Today, January 2, is the birthday of Charles Beaumont (1929-1967). Beaumont was one of the writers of the original Twilight Zone. The reason Rod Serling asked Beaumont to write for him can be easily seen in Beaumont’s work.
One of Beaumont’s mentors was Ray Bradbury. Bradbury wrote in the introduction to Best of Beaumont (1982) that he and Beaumont lived in the same part of Los Angeles and used to pass a cemetery that had a sign advertising FREE DIRT. Continue reading
Charles Beaumont
Today, January 2, is the birthday of Charles Beaumont (1929-1967). If there was an episode of the original Twilight Zone that stuck in your head when you say it, chances are good Beaumont wrote it.
Mentored by Ray Bradbury, Beaumont would have been a major writer if he had lived. He died from early onset Alzheimer’s or something very much like it. Beaumont, like Bradbury, was primarily a short story writer, although he wrote a number of movie scripts. Continue reading
Charles Beaumont
Charles Beaumont (1929-1967) was born on this date, January 2. A protege of Ray Bradbury, Beaumont wrote many of the classic scripts for the original Twilight Zone.
I first read Beaumont when I was a sophomore in high school. It was about the time we moved from one side of the state to the other to be closer to my grandmother. I had picked up a copy of Best of Beaumont, in part because of the introduction provided by Ray Bradbury. Continue reading
Today, January 3, is the birthday of J. R. R. Tolkien (b. 1892). A month or so ago, a minor writer of short stories pulled the ol’ drum-up-publicity-for-my-book-launch-by-attcking-someone-greater-than-me trick.
It worked, just not the way the guy that thought. At least with me. I’ve started rereading The Lord of the Rings. Other than The Hobbit, I’ve never read deeply in Tolkien’s other works. I’ve decided to change that and have gotten several volumes in The History of Middle-Earth. I don’t know if I’ll blog about them, but I’m going to dip into them over the course of 2019.
Also, there are two birthdays from yesterday I didn’t mention because I was slightly distracted by my wife’s surgery.
Those were Charles Beaumont (b. Jan. 2, 1929) and Robert Nathan (b. Jan. 2, 1894). Beaumont I’ve written about before. A protege of Ray Bradbury, he wrote some great short stories and a number of well-regarded Twilight Zone scripts. I’ll try to read something of his in the next day or so.
Robert Nathan is best remembered for his short novel Portrait of Jenny. It’s a love story set in the Great Depression about an artist who keeps meeting a girl in the park. He meets her every few weeks, but each time she’s a few years older. It’s not an adventure story, but it’s one of my favorite novels. It’s definitely worth tracking down.
Charles Beaumont
Charles Beaumont was born on this date (January 2) in 1920. If you watched The Twilight Zone marathon on the SyFy Channel over the weekend, you probably saw one or two episodes that he wrote. His birthday is often overlooked since he shares it with a more famous author, Isaac Asimov.
Beaumont died way too young in 1967, but he left a mark of the field of the fantastic that still lingers today if you know where to look and what to look for. And not just because he wrote some of the best remembered episodes of The Twilight Zone, either. Continue reading
Charles Beaumont was born this day in 1929. He passed away in 1967. Beaumont was a protege of Ray Bradbury and a central figure in what’s come to be called the California School. Other members were Richard Matheson, William F. Nolan, Chad Oliver, and the late George Clayton Johnson. Johnson’s story “Your Three Minutes Are Up” is a tribute to his friend.
Beaumont is best remembered today for penning a number of scripts for Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone. He also wrote the novel The Intruder which was filmed by Roger Corman and starred William Shatner.
Beaumont’s strengths lay in short stories. I came across a slim volume when I was a sophomore in high school; I bought it on the strength of Ray Bradbury’s introduction and read it during a move across the state. Not all of the stories worked for me. Some of them were aimed for a more mature reader. I don’t mean “mature” in terms of sexual content (although that was part of it) but that the themes weren’t something a young teen could relate to.
On the other hand, the stories that did resonate with me blew me away. I was hooked and spent years haunting used book stores trying to find all of his collections. In addition to being the epitome of a professional working writer, Beaumont was an avid race fan. He and Nolan often raced.
Beaumont’s death is usually attributed to some type of early-onset Alzheimer’s. He began to age swifty at the age of 34. His loss was deeply felt.
Centipede Press recently published The Intruder, crime thriller Run From the Hunter (written collaboratively with John Tomerlin), and a massive collection of short fiction, Mass for Mixed Voices (which sold out almost immediately, and no, I won’t loan you my copy.) This past year penguin published Perchance to Dream: Selected Stories. Also available is the collection A Touch of the Creature, which contains all the stories in the limited edition published by Subterranean Press (2000) along with three more. These stories weren’t collected during Beaumont’s lifetime.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going reread some Beaumont short stories. Please turn out the light when you leave…on second thought, better not.
George Clayton Johnson passed away yesterday, Christmas Day, of cancer at the age of 86. While Mr. Johnson’s name may not be familiar to some of you, his work almost certainly is. He wrote eight episodes of The Twilight Zone (plus one unproduced episode) and the first episode of the original Star Trek series to air, “The Man Trap”. He also coauthored Logan’s Run with William F. Nolan. His other credits include scripts for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Honey West, and Kung Fu.
Johnson was a member of the group of writers known as the California school which included (in addition to Nolan) such writers as Ray Bradbury, Richard Matheson, and Charles Beaumont. He was known for his openness and willingness to assist authors trying to break into the field.
Rest well, sir.