Richard Matheson Reading Order
8 series · 122 books · Born 20 February 1926
Richard Matheson was an influential American author known for his contributions to the science fiction and horror genres. With a remarkable bibliography that includes 122 works across eight series, Matheson's most acclaimed piece is the novel "I Am Legend." His extensive repertoire features standalones, graphic novels, and non-fiction, highlighting a prolific career that spanned from 1951 to 2020.
Anthologies Series
Complete34 books (1954–2018)
Start with Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3 - F-675, the first of 34 books in the Anthologies series.
| # | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 | Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3 - F-675 1954Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 2 |  Star Science Fiction Stories 3 1955Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 3 |  Best of Science Fiction: No. 10 1964Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 4 | If This Goes On 1965Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 5 | Fantastic Science Fiction and Fantasy Magazine, January 1967 1967Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 6 |  Space Suits & Gumshoes 1972Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 7 |  Star Science Fiction Stories No. 5 1972Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 8 |  The Devil's Generation 1973Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 9 |  Great Black Magic Stories 1974Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 10 |  Rod Serling's Other Worlds 1978Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 11 |  65 Great Spine Chillers 1982Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 12 |  Laughing Space: An Anthology of Science Fiction Humor 1982Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 13 |  Great Tales of Fantasy and Science Fiction 1985Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 14 |  Rod Serling's Night Gallery Reader 1987Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 15 |  The Best Horror Stories from the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 1988Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 16 |  The Monster Book of Monsters 1988Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 17 | Hot Blood Tales of Erotic Horror 1989Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 18 | The Year's Best Fantasy: Second Annual Collection 1989Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 19 |  Volume II: The Medusa In The Shield 1990Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 20 |  An Exploration of Horror: Foundations of Fear 1992Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 21 |  Foundations of Fear: Volume III: Visions of Fear 1994Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 22 |  Robert Bloch: Appreciations of the Master 1995Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 23 |  American Pulp 1997Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 24 |  The Young Oxford Book of Nasty Endings 1998Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 25 |  Taps and Sighs 2000Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 26 |  Stranger: Dark Tales of Eerie Encounters 2002Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 27 |  Kiss the Whip 2005Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 28 | Masques V 2006Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 29 |  The Best of Cemetery Dance II 2008Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 30 |  The Dead That Walk 2009Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 31 |  Haunts: Reliquaries of the Dead 2011Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 32 |  The Mammoth Book of Body Horror 2012Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 33 | The Time Traveler's Almanac 2013Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 34 |  Flight or Fright 2018Buy 🇺🇸 |
Foundations of Fear Anthology Series
Complete4 books (1992–1994)
Start with An Exploration of Horror: Foundations of Fear(With: George R.R. Martin,Robert A. Heinlein,David G. Hartwell,Peter Straub,Daphne du Maurier,Clive Barker,Carlos Fuentes,Arthur Machen,Gerald Durrell), the first of 4 books in the Foundations of Fear Anthology series.
| # | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 | An Exploration of Horror: Foundations of Fear(With: George R.R. Martin,Robert A. Heinlein,David G. Hartwell,Peter Straub,Daphne du Maurier,Clive Barker,Carlos Fuentes,Arthur Machen,Gerald Durrell) 1992Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 2 |  Foundations of Fear: Volume I: Shadows of Fear(By: Robert A. Heinlein,David G. Hartwell,Peter Straub,H.P. Lovecraft,Daphne du Maurier,Arthur Machen,Jean Ray,Harriet Prescott Spofford) 1994Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 3 |  Foundations of Fear: Volume II: Worlds of Fear(By: George R.R. Martin,David G. Hartwell,Thomas Hardy,Gertrude Atherton,Thomas M. Disch,Elizabeth Engstrom,Carlos Fuentes) 1994Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 4 | Foundations of Fear: Volume III: Visions of Fear(With: David G. Hartwell,E.T.A. Hoffmann,Philip K. Dick,Clive Barker,Octavia E. Butler,Gerald Durrell) 1994Buy 🇺🇸 |
Graphic Novels Series
Complete1 book (2007–2007)
| # | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 |  Completely Doomed 2007Buy 🇺🇸 |
Non-Fiction Series
Complete4 books (1993–2007)
Start with The Path, the first of 4 books in the Non-Fiction series.
Short Stories/Novellas Series
Complete18 books (1951–2002)
Start with Blood Son / Drink My Blood / Drink My Red Blood, the first of 18 books in the Short Stories/Novellas series.
| # | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 | Blood Son / Drink My Blood / Drink My Red Blood 1951Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 2 | Dress of White Silk 1951Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 3 | Long Distance Call 1951Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 4 | Through Channels 1951Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 5 |  Witch War 1951Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 6 | Disappearing Act 1953Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 7 | Legion of Plotters 1953Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 8 | Mad House 1953Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 9 |  Slaughter House 1953Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 10 |  Wet Straw 1953Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 11 | Dance of the Dead 1954Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 12 | Old Haunts 1957Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 13 | The Children of Noah 1957Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 14 | The Holiday Man 1957Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 15 |  The Distributor 1958Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 16 | First Anniversary 1960Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 17 |  The Likeness of Julie 1962Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 18 |  Pride(With: Richard Christian Matheson) 2002Buy 🇺🇸 |
Short Story Collections Series
Complete27 books (1954–2020)
Start with Born Of Man And Woman, the first of 27 books in the Short Story Collections series.
| # | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 | Born Of Man And Woman 1954Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 2 | Third From The Sun: Tales Of Science Fiction And Fantasy 1954Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 3 | The Shores Of Space 1957Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 4 | Nightmare At 20,000 Feet 1961Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 5 | Shock!: Thirteen Tales To Thrill And Terrify 1961Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 6 |  Shock Ii: Thirteen Tales To Haunt The Imagination 1964Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 7 | Shock Iii 1966Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 8 |  Shock Waves 1970Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 9 |  Duel 1971Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 10 |  Collected Stories, Vol. 1 1989Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 11 |  By The Gun 1994Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 12 |  The Twilight Zone Scripts 1998Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 13 |  Kolchak Scripts 2003Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 14 |  Darker Places 2004Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 15 |  Collected Stories, Vol. 2 2005Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 16 |  Collected Stories, Vol. 3 2005Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 17 |  Unrealized Dreams 2005Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 18 |  Bloodlines 2006Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 19 | Button, Button: Uncanny Stories 2007Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 20 |  Visions Of Death: Richard Matheson's Edgar Allan Poe Scripts, Vol. 1 2007Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 21 |  The Box 2008Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 22 |  Visions Deferred 2009Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 23 |  Richard Matheson Uncollected: Backteria And Other Improbable Tales 2011Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 24 |  Steel And Other Stories 2011Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 25 |  Road Rage(With: Stephen King,Joe Hill,Chris Ryall) 2012Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 26 | The Best Of Richard Matheson 2017Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 27 | Off Beat: Uncollected Stories 2020Buy 🇺🇸 |
Standalone Novels Series
Complete31 books (1953–2013)
Start with Fury on Sunday, the first of 31 books in the Standalone Novels series.
| # | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 |  Fury on Sunday 1953Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 2 | Someone is Bleeding 1953Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 3 | I Am Legend / The Omega Man 1954Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 4 |  Woman / Third from the Sun / Born of Man 1954Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 5 |  The Incredible Shrinking Man / The Shrinking Man 1956Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 6 |  A Stir of Echoes 1958Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 7 | Ride the Nightmare 1959Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 8 |  The Beardless Warriors of World War II 1960Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 9 | Comedy of Terrors 1964Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 10 |  Hell House 1971Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 11 | The Night Stalker 1973Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 12 |  The Night Strangler 1974Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 13 |  Somewhere In Time / Bid Time Return 1975Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 14 |  What Dreams May Come 1978Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 15 |  Earthbound 1982Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 16 |  Journal of the Gun Years 1991Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 17 |  7 Steps to Midnight 1993Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 18 |  The Gun Fight 1993Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 19 |  Shadow on the Sun 1994Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 20 | Now You See It... 1995Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 21 |  The Memoirs of Wild Bill Hickok 1996Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 22 |  Hunger and Thirst 2000Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 23 |  Passion Play 2000Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 24 |  Camp Pleasant 2001Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 25 |  Abu and the 7 Marvels(With: William Stout) 2002Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 26 |  Hunted Past Reason 2002Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 27 |  Come Fygures, Come Shadowes 2003Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 28 |  The Link 2006Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 29 |  Other Kingdoms 2011Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 30 |  Generations 2012Buy 🇺🇸 |
| 31 |  Leave Yesterday Alone 2013Buy 🇺🇸 |
The Dark Descent Series
Complete3 books (1987–1991)
Start with Volume I: The Color of Evil and read in order.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How many books has Richard Matheson written?
- Richard Matheson has written 122 books across 8 series. Their published works span from 1951 to 2020.
- What is the first book in each Richard Matheson series?
- Here are the first books in Richard Matheson's series: Anthologies: Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3 - F-675; Foundations of Fear Anthology: An Exploration of Horror: Foundations of Fear(With: George R.R. Martin,Robert A. Heinlein,David G. Hartwell,Peter Straub,Daphne du Maurier,Clive Barker,Carlos Fuentes,Arthur Machen,Gerald Durrell); Non-Fiction: The Path; Short Stories/Novellas: Blood Son / Drink My Blood / Drink My Red Blood; Short Story Collections: Born Of Man And Woman.
- What order should I read Richard Matheson's books?
- We recommend reading Richard Matheson's series in publication order. Each series can be read independently.
- Are Richard Matheson's series complete?
- Richard Matheson has 8 completed series.