Editing I Am Legend (novel)

{{Short description|1954 novel by Richard Matheson}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}}
{{Infobox book
| name          = I Am Legend
| image         = IAmLegend25028.jpg
| caption       = First edition cover
| author        = [[Richard Matheson]]
| cover_artist  =
| country       = United States
| language      = English
| subject       = [[apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction|Post-apocalyptic]]
| genre         = [[horror fiction|Horror]]
| publisher     = [[Gold Medal Books]]
| pub_date      = August 7, 1954<ref>{{cite journal |date=August 7, 1954 |title=Books Published Today |journal=[[The New York Times]] |page=11 }}</ref>
| english_pub_date =
| media_type    = Paperback
| pages         = 160 (1954 edition)
| isbn          =
| oclc          =
}}

'''''I Am Legend''''' is a 1954 [[apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction|post-apocalyptic]] [[horror fiction|horror novel]] by American writer [[Richard Matheson]] that was influential in the modern development of [[zombie]] and [[vampire literature]], and in popularizing the concept of a worldwide apocalypse due to disease. The novel was a success and was adapted into the films ''[[The Last Man on Earth (1964 film)|The Last Man on Earth]]'' (1964), ''[[The Omega Man]]'' (1971), and ''[[I Am Legend (film)|I Am Legend]]'' (2007). It was also an inspiration for [[George A. Romero|George A. Romero's]] ''[[Night of the Living Dead]]'' (1968).

==Plot==
Set on Cimarron Street in 1976 [[Gardena, California]], after an apocalyptic war that ravages the land with weekly dust storms, the novel details the life of Robert Neville in the months and eventually years after the outbreak of a [[pandemic]] that has killed the rest of the human population and turned infected survivors into "[[vampire]]s". The vampires conform remarkably to their stereotypes in fiction and folklore: they are [[hematophagy|blood-sucking]], pale-skinned, and nocturnal, though otherwise indistinguishable from normal humans. Neville, possibly the sole survivor of the pandemic, barricades himself indoors nightly as vampires violently swarm his house. He is further protected by the [[Vampire#Protection|traditional vampire repellents]] of [[garlic#Spiritual and religious uses|garlic]], mirrors, and [[crucifix]]es. During the day, the vampires are inactive, allowing Neville to drive around stabbing them with wooden stakes (since they seem impervious to his gun’s bullets), which causes them to liquefy instantly, and scavenging for supplies. Occasional [[Flashback (narrative)|flashbacks]] reveal the horrors of how the disease claimed the lives of his wife and daughter.

Suffering from extreme [[loneliness|isolation]], [[Depression (mood)|depression]], and [[alcoholism]], Neville determines there must be some scientific reasons behind the vampires' origins, behaviors, and oddly specific aversions, so he gradually researches at his local library, discovering that the root of the disease is probably a ''[[Bacillus]]'' strain of [[bacteria]] capable of infecting both living and deceased ("undead") hosts. His experiments with microscopes also reveal that the bacteria are deathly sensitive to garlic and sunlight. After he painstakingly attempts to win the trust of a stray sickly dog that dies after only a week, Neville, heartbroken, commits himself even more vigorously to his studies. Soon he experiments directly on incapacitated vampires, which leads to a new theory that vampires are affected by mirrors and crosses because of "[[Conversion disorder|hysterical blindness]]", in which the infected now delusionally react as they believe they should when confronted with these items. Neville additionally discovers that exposing vampires to direct sunlight or inflicting wide oxygen-exposing wounds causes the bacteria to switch from being [[Anaerobic organism|anaerobic]] [[Symbiosis|symbionts]] to [[Aerobic organism|aerobic]] [[Parasitism|parasites]], rapidly consuming their hosts when exposed to air and thus giving them the appearance of instantly liquefying. However, he discovers the bacteria also produce resilient "body glue" that instantaneously seals blunt or narrow wounds, explaining how the vampires are bulletproof. Lastly, he deduces now that there are in fact two differently-reacting types of vampires: conscious ones who are living with a worsening infection and undead ones who have died but been partly reanimated by the bacteria.

After three years, Neville suddenly sees a terrified woman named Ruth in broad daylight. The two cautiously gain each other's trust and even share a romantic embrace. Neville explains some of his findings, including his theory that he developed [[immunity (medical)|immunity]] against the infection after being bitten by an infected [[vampire bat]] years ago. He prepares to test Ruth to determine if she is infected or immune, vowing to treat her if she is infected, but she knocks him unconscious. Once Neville comes to, he discovers a note from her confessing that she is indeed a vampire herself. Her note suggests that only the undead vampires are pathologically violent but not those, like her, who were alive at the time of infection and who still survive due to chance mutations. These living-infected have slowly overcome their disease and are gradually developing a new society and new medications. Ruth admits she was sent to spy on him by her comrades and that he was responsible for the deaths of many of her fellow vampires, including her husband. Still, Ruth reiterates her romantic feelings for Neville and urges him to flee the city to avoid capture.

Neville ignores Ruth's warning, assuming he will be treated fairly by the new society of living-infected. However, his mind is changed when he watches a group of them annihilate the undead vampires outside his home with fiendish glee, then break down his front door. In a panic, Neville opens fire on them but is in turn shot and subdued. Imprisoned and dying, he is visited by Ruth, who informs him that she is a senior member of the new society but, unlike the others who perceive him as a murderer, she does not resent him. She acknowledges the public need for Neville's execution but, out of mercy, gives him a packet of fast-acting [[suicide pill]]s. Neville accepts his fate and asks Ruth not to let this society become too heartless. Ruth promises to try, kisses him, and leaves. Neville goes to his prison window and sees the infected staring back at him with the same hatred and fear that he once felt for them. He realizes that he, a remnant of old humanity, is now a legend to the new race born of the infection. He acknowledges that their desire to kill him, after he has killed so many of their loved ones, is not something he can condemn. As the pills take effect, he is amused by the thought that he will become their new superstition and legend, just as vampires once were to humans.

==Critical reception==
As related in ''[[In Search of Wonder]]'' (1956), [[Damon Knight]] wrote:

{{blockquote|The book is full of good ideas, every other one of which is immediately dropped and kicked out of sight. The characters are child's drawings, as blank-eyed and expressionless as the author himself in his back-cover photograph. The plot limps.  All the same, the story could have been an admirable minor work in the tradition of ''[[Dracula]]'', if only the author, or somebody, had not insisted on encumbering it with the year's most childish set of "scientific" rationalizations.|Damon Knight<ref>{{cite book|last= Knight |first= Damon |year=1967|title=In Search of Wonder|url= https://archive.org/details/insearchofwonder0000knig |url-access= registration |location=Chicago |publisher= Advent|isbn= 9780911682076 }}</ref>}}

[[Galaxy Science Fiction|''Galaxy'']] reviewer [[Groff Conklin]] described ''Legend'' as:

{{blockquote|a weird [and] rather slow-moving first novel{{nbs}}... a horrid, violent, sometimes exciting but too often overdone tour de force.|Groff Conklin<ref>"Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf", ''[[Galaxy Science Fiction]]'', January 1955, p. 121</ref>}}

[[Anthony Boucher]] praised the novel:

{{blockquote|Matheson has added a new variant on the Last Man theme{{nbs}}... and has given striking vigor to his invention by a forceful style of storytelling which derives from the best hard-boiled crime novels.|Anthony Boucher<ref>"Recommended Reading". ''[[The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction|F&SF]]'', November 1954, p. 99.</ref>}}

[[Dan Schneider (writer)|Dan Schneider]] from ''International Writers Magazine: Book Review'' wrote:

{{blockquote|Despite having vampires in it, [the novel] is not a novel on vampires, nor even a horror nor sci-fi novel at all, in the deepest sense. Instead, it is perhaps the greatest novel written on human loneliness. It far surpasses [[Daniel Defoe]]'s ''[[Robinson Crusoe]]'' in that regard. Its insights into what it is to be human go far beyond genre, and is all the more surprising because, having read his short stories—which range from competent but simplistic, to having classic ''[[The Twilight Zone|Twilight Zone]]'' twists (he was a major contributor to the original TV series)—there is nothing within those short stories that suggests the supreme majesty of the existential masterpiece ''I Am Legend'' was aborning.|Dan Schneider (2005)<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.hackwriters.com/iamlegend.htm |title=I am Legend by Richard Matheson |last=Schneider |first=Dan |publisher= Hackwriters |date=1953-01-05 |access-date= 2013-06-03}}</ref>}}

In 2012, the [[Horror Writers Association]] gave ''I Am Legend'' the special Vampire Novel of the Century Award.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://horror.org/2011-bram-stoker-award-winners-and-vampire-novel-of-the-century-award-winner/ |title=2011 Bram Stoker Award winners and Vampire Novel of the Century Award winner |work=[[Horror Writers Association]] |date=1 April 2012 |access-date=2024-10-25}}</ref>

==Influence==
One major influence upon Matheson and others of the genre is the [[Mary Shelley]] novel, ''[[The Last Man]]'', about an immune person surviving in a plague infested world.

In ''I Am Legend'', the "vampires" share more similarities with [[zombie]]s, and the novel influenced the zombie fiction genre and popularized the concept of a worldwide [[zombie apocalypse]].<ref name="books.google.co.uk">{{cite book |editor1-first=Deborah |editor1-last=Christie |editor2-first=Sarah Juliet |editor2-last=Lauro |year=2011 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0oZIlm84F2oC&q=romero+&pg=PA57 |title=Better Off Dead: The Evolution of the Zombie as Post-Human |publisher=Fordham University Press |page=169 |isbn=9780823234479}}</ref>

Although the idea has now become commonplace, a scientific origin for vampirism or zombies was fairly original when written.<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20071223%2FSTYLE%2F225372455%2F-1%2Fstyle |work = Nashua Telegraph |title=Tale with long history has legendary opening |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071228040501/http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=%2F20071223%2FSTYLE%2F225372455%2F-1%2Fstyle |archive-date=28 December 2007 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

According to Clasen:

{{blockquote |''I Am Legend'' is the product of an anxious artistic mind working in an anxious cultural climate. However, it is also a playful take on an old archetype, the vampire (the reader is even treated to Neville's reading and put-down of [[Bram Stoker]]'s ''[[Dracula]]''). Matheson goes to great lengths to rationalize or naturalize the vampire myth, transplanting the monster from the otherworldly realms of folklore and Victorian supernaturalism to the test tube of medical inquiry and rational causation. With ''I Am Legend'', Matheson instituted the germ theory of vampirism, a take on the old archetype which has since been tackled by other writers (notably, [[Dan Simmons]] in ''Children of the Night'' from 1992).|Mathias Clasen<ref name="Clasen">{{cite journal |last=Clasen |first=Mathias |year=2010 |title=Vampire Apocalypse: A Biocultural Critique of Richard Matheson's I Am Legend |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/philosophy_and_literature/v034/34.2.clasen.html |journal=Philosophy and Literature |doi=10.1353/phl.2010.0005 |volume=34 |issue=2 |pages=313–328 |s2cid=170456875}}</ref>}}

Although referred to as "the first modern vampire novel", it is as a novel of social theme that ''I Am Legend'' made a lasting impression on the cinematic zombie genre, by way of director [[George A. Romero]], who acknowledged its influence and that of its original cinematic adaptation, ''[[The Last Man on Earth (1964 film)|The Last Man on Earth]]'' (1964), upon his seminal film ''[[Night of the Living Dead]]'' (1968).<ref>David Carroll and Kyla Ward, [http://www.tabula-rasa.info/DarkAges/Timeline2.html "The Horror Timeline"]. ''Burnt Toast'' No. 13.</ref><ref name="books.google.co.uk"/><ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.houseofhorrors.com/night68.htm| website = House of Horrors |title=Night of the Living Dead | date = 5 February 2019| access-date = 29 December 2007| archive-date = 1 October 2016| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161001182804/http://www.houseofhorrors.com/night68.htm| url-status = dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Biodrowski |first=Steve |url=http://blog.cinefantastiqueonline.com/wordpress/retrospective-night-of-the-living-dead-1968/ |title=Night of the Living Dead (1968) – A Retrospective |work=Cinefantastique |date=2008-02-13 |access-date=2024-10-25}}</ref><ref>Richard Matheson Interview, in Tom Weaver, ''Return of the B Science Fiction and Horror Movie Makers: The Mutant Melding of Two Volumes of Classic Interviews'' (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 1999), p. 307, {{ISBN|0-7864-0755-7}}.</ref>

Discussing the creation of ''Night of the Living Dead'', Romero remarked:

{{blockquote|I had written a short story, which I basically had ripped off from a Richard Matheson novel called ''I Am Legend''.|George Romero<ref>"One for the Fire: The Legacy of ''Night of the Living Dead''". ''Night of the Living Dead'' DVD, 2008, Region 1, Dimension Home Entertainment</ref>}}

Moreover, film critics have noted similarities between ''Night of the Living Dead'' (1968) and ''The Last Man on Earth'' (1964).<ref>{{cite web |last=Scalzo |first=Thomas |url=http://notcoming.com/reviews/lastmanonearth/ |title=The Last Man on Earth |website=Not Coming to a Theater Near You |date=2006-10-14 |access-date=2024-10-25}}</ref>

[[Stephen King]] said: "Books like ''I Am Legend'' were an inspiration to me."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,923-2278832,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080725002628/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,923-2278832,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 25, 2008 |first=Stephen |last=King |author-link=Stephen King |work=The Times |location=London |title=The Legend that inspired me |date=2006-07-22 |access-date=2010-05-04}}</ref> Film critics noted that the [[Cinema of the United Kingdom|British film]] ''[[28 Days Later]]'' (2002) and its sequel ''[[28 Weeks Later]]'' both feature a [[rabies]]-type [[Plague (disease)|plague]] ravaging [[Great Britain]], analogous to ''I Am Legend''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.channel4.com/film/reviews/film.jsp?id=109016&section=review |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090711233136/http://www.channel4.com/film/reviews/film.jsp?id=109016&section=review |archive-date=2009-07-11 |title=28 Days Later Review |first=Daniel |last=Etherington |website=Film4}}</ref>

Tim Cain, the [[Video game producer|producer]], [[lead programmer]] and one of the main [[Video game designer|designers]] of the 1997 [[computer game]] ''[[Fallout (video game)|Fallout]]'', cited ''I Am Legend'' and the movie ''The Omega Man'' as influences on the game:

{{blockquote|This book was how a[n] individual would handle thinking that he was the last survivor on Earth. This is why in ''Fallout 1'' when you're voted to leave the Vault, we really wanted that sense of isolationism; that sense of: you are the only person out here on the Wasteland who is, quote, "a normal person", and we wanted you to feel, like, special in that way.<ref>{{cite AV media|first=Timothy|last=Cain|work=GameSpot|via=YouTube|title=Fallout Classic Revisited|date=2012-03-09|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xa5IzHhAdi4&t=8m21s |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/Xa5IzHhAdi4| archive-date=2021-12-11 |url-status=live|access-date=2017-01-09}}{{cbignore}}</ref>}}

==Adaptations==
===Comics===
<!-- [[Richard Matheson's I Am Legend]] links here -->
The book has also been adapted into a [[comic book]] [[Limited series (comics)|miniseries]] titled ''Richard Matheson's I Am Legend'' by [[Steve Niles]] and Elman Brown. It was published in 1991 by [[Eclipse Comics]] and collected into a [[Trade paperback (comics)|trade paperback]] by [[IDW Publishing]].<ref>{{gcdb series|id=22085|title=I Am Legend}}</ref><ref>{{comicbookdb|type=title|id=11626|title=I Am Legend}}</ref>

An unrelated film tie-in was released in 2007 as a [[One-shot (comics)|one-shot]] ''I Am Legend: Awakening'' published in a [[San Diego Comic-Con]] special by [[Vertigo (DC Comics)|Vertigo]].<ref>{{comicbookdb|type=issue|id=150975|title=I Am Legend: Awakening}}</ref>

===Audiobook===
A nine-part abridged reading of the novel performed by [[Angus MacInnes]] was originally broadcast on [[BBC Radio 4 Extra|BBC 7]] in January 2006<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.radiolistings.co.uk/programmes/i/i_/i_am_legend.html |title=BBC Radio 7—I Am Legend |website=RadioListings |access-date=2015-02-04 |archive-date=2015-02-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150204142722/http://www.radiolistings.co.uk/programmes/i/i_/i_am_legend.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> and repeated in January 2018.

===Films===
''I Am Legend'' has been adapted into a feature-length film three times, as well as into a direct-to-video feature film called ''[[I Am Omega]]''. Differing from the book, each of them portrays the Neville character as an accomplished scientist. The three adaptations show him finding a remedy and passing it on. Adaptations differ from the novel by setting the events three years after the disaster, instead of happening "in the span of" three years. Also, adaptations are set in the near future, a few years after the film's release, while the novel is set 20 years after its publication date.

{{lang|es-ES|Soy leyenda}} is a short film by Mario Gómez Martín in 1967 intended as a [[student film]] for the Spanish {{lang|es-ES|[[Escuela Oficial de Cinematografía]]}}.
It has been described as the version most pessimist and faithful to the original novel.<ref name="Filmoteca">{{cite web |last1=López |first1=Pablo |title=#DoréEnCasa soy leyenda (Mario Gómez Martín, 1967) |url=https://www.cultura.gob.es/dam/jcr:ae77e80e-0804-4fe6-8d7e-28c3db7c6ae8/el-dor--en-casa---soy-leyenda--de-mario-mart-n-g-mez.pdf |publisher=Filmoteca Española |access-date=13 October 2024 |location=Madrid |page=3 |language=es-ES |date=April 2020}}</ref><ref name="Tones">{{cite news |last1=Tones |first1=John |title=La mejor y más fiel adaptación de 'Soy leyenda' es española, de 1967 y acaba de ser resucitada en internet |url=https://www.xataka.com/cine-y-tv/mejor-fiel-adaptacion-soy-leyenda-espanola-1967-acaba-ser-resucitada-internet |access-date=13 October 2024 |work=Xataka |date=19 April 2020 |language=es-ES}}</ref>

====''The Last Man on Earth''====
{{Main|The Last Man on Earth (1964 film)}}
In [[1964 in film|1964]], [[Vincent Price]] starred as Dr. Robert Morgan (rather than "Neville") in ''[[The Last Man on Earth (1964 film)|The Last Man on Earth]]'' (the original title of this [[Italy|Italian]] production was {{lang|it|L'ultimo uomo della Terra}}). Matheson wrote the original screenplay for this adaptation, but due to later rewrites did not wish his name to appear in the credits; as a result, Matheson is credited under the pseudonym "Logan Swanson".<ref name="WiaterBradley2009">{{cite book|first1=Stan |last1=Wiater|first2=Matthew R. |last2=Bradley|first3=Paul |last3=Stuve |title=The Twilight and Other Zones: The Dark Worlds of Richard Matheson|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YLsunUB90q4C&pg=PA176|access-date=3 June 2013|year=2009|publisher=Kensington |isbn=978-0-8065-3113-7|pages=177ff}}</ref>

====''The Omega Man''====
{{Main|The Omega Man}}
In [[1971 in film|1971]], a far different version was produced, titled ''[[The Omega Man]]''. It starred [[Charlton Heston]] (as Robert Neville) and [[Anthony Zerbe]]. Matheson had no influence on the screenplay for this film,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/omega_man_the |title=Omega Man, The |website=SF Encyclopedia |access-date=2013-06-03}}</ref> and although the premise remains, it deviates from the novel in several ways, removing the infected people's vampiric characteristics, except their sensitivity to light. In this version, the infected are portrayed as nocturnal, black-robed, [[Albinism|albino]] mutants, known as the Family. Though intelligent, they eschew modern technology, believing it (and those who use it, such as Neville) to be evil and the cause of humanity's downfall.

====''I Am Legend''====
{{Main|I Am Legend (film)}}
In 2007, a third adaptation of the novel was produced, this time titled ''[[I Am Legend (film)|I Am Legend]]''. Directed by [[Francis Lawrence]] and starring [[Will Smith]] as Robert Neville, this film uses both Matheson's novel and the 1971 ''Omega Man'' film as its sources.<ref>End credits: "Based on the screenplay by John & Joyce Corrington, and the novel by Richard Matheson".</ref> This adaptation also deviates significantly from the novel. In this version, the infection is caused by a vaccine originally intended to cure [[cancer]]. Some vampiric elements are retained, such as sensitivity to [[Ultraviolet|UV light]] and attraction to blood. The infected are portrayed as nocturnal, feral creatures of limited intelligence who hunt the uninfected with [[berserker]]-like rage. Other creatures, such as dogs, are also infected by the virus. The ending of the film was also altered to portray Neville as sacrificing his life to save humanity, rather than being executed for crimes against the surviving vampiric humans, although a deleted ending for the film was closer in spirit to the book.<ref name="books.google.co.uk"/> The film takes place in New York City in 2009 and 2012 rather than Los Angeles in 1975–1977.

==See also==
{{portal|Novels}}
* [[1954 in science fiction]]
* [[Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction]]
* [[Survivalism]]
* [[Vampire literature]]
* [[Zombie]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* [http://www.iamlegendarchive.com The ''I Am Legend'' Archive]
* {{ISFDB title|id=16515}}

{{I Am Legend}}
{{Richard Matheson}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:I Am Legend (novel)}}
[[Category:I Am Legend| ]]
[[Category:1954 American novels]]
[[Category:1954 science fiction novels]]
[[Category:1950s horror novels]]
[[Category:American science fiction novels]]
[[Category:Fiction set in 1976]]
[[Category:Novels set in the 1970s]]
[[Category:American novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:American post-apocalyptic novels]]
[[Category:American horror novels]]
[[Category:American vampire novels]]
[[Category:Gold Medal Books books]]
[[Category:Novels about suicide]]
[[Category:Novels about viral outbreaks]]
[[Category:Novels by Richard Matheson]]
[[Category:Novels set in Los Angeles]]
[[Category:Science fiction horror novels]]
[[Category:Science fiction novels adapted into films]]
[[Category:Horror novels adapted into films]]