I Am Legend is a 1954 science fiction novel by Richard Matheson about the last man alive in a future Los Angeles, California. It is notable as influential on the developing modern vampire genre as well as the zombie genre, in popularizing the fictional concept of a worldwide apocalypse due to disease, and in exploring the notion of vampirism as a disease. The novel was a success and was adapted to film as The Last Man on Earth in 1964, as The Omega Man in 1971, and again in 2007 as I Am Legend.

Later releases of the novel include several of Matheson's short stories: Buried Talents, The Near Departed, Prey, Witch War, Dance of the Dead, Dress of White Silk, Mad House, Funeral, From Shadowed Places, and Person to Person.

I Am Legend is the story of Robert Neville - apparently the sole survivor of a virus pandemic apocalypse, the symptoms of which resemble vampirism. The author details Neville's daily life in Los Angeles from January of 1976 to January of 1979, as he attempts to comprehend, research, and possibly cure the disease that killed mankind, and to which he is immune. Neville's past is revealed through flashbacks, while his emotional struggle to cope with losing his family is dealt with by going about a daily routine.