Richard Matheson (1926-2013) In Memoriam. 
 Such is the low profile of some great writers that it's only now I discovered that this early sf favourite of mine died five months ago. I discovered sf in my teens (as you know, the answer to the question "when was the golden age of science fiction?" is "14") and I Am Legend was the first novel I read all in one without a break because I couldn't do anything except read it, I was as hypnotised as a rabbit in the headlights of a big van being driven straight at my head. Man, what a trip. Those were the great days of reading when every page was like an explosion. This short novel, if I remember right, is frighteningly bleak, there's not the slightest chance of any kind of happy ending. It was the first apocalyse story I read. Now they're as common as traffic cones. How many times have you seen the Statue of Liberty's arm poking up out of a heap of rubble/the engulfing waters/a pile of corpses. Very surprisingly, the latest movie version of I am Legend was pretty good, I thought, except for the usual audience-tested fake ending. I usually mentally discount the last scene of every big budget movie these days, it's the next-to-last scene which is the real ending. It's a convention, they have to do it. I did enjoy the head of the Statue being hurled into the street in Cloverfield which was a great little apocalyse movie, and one I could imagine Richard Matheson writing. I gave that scene my "Best use of the Statue of Liberty in an SF Movie" award for that year. The wonderful tv series The Walking Dead is son-of-I Am Legend and I hope RM enjoyed the first couple of series before he died and didn't come back again.