I Am Legend Study Guide

Richard Matheson grew up in Brooklyn, and later attended the University of Missouri, where he majored in journalism. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, he began writing science fiction stories, and succeeded in publishing some in sci-fi magazines. Throughout the 1950s, Matheson remained a prolific author, and many of his stories and novels were adapted into films and TV episodes. Matheson’s 1956 novel The Shrinking Man was adapted into The Incredible Shrinking Man, one of the most iconic sci-fi films of the 1950s. Additionally, Matheson wrote more than a dozen episodes of the classic 1950s TV show The Twilight Zone, including the famous “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” (the one where William Shatner sees a monster on the wing of his plane). Matheson remained a prolific, highly-respected sci-fi writer throughout the second half of the 20th century; his short story “Duel” formed the basis for an early Steven Spielberg film of the same name, and his novel I Am Legend (1954) has been made into a film at least five times. Matheson died in Los Angeles in 2013, just days before he was due to receive the Saturn Award, one of the science fiction community’s most prestigious honors.

As a science fiction novel, I Am Legend doesn’t reference very many historical events; however, like many of the best SF books, it uses science fiction to allude to some of the social and political events of its era. Matheson’s futuristic portrait of Los Angeles as a dangerous, vampire-ridden wasteland could reflect his impressions of Los Angeles in the 1950s, when there were numerous fires and the city experienced a major increase in violent crime. Furthermore, I Am Legend alludes to the Cold War: the era in the second half of the 20th century when the United States and the Soviet Union fought a series of proxy wars against one another, and when there was a legitimate danger of global nuclear war.

As a vampire novel, the touchstone for Am Legend is, without a doubt, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (a novel which Matheson mentions more than once over the course of the book). Stoker’s 1897 Gothic horror novel tells the story of the evil Count Dracula, a vampire who sucks the blood of his victims. The book is credited with sparking a revival of interest in the vampire legend; Matheson’s book then reinterprets vampires in a more futuristic, scientific context. Perhaps the most famous author to credit Matheson himself as an influence is Stephen King, the author of such horror classics as Salem’s Lot, Pet Sematery, Cujo, Carrie, and The Shining. In many of his books, King studies lonely, depressed characters, not unlike Richard Neville; furthermore, King credits Matheson with showing him how to combine science fiction with horror in a convincing way.