Richard Matheson "Hunger And Thirst" Traycased Signed Lettered Edition "uu" of 52 [Very Fine]

SIGNED LETTERED EDITION

Personally signed by Richard Matheson (author of "I Am Legend") 

Gauntlet Press 2000. Richard Matheson "Hunger And Thirst". Signed lettered edition. This is "uu" of only 52 produced in this edition. As new, without any visible flaws. Signed by Richard Matheson directly onto the limitation page. Original issue price of $250 still printed on the dust-jacket. Includes audio CD of first chapter read by Richard Matheson.

The CD has also been signed by Richard Matheson.

Approximate Dimensions: 10 3/8" x 7 1/4" x 2 5/8"

About the book

Hunger and Thirst may been the literary event of 2000. Fifty years ago, when he was 23 years old and living in New York City, Richard Matheson wrote his first novel, Hunger and Thirst, a massive 750+ manuscript pages. His then agent told him it was unpublishable due to its length and Matheson put it away and moved to California. The rest is genre history. Had this novel been published Matheson feels his writing career may have taken a far different turn. He’s kept the novel in a drawer for 50 years before reading it over again. Matheson felt it powerful and offered it to Gauntlet as a signed limited. It’s a fabulous read and may not be published in ANY other form, due to its length.

Another first for Matheson is the dust jacket you see on this page. Matheson prefers his books have no cover art, but he is aware that many readers might think he wrote Hunger and Thirst in 2000, not fifty years earlier. He worked closely with Harry Morris on the cover and was so thrilled with the end result that he asked that neither the title of the book nor his name appear on the front cover. We’ve agreed (the title appears here only so you know the title of the book). On the book itself, the title ONLY appears on the spine.

Matheson also provides a lengthy introduction explaining why this book has sat for as long as it has, as well as discussing several other aborted projects including two proposed books that were to be 2000 pages apiece. Wonderful insight for any Matheson fan.

Hunger and Thirst is the story of a man shot in an aborted robbery who wakes up to find himself paralyzed. The book flashes back to his sordid past as he hopes to be rescued to be given a chance at redemption.

About the author

Born in Allendale, New Jersey to Norwegian immigrant parents, Matheson was raised in Brooklyn and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1943. He then entered the military and spent World War II as an infantry soldier. In 1949 he earned his bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri and moved to California in 1951. He married in 1952 and has four children, three of whom (Chris, Richard Christian, and Ali Matheson) are writers of fiction and screenplays.

His first short story, "Born of Man and Woman," appeared in the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1950. The tale of a monstrous child chained in its parents' cellar, it was told in the first person as the creature's diary (in poignantly non-idiomatic English) and immediately made Matheson famous. Between 1950 and 1971, Matheson produced dozens of stories, frequently blending elements of the science fiction, horror and fantasy genres.

Wikipedia:

Richard Burton Matheson (February 20, 1926 – June 23, 2013) was an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres.

He is best known as the author of I Am Legend, a 1954 science fiction horror novel that has been adapted for the screen three times. Matheson himself was co-writer of the first film version, The Last Man on Earth, starring Vincent Price, which was released in 1964. The other two adaptations were The Omega Man, starring Charlton Heston, and I Am Legend, with Will Smith. Matheson also wrote 16 television episodes of The Twilight Zone, including "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" and "Steel", as well as several adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories for Roger Corman and American International Pictures – House of Usher, The Pit and the Pendulum, Tales of Terror and The Raven. He adapted his 1971 short story "Duel" as a screenplay, directed by Steven Spielberg for the television film of the same name that year.

In addition to I Am Legend and Duel, nine more of his novels and short stories have been adapted as motion pictures: The Shrinking Man (filmed as The Incredible Shrinking Man), Hell House (filmed as The Legend of Hell House), What Dreams May Come, Bid Time Return (filmed as Somewhere in Time), A Stir of Echoes, Steel (filmed as Real Steel), and Button, Button (filmed as The Box). The movie Cold Sweat was based on his novel Ride the Nightmare, and Les seins de glace (Icy Breasts) was based on his novel Someone Is Bleeding. Both Steel and Button had previously been episodes of The Twilight Zone.