Bloodlines: Richard Matheson’s Dracula, I Am Legend, and Other Vampire Stories.

Matheson, Richard (author) and Dawidziak, Mark (editor).

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Between Dracula (1897) and ’Salem’s Lot (1975), the most significant vampire novel was Matheson’s I Am Legend. It is important because it is science fiction positing a biological explanation of vampirism and it is set contemporaneously or, since the action spans January 1976–January 1979, in a near-future clearly derived from its era. Which wouldn’t have mattered without Matheson’s efficient exposition and credible dialogue. Like much else he wrote, I Am Legend roused big-screen interest. Three films were based on it; the most indirectly derivative, Night of the Living Dead, was the best by miles. The novel’s here in toto, along with Matheson’s own excellent screenplay, frames from the three flicks, and additional Matheson vampire work—a Dracula treatment and screenplay (the latter, appearing in typescript with handwritten changes, was filmed; the summary prose treatment is better) and three 1950s stories (pretty dreadful). There’s also endearing filler—seven tributes from other writers and more pictures from TV films of two of the stories. A fan’s dream come true.