson's landmark novel, I Am Legend:

Most rewarding of 1954's new novels this month is Richard Matheson's I Am Legend (Gold Medal, 25¢), an extraordinary book which manages to do for vampirism what Jack Williamson's Darker Than You Think did for lycanthropy: investigate an ancient legend in terms of modern knowledge of psychology and physiology, and turn the stuff of supernatural terror into strict (and still terrifying!) science fiction. Matheson has added a new variant on the Last Man theme, too, in this tale of the last normal human survivor in a world of bloodsucking nightmares, and has given striking vigor to his invention by a forceful style of storytelling which derives from the best hard-boiled crime novels. As a hard-hitting thriller or as fresh imaginative speculation, this is a book you can't miss.

"The Funeral"
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
April 1955, Vol. 8 No. 4

Subsequent appearances: Collected Stories HC, The Shores of Space, I Am Legend & Others, Bloodlines, Collected Stories TP v2

Editorial Comment: Richard Matheson is chiefly noted as the Young Master of powerful emotional impact in science-fantasy; but he can also, upon occasion, be one of the brightest and funniest farceurs in the business, as you may remember from "SRL Ad" (F&SF, April, 1952). Now he demonstrates  that the compendious novel I Am Legend did not exhaust his knowledge of vampires, as he adds to our store of data on those and other beings in a hilariously grisly tale which could be illustrated only by Charles Addams.

Notes: "The Funeral" was adapted by Matheson for Rod Serling's Night Gallery. The short segment was directed by Jeannot Szwarc, who would go on to direct Somewhere in Time from Matheson's novel Bid Time Return. This issue also featured a Charles Beaumont/Chad Oliver collaboration ("The Last Word") and Walter M. Miller Jr.'s "A Canticle for Leibowitz."

"Pattern For Survival"
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
May 1955, Vol. 8 No. 5

Subsequent appearances: Collected Stories HC, The Shores of Space, Button, Button, Collected Stories TP v2

Editorial Comment: Do you want to know what type of man stands the best chance of surviving the holocaust of his world? You'll learn the answer in this brief and pointed item which is, like most Mathesons, not quite like any other story you've read.

Notes: In Collected Stories TP v2, Matheson tolf Stanley Wiater that with this story he was satirizing author Robert Sheckley, who was getting a lot of stories published in the 50s. This issue also features Charles Beaumont's "Free Dirt."

"Steel"
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
May 1956, Vol. 10 No. 5

Subsequent appearances: Collected Stories HC, The Shores of Space, Duel: Terror Stories, Collected Stories TP v2

Editorial Comment: Richard Matheson has climbed a long way since his first story appeared here almost six years ago. He is now working on the screen play of his as yet unpublished novel The Incredible Shrinking Man (sic), which is scheduled to be that rarity, a Class A science fiction film; and he will soon leave Hollywood (which can offer few attractions to a man so enviably married) to be the guest of honor at the Ninth Annual West Coast Science Fiction Conference in Oakland, California. One of his last magazine stories to be written before the Hollywood hiatus is this tale of strength and endurance, robot and human—a science fiction sports story so realistic, simple and powerful that it should prove moving even to sports-loathing readers who have never let a boxing bout darken their television screens. 

Notes: "Steel" was adapted by Matheson for the fifth season of The Twilight Zone. A feature film starring Hugh Jackman is currently in production.

"The Splendid Source"
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
March 1957, Vol. 12 No. 3

Subsequent appearances: Collected Stories HC, Shock!, Collected Stories TP v2

Editorial Comment: The earnest critics who accuse science fiction writers of paranoia have this fact on their side: We do seem to agree with the paranoid that there are Conspiracies all about us, lurking behind commonplace facades and shaping our ends by devious and unperceived means. It is this classic theme that Mr. Matheson here explores, pitting his venturesome young hero against a hitherto unsuspected Conspiracy that affects every day of our lives... and proving joyously that a Conspiracy is not necessarily malevolent.

Notes: Regular readers of this series will recall "The Splendid Source" was previously published in the May 1956 issue of Playboy. This issue also features Robert Bloch's "The Proper Spirit," and a column of film reviews by Charles Beaumont. Matheson told Stanley Wiater in Collected Stories TP v2 that he had written an unpublished sequel to the story, in which protagonist Talbert Bean "tries to make really classy pornographic films."

"The Holiday Man"
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
July 1957, Vol. 13 No. 1

Subsequent appearances: Collected Stories HC, Shock!, The Shrinking Man & Others, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet: Horror Stories, Collected Stories TP v2

Editorial Comment: You are probably reading this just after the Memorial Day weekend. And it's only about a month till the Fourth of July. And underneath all of your pleasure in these national celebrations, there may be a certain haunting doubt, a question that keeps nagging at you...

Notes: According to Matthew Bradley (in his new book Richard Matheson On Screen), "The Holiday Man" was adapted by Matheson for an unproduced televised counterpart to Galaxy magazine (Matheson's contributions to Galaxy will be featured in a future installment of this series).

"Old Haunts"
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
October 1957, Vol. 13 No. 4

Subsequent appearances: Collected Stories HC, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet: Horror Stories, Collected Stories TP v2

Editorial Comment: Like most s.f. magazines, we find that college and university towns are major centers in our distribution;and it seems fitting to publish a college story at this season when those towns are stirring with new autumnal life. But this is not a rousing rah-rah story for undergraduates. (We'll bring you an agreeable Martian specimen of that genre next month, when the football season is in full swing.) This is a story for the Old Grad, who has reached the point where he begins "to relive the past and regret the present"... and I wonder how young Mr. Matheson manages to understand so acutely the emotions which lie a decade ahead of him. This seems to me an even more impressive fictional feat than understanding the torments of an incredible shrinking man.

Notes: According to Matheson in Stanley Wiater's Collected Stories TP v2, he felt "Old Haunts" (which he never adapted) would have made a good episode of The Twilight Zone. This issue also includes a collaboration between August Derleth and H.P. Lovecraft, "The Lamp of Alhazred."

"Lemmings"
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
January 1958, Vol. 13 No. 7

Subsequent appearances: Collected Stories HC, Shock!, Collected Stories TP v2

Editorial Comment: Richard Matheson has so far achieved his greatest popular success with his longer works; the screen version of The Shrinking Man, indeed, accorded him the almost unheard-of honor of billing him in letters as large as those used for the producer. But Old Mathesonians—especially this one, who will never forget that frabjous day in 1949 when "Born of Man and Woman" turned up in the slush pile—feel that his most powerful and effective writing has been in shorter forms. Here is as short a story as Matheson has yet written—simple, direct, haunting...

Notes: This issue also features Theodore Sturgeon's "A Touch of Strange."

"The Edge"
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
August 1958, Vol. 15 No. 2

Subsequent appearances: Collected Stories HC, Shock!, Collected Stories TP v2

Editorial Comment: 'At this year's World Science Fiction Convention, known as the Solacon, I shall be the toastmaster, and I look forward to one of the happiest moments in my speaking career when I introduce Richard Matheson as the Convention's Guest of Honor. Only 32 today, Matheson made his debut 8 years ago in F&SF (Summer, 1950) with the now-classic "Born of Man and Woman"—one of the two most impressive first-stories I've ever read. (The other, for the curious, is Stanley Ellin's "Specialty of the House," EQMM, May 1948.) Since then he has been extraordinarily successful both critically and commercially, with a long string of distinguished short stories  and novelet, two suspense novels, two s.f. novels, one splendid mixture of the two (the recent A Stir of Echoes), and much film-writing including The Incredible Shrinking Man. Two years ago, at a west-coast regional convention, I heard Matheson deliver the most intelligent and moving speech I've ever listened to from a guest of honor—a candid discussion of commercialism and artistic integrity. Matheson knows, both intellectually and intuitively, how to combine these two vital factors; and I hope all readers of F&SF who can do so will join me in duly honoring him at the Solacon.

Notes: Anthony Boucher, who had been editor since Matheson's first appearance, notes in this issue he is taking a sabbatical, with Robert P. Mills taking over the editorial reins of F&SF. This issue also features the first part of Robert Heinlein's "Have Spacesuit—Will Travel."

"From Shadowed Places"
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
October 1960, Vol. 19 No. 4

Subsequent appearances: Collected Stories HC, Shock II, I Am Legend & Others, Collected Stories TPv3

Editorial Comment: Richard Matheson has been absent from these pages in recent years, primarily because of his heavy book, motion picture and television work schedule. We are particularly pleased, therefore, to have this new tale, concerning the unbearable presence in a plush New York apartment of the dark magic of Africa.

 Notes: Boucher was obviously a huge fan of Matheson's stories, and  while it's certainly possible that it's just a coincidence that Matheson's last appearance before his two-year hiatus was the last issue Boucher edited, one must wonder if Robert P. Mills was looking for something other than what Matheson writing. This issue features an impressive roster of marquee names in the sci-fi community: Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip Jose Farmer, James Blish, and Poul Anderson.

"The Traveller"
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
February 1962, Vol. 22 No. 2

Subsequent appearances: Collected Stories HC, Born of Man and Woman, Third From the Sun, Collected Stories TP v2

Editorial Comment: Professor Paul Jairus regarded the time machine's objective as sentimental rot... which made him the ideal observer to send on the mission.

Notes: Another of Matheson's Fort College stories, "The Traveller" originally appeared in Matheson's fisrt collection, Born of Man and Woman, published in 1954 by the Chamberlain Press.

"The Jazz Machine"
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
February 1963, Vol. 24 No. 2

Subsequent appearances: Collected Stories HC, Shock III, Button, Button, Collected Stories TPv3

Editorial Comment: For some writers the ascent to fame is like climbing Everest in lead galoshes. Some freeze to death without ever reaching the top. Others turn around and go back. The lucky few, however, spring into the public eye and favor almost at their first leap. Such luck, of course, favors onlt the talented; and among those favored was Richard Matheson, whose first published short story, "Born of Man and Woman" (F&SF, Summer, 1950), dazzled and horrified, establishing him at once as an author of the first rank. New Jersey born and Brooklyn raised, ex-cheese store clerk, former YMCA counselor, overseas War Veteran, U. of Mo. graduate (Journalism), husband of Ruth Ann, father of Betina and Richard and Alison, Richard Matheson is the author of four screenplays, three short story collections, and seven novels (including the very non-SF, The Beardless Warriors: Little-Brown, 1960). In this unusual story—for story it is, as are all great poems, ; and song as well, as they all are, too—lament and battle cry and paean of triumph—he reaches deep into te molten hollow of the human heart, the nightmare corner of the American Dream.

Notes: Since Matheson's last appearance in the magazine, Robert P. Mills is now a consulting editor, with Edward L. Ferman the managing editor. Under 'In This Issue' Matheson is also mentioned:

Richard Matheson returns to us, after an absence whose length we all regret (somewhat mitigated by our having another story of his in our inventory).

"Tis The Season To Be Jelly"
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
June 1963, Vol. 24 No. 6

Subsequent appearances: Collected Stories HC, Shock III, Button, Button, Collected Stories TPv3

Editorial Comment: This is one of the damndest stories we have ever read.

Notes: Robert P. Mills is no longer on the editorial masthead. Under 'In This Issue' Matheson is also mentioned: 

Richard Matheson engages in a fantastic reductio ad absurdem.

"Girl Of My Dreams"
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
October 1963, Vol. 25 No. 4

Subsequent appearances: Collected Stories HC, Shock III, Button, Button, Collected Stories TPv3

Editorial Comment: "The second sight," as it is often called, or clairvoyance, has been so often and so well attested that it has been recognized as a legitimate and non-diabolical phenomenon by that stern, august, and level-headed body the Established Kirk of Scotland. Not particularly limited to that or any other extra-sensory ability is the ancient, ancient exhortation that great gifts durst not be used for mean purposes. Richard Matheson, in a modern key, spins a tale of life and death, love and hate and greed. 

Notes: Robert Bloch and Michael J. Bird adapted "Girl Of My Dreams" for Journey to the Unknown. Under 'In This Issue' Matheson's lead-off story is mentioned: 

Item: story by Richard Matheson, about a heel and a girl with a strange talent.

"The Window of Time"
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
September/October 2010, Vol. 119 No. 3 & 4

Subsequent appearances: Steel and Other Stories

Editorial Comment: Mr. Richard Matheson lives in Brooklyn, is 23 years old, and has never published a story before. These simple, direct facts we can tell you about the author." So read the introduction to "Born of Man and Woman" in the magazine's third issue. In the sixty years since that auspicious debut, Mr. Matheson has of course gone on to publish many more stories. including classics like I Am Legend, The Shrinking Man and Bid Time Return, as well as about six dozen screenplays for TV and film. His current projects include a new novel entitled Other Kingdoms due out in March 2011 from Tor books, a recent story in Vice magazine, and a film adaptation of his story "Steel" entitled Real Steel and starring Hugh Jackman.
His new F&SF story is a trip down memory lane through that same borough where he lived when his career began.

Notes: After a 47 year absence, Matheson returns to the magazine where his short fiction career got its start.


There's more to come! Stay tuned for future installments of Richard Matheson - The Original Stories.