I Am Legend (novel)

I Am Legend is a 1954 post-apocalyptichorror novel by American writer Richard Matheson. The novel inspired the modern development of zombie and vampire literature as a new genre, the narrative trope of a scientific explanation for vampires, and the popularity of a worldwide apocalypse due to disease. The novel was a success and was adapted into the films The Last Man on Earth (1964), The Omega Man (1971), and I Am Legend (2007). It was also an inspiration for George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968).