# Last Man on Earth lit **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 10, 2008, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-man-on-earth-lit/433048 "2008-01-10T23:26:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-man-on-earth-lit/433048/21 "2008-01-11T04:05:25Z")
[QUOTE=Tristan] In the graphic novel “Y: The Last Man”, the protagonist is literally the Last Man on earth. Granted, there are still all the women around, but Yorrick is literally the Last Man on Earth. About that Bester story: Was it about the surviving pilot of a rocket that used an Iron reaction drive, crawling towards the ocean? A drop of catalyst fell to earth, destroying all of it, and filling the world with ash…? [/QUOTE] That’s the one. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-man-on-earth-lit/433048/22 "2008-01-11T04:10:14Z")
[QUOTE=DrFidelius] “The last man on Earth sat alone in his room. There was a knock on the door…” [/QUOTE] Wait, I thought he lay dead in his home, the victim of foul play? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-man-on-earth-lit/433048/23 "2008-01-11T04:45:03Z")
> [@](#): > > and I think “Adam and No Eve”. It doesn’t. The copy fell on me while I was digging something else out, so I flipped through it. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-man-on-earth-lit/433048/24 "2008-01-11T04:51:52Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] It doesn’t. The copy fell on me while I was digging something else out, so I flipped through it. [/QUOTE] _Oryx and Crake_ is about a guy who’s the last human, although there are “new” humans which are not intelligent and not company at all. Most of the book is told in flashback, however, detailing what happened. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-man-on-earth-lit/433048/25 "2008-01-11T05:18:39Z")
On Ray Bradbury`s Martian Chronicles book there`s a “Last Man on Mars” story (nobody left on Earth neither). I don`t recall it completely but the end is a very nice twist to what you`d expect. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-man-on-earth-lit/433048/26 "2008-01-11T12:17:31Z")
_The Genocides_ by **Tom Disch** starts out with just a few people left and then they die off until there’s only one left at the end of the book… Or maybe he dies at the end as well; it’s a long time since I read it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-man-on-earth-lit/433048/27 "2008-01-11T13:08:01Z")
> [@](#): > > > [@](#): > > > > : > > Originally Posted by CalMeacham > > It doesn’t. The copy fell on me while I was digging something else out, so I flipped through it. > > Oryx and Crake is about a guy who’s the last human, although there are “new” humans which are not intelligent and not company at all. Most of the book is told in flashback, however, detailing what happened. Oooooooohhhhhh. Kayyyyyyyyyyyy. There’s a big _non sequitur_ for ya. I can’t claim to understand that at all. ---
**Author:** ![si\_blakely](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@si\_blakely](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/si_blakely)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-man-on-earth-lit/433048/28 "2008-01-11T13:15:44Z")
_Z For Zachariah_ by Robert O’Brian is about the last girl on Earth (as far as she knows) and her meeting with possibly the last man. _The Forgotten Enemy_ by Arthur C Clarke is a short story about a lone survivor in London during a global cooling episode. Si ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2008, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-man-on-earth-lit/433048/29 "2008-01-11T16:50:02Z")
**The Purple Cloud** by M.P. Shiel (1909) is an early example of the genre, which for most of its length fits the criteria of the OP. [It is available online](http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/11229) through Project Gutenberg. It deals with all the psychological issues you’re talking about. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/last-man-on-earth-lit/433048.md?page=1)