Ira Levin

AP, 2003

Ira Levin was a novelist, playwright, and librettist. Several of his novels have been made into films.

While pleased at the cultural impact of The Stepford Wives (the adoption of the term "stepford wife" for robotically feminine and "stepford" in general for anything robotic and thoughtless), Levin regretted what he saw as the influence of Rosemary's Baby on the pop-satanic genre (The Exorcist, Omen, etc.).

“I feel guilty that ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ led to ‘The Exorcist,’ ‘The Omen,’” he told The Los Angeles Times in 2002. “A whole generation has been exposed, has more belief in Satan. I don’t believe in Satan. And I feel that the strong fundamentalism we have would not be as strong if there hadn’t been so many of these books.”

“Of course,” Mr. Levin added, “I didn’t send back any of the royalty checks.”

• A Kiss Before Dying (1952; novel, non-SF)
• Drat! The Cat! (1965) (musical; spoof of Victorian novels; about a young woman who wants a career and becomes a cat burglar)
• Rosemary's Baby (1967; novel, horror) (made into a film)
• This Perfect Day (1970; novel, dystopia)
• The Stepford Wives (1972; novel, suburban horror)
• The Boys from Brazil (1976; novel, spy-fi/cloning horror)
• Deathtrap (1979; non-SF) (notable for a kiss between two dastardly men)
• Sliver (1991)
• Son of Rosemary (1997; novel, horror)