Matheson, Richard

Richard Matheson was born in New Jersey and grew up in Brooklyn, New York. After his parents divorce he lived with his mother, a Christian Scientist, and his sister. He often visited the cinema as a child, he enjoyed realistic fantasy stories and he liked to write. During the course of his life he read a vast amount of literature on parapsychology and metaphysics. The young, introvert man trained as an army engineer after finishing technical high school. He then served in the war, but returned home after he had been wounded. He enrolled at the University of Missouri where he read journalism. In 1951 he moved to California, and a year later he married Ruth Woodson. They couple had four children. Their son, Richard Christian, later became a writer of horror novels like his father.