Fans of Rod Serling's 1959-1964 classic, The Twilight Zone, may want to take a moment to seek out a number of these paperbacks. Some of the gifted writers who contributed to the television series, Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont, among others, wrote numerous short stories throughout the 1950s and 1960s, many of which would have made superb episodes of the television series.
The question that often comes up is where can fans of the television series find more stories just like those. The answer is to seek out the short story collections of Matheson, Beaumont, William F. Nolan, George Clayton Johnson, and others. The magazine Gamma, was short-lived and lasted a mere five issues from 1963 to 1965. Though not difficult to find, this magazine was launched and produced by the same writers of The Twilight Zone. Even Rod Serling contributed a story for one of the issues.
In 1988, Roger Anker edited a superb collection of short stories by Charles Beaumont, with three of his stories that were adapted for The Twilight Zone, and plenty of stories that never had the chance to be adapted. A list of stories from that book is enclosed below as an example.
Contents:
The Vanishing American (1955)
Mourning Song (1963)
Gentlemen, Be Seated (1960)
Last Rites (1955)
Miss Gentilbelle (1957)
Place of Meeting (1953)
The Devil, You Say? (1951)
Free Dirt (1955)
Song for a Lady (1960)
The Howling Man (1959)
The Dark Music (1956)
The Magic Man (1960)
Fair Lady (1957)
A Point of Honor (1955)
The Hunger (1955)
Black Country (1954)
The Jungle (1954)
The New People (1958)
Perchance to Dream (1958)
The Crooked Man (1955)
Blood Brother (1961)
A Death in the Country (1957)
The Music of the Yellow Brass (1959)
Night Ride (1957)
So if you are a fan of The Twilight Zone and seeking more stories of that same nature, I recommend you seek out those paperbacks and hardcovers. And enjoy a cool story of science-fiction or fantasy.
