The plot of I am Legend centers around the survival of a man named Robert Neville, who is the last living human on earth. Its influence over major writers of today and continued recognition proves that it deserves to be credited by scholars, as well as included in modern anthologies of American Literature. Richard Matheson’s horror novel I am Legend, penned in 1954, is largely considered a pioneer novel for Gothic literature in America. The argument is why a genre can be recognized as holding literature of greater literary merit over another, such as horror. Of course, like any form of literature, there are examples of every genre that deserve to fall to the bottom of that pit and never resurface. However, novels exist that have been carelessly thrown into the bottomless bin of read and move on books that proffer literary value to the American canon. Horror novels, at times, find themselves placed at the same level as the latest steamy romance novel or a cheap mystery paperback. Yet, avid readers consume novels categorized as part of the horror or thriller genre more than any other literary genre. From it’s beginning, horror literature has been shunned from critical study by scholars of American Literature.

Monster i am legend