Thank you, Charles Beaumont

My tribute to a storyteller who is almost forgotten

My first introduction to the late Charles Beaumont was not through his fiction. That would come later, much later. However I did know his work on the small screen via The Twilight Zone. Although his gift and incomparable skill as a storyteller would not present itself to me for another ten years! I first watched reruns of the show during my freshman year of college for a science fiction seminar in 2011. I was hooked immediately. While episodes such as “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street” and “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” will always be among some of the most memorable, they are not my favorite. They are indeed wonderful stories and will be remembered as such, but in college I was drawn to episodes such as “Perchance to Dream”; the story of a man ruled by the fear of dying in his sleep. Or “The Howling Man” where a man seeking shelter from a storm discovers that his hosts are keeping a strange man prisoner. Beaumont penned many episodes as a main writer for The Twilight Zone along with Richard Matheson, George Clayton Johnson, and the show’s creator, Rod Serling.

I purchased a Penguin Classic edition of Beaumont stories some years later and found myself gripped by them; short reads of horror, fantasy, and science fiction filled me with unease. Many of them still live in my mind: “Place of Meeting”, “Miss Gentilbelle”, “The Devil, You Say?” to highlight a few fun reads.

While I primarily read his short fiction for pleasure; rummaging all corners of the internet and inside local thrift stores with the hopes of unearthing out-of-print volumes, I return to the stories that haunt me the most in order to study his style and skill. “How the Hell did he do that?” is a phrase uttered from my lips far too often. Beaumont had the wonderful ability to grip a reader by the throat and pull them down deep in the trenches of terror, inspiring feelings of great agitation by the ending (usually with a last line) as you attempt to settle yourself after being consumed by a yarn or two.

He was inspired by the pulp masters from a young age; often astounded by their tales and work ethic.

“I used to stand there and watch them slamming out 10,000 words a day. They were Gods to me” - Charles Beaumont, From the introduction written by Roger Anker of “Charles Beaumont: Selected Stories”

At sixteen he met the great Ray Bradbury, who later became his mentor and instructed him that the best way to become a writer was to write a short story a week for an entire year. Beaumont would crank out stories as he learned his craft and sold his first short story in 1951 to pulp magazine Amazing Stories.

His career took off in the ‘50s as he began selling stories to big paying markets, including Playboy Magazine. By the time he reached his thirties he was extremely prolific with a body of work that included short stories, essays, two novels, a book on motorsport, screenplays for Roger Corman, and teleplays for numerous TV shows. He was close friends and collaborated with numerous colleagues such as Harlan Ellison, William F. Nolan, Richard Matheson, Robert Bloch and others.

Sadly after just thirteen years of a professional career, Beaumont passed away at the age of 38 from what many suspected to be Alzheimer’s Disease. Although, he left the world too soon, his of his work still exists, albeit much of it can only be found through second-hand bookstores and your local library (if you’re lucky!). The only exceptions seem to be the Penguin Classics edition (easily found online) and a fantastic volume published by Subterranean Press, The Carnival and Other Stories now available for pre-order. I’ happy to say I’ve ordered my copy.

"Charles Beaumont was one of the seminal influences on writers of the fantastic and macabre." - Dean Koontz

Though he is gone, I’m thankful that his stories are still with us and hope the world will remember what a tremendous storyteller he was. I’m still discovering new stories, books, and essays written by him with much delight. If you haven’t had the opportunity to read his work - do it. I believe you’ll find something truly special in his stories, if not a few moments fun reading. So please, dear reader, accept my modest tribute to one of my favorite writers.

Thank you, Charles Beaumont.