Earth Abides
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Earth Abides was published in 1949 by Berkeley English Professor George R. Stewart. The theme is one of Man vs. Nature, and the plot has the protagonist Isherwood Williams returning from a trip into the California mountains only to discover that a plague has wiped out nearly all of humanity and with it, human civilization.
Stewart's choice of the name Isherwood (or Ish as he calls him) for the main character is an anthropological reference to Ishi, a Yahi Indian (a subset of the Yana) who emerged from the California wilderness in 1911, only to discover that his people were all but extinct as he was the last member of his tribe. Stewart might also have been referring to the Hebrew word Ish, meaning "person or man."
The book follows Ish throughout his life, chronicling his attempts to rebuild human civilization with the few remaining plague survivors. Many of Ish's observations center on the effect humanity's absence has on the ecosystem. Though there are many short term effects (such as rapid increase and then precipitous decline in the rat population), in the long term, the Earth endures without the 'benefit' of human civilization. In the end, however, Ish finds that his fellow survivors don't share his interest in rebuilding civilization, and his small band of survivors (and succeeding generations born after the plague) seem to naturally return to a more primitive way of life.
Just as the Native American Ishi left the wilderness to find that he was the last carrier of his tribe's culture, by the end of Earth Abides, the reader sees that Ish is the last carrier of American civilization - as Stewart refers to Ish as "the last American."
However, implicit in the story, is that civilisation will not have to restart from the beginning, but will be able to build on what has been left behind by the previous civilisation. For example, the hunters of Ish's tribe use sharpened coins to make arrowheads.
While the "post-apocalyptic" literary sub-genre of Science Fiction is now quite common, Earth Abides distinctly predates similar well-known novels including Pat Frank's Alas, Babylon, and William Brinkley's The Last Ship.
Though published more than half a century ago, Earth Abides is only moderately dated (such as a reference to Mercury dimes, for example). The book deals with such issues as race-relations, the purpose of education, and the nature of humanity.
Perhaps this book's most pronounced innovation is its avoidance of common post-apocalyptic conventions: you will not find biker gangs, roving bands, final confrontations between good and evil, a dynamic superhero that restores civilization with his iron will and fanatical followers, no indomitable enemy to fear and fight who resembles the hero, and there is not even a shortage of food, shelter, or supplies. In fact, the book is remarkably non-eventful for being such a fascinating read.
Essentially, the entire book reads like a "Dirge for the End of Society and Mankind's Supremacy." Along with Ish, we bear silent witness to a world decimated by plague, yet having left the (slowly decaying) infrastructure intact. Stewart spends a great amount of time talking about the emptiness and decay of the world: storm drains clogging, water seeping into houses and rotting the carpets, termites collapsing houses over the work of decades, dust settling into the corners of the Golden Gate Bridge (and grass growing there), and the work of rain and frost on the Northeast roads.
This is a very different read from the typical post-apocalyptic fare. It carries neither the action-adventure slapdash of Mad Max, the survivor-styled machinations of "Alas, Babylon" nor the dystopia of Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake" (and its ilk); there is neither the "final clash between Good and Evil" of "The Stand" nor the despairing nuclear fearmongering of Nevil Shute's "On the Beach."
In fact, this book stands largely on its own, perhaps only comparable to Mary Shelley's "The Last Man" or Jack London's "The Scarlet Plague," though such a comparison bears further examination.