Bloodlines: Richard Matheson's Dracula, I Am Legend, and Other Vampire Stories

Edited by Mark Dawidziak. Published by Gauntlet Press.

Our high profile Matheson release of the year, Bloodlines: Richard Matheson's Dracula, I Am Legend, and Other Vampire Stories, is an omnibus collection of Matheson's vampire tales and scripts.

Edited by Mark Dawidziak (The Kolchak Scripts), the book will contain both the novel and screenplay for I Am Legend (there has never been a Lettered edition of the book). Matheson's script was purchased by Hammer Films in the U.K. in the sixties, but the British Censor Board called for two pages or revisions due to "gruesomeness", which Matheson would not make. We'll reprint the letter with the script. This is Matheson's vision of his classic novel, which is far better than the two films that don't come close to doing justice to the book.

Matheson was also the first to write a Dracula script based on the Bram Stoker novel. Filmed in 1974 for television by the late Dan Curtis (starring Jack Palance), we have both Matheson's screen treatment and script. This is another oversized 8 ½ x 11 book with the Dracula script presented as Matheson typed it, with many handwritten corrections and changes.

We will have loads of appreciations that will appear in both editions. Those writing the appreciations will sign only the Lettered edition, which are Ray Bradbury, John Carpenter, Rockne S. O'Bannon, Mick Garris, Frank Spotnitz, Steve Niles and Richard Christian Matheson.

Contents:

1) Preface: Tracing the Bloodlines by Mark Dawidziak
2) Introduction #1: Richard the Writer, Vlad the Impaler and "Dracula" the Script by Mark Dawidziak
3) Dracula: Richard Matheson's complete script for the TV movie
4) The Dracula Treatment: Richard Matheson's Treatment for the Script
5) Gallery A: Pictures from "Dracula"
6) Introduction #2: The Unfilmed Legend by Mark Dawidziak
7) Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend" Script
8) "I Am Legend" (the complete novel) (1954)
9) Gallery B: Pictures from versions of "I Am Legend"
10) Introduction #3: The Short Stories by Mark Dawidziak
11) "Blood Son" (1951, also "Drink My Red Blood")
12) "The Funeral" (1955)
13) "No Such Thing as a Vampire" (1959)
14) Gallery C: Pictures from "The Funeral" and "No Such Thing as a Vampire"