I Am Legend

Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend was influential in the development of the dystopian/post-apocalyptic horror genre. Since its publication, zombies, vampires, and depictions of societal collapse and its aftermath have been popularized in various media. Though I Am Legend specifically characterizes the victims of the vampiris contagion as vampires, the novel more so influenced the development of the zombie in popular culture, particularly shows like The Walking Dead (2010) and George A. Romero’s 1968 film Night of the Living Dead. I Am Legend was the first novel to introduce the concept of a worldwide pandemic causing an apocalypse. The novel was awarded the 2012 Vampire Novel of the Century Award by the Horror Writers Association, an organization known for its Bram Stoker Awards (named after the author of Dracula). Matheson’s writing is cited as influential in the works of Stephen King and Anne Rice, both known for their dark fantasy novels.

Robert Neville studies the nature of the Undead from a scientific perspective. The depiction of vampires in I Am Legend draws heavily from Gothic tradition—literature like Bram Stoker’s Dracula and John William Polidori’s short story “The Vampyre.” Where Matheson diverges from this tradition is in having Neville debunk the mysticism surrounding vampires through science, a novel concept for a writer living in the 1950s. Since I Am Legend’s publication, it has become more commonplace to depict a rational explanation for legendary phenomena like the vampire or zombie in media. This emphasis on science situates I Am Legend within the science fiction genre as well.