Conditions Governing Use

Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.

Conditions Governing Access

No special access restriction applies.

Audiovisual recordings must be digitized for research access. Researchers must contact the West Virginia and Regional History Center reference department at https://westvirginia.libanswers.com/wvrhc.

Preferred Citation

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], John Russo Papers, A&M 4557, West Virginia and Regional History Center, West Virginia University Libraries, Morgantown, West Virginia.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Purchased from Russo, John, 2021-2022.

Biographical / Historical

Born in Clarion, Pennsylvania on September 2, 1939, John Russo is primarily a horror author and filmmaker that has been active for 50+ years in both novel and screenwriting. Having attended West Virginia University in the early 1960s, Russo is a self-taught writer and filmmaker, and was drafted into the US Army for two years. While attending WVU, Russo met George Romero, and the two would go on to co-author and film what would become known as Night of the Living Dead in January of 1967, with the film releasing in 1968. Night of the Living Dead popularized the presence of what we know today as "zombies" in popular culture due to its shocking, graphic nature at the time. It was also the first horror film to star an African-American man, Duane Jones, as the lead actor. After Night of the Living Dead , Russo went on to make more horror, suspense, and thriller films on his own, including Midnight (1982), and also wrote Return of the Living Dead (1985), a cult classic continuation of the zombie concept he originally wrote for Night of the Living Dead in 1968. Not only has Russo made and written films, but he has written novelizations for some of the films he has been involved in, like Night of the Living Dead in 1974, as well as Return of the Living Dead in 1977. Russo has also written several original horror novels over the years, as well as comics set in the Night of the Living Dead universe. Russo has continued to write, having worked on several projects and even acted in movies like My Uncle John is a Zombie! (2017).

Scope and Contents

This collection includes papers, articles, audiovisual materials, and published works relating to horror writer John Russo. John Russo helped to pioneer the popularization of the "zombie" subgenre of horror into popular culture alongside the late George Romero through writing Night of the Living Dead in 1968. Russo is a graduate of West Virginia University and was born in Clarion, Pennsylvania. This collection details his 50+ year career, as well as the impact of Night of the Living Dead upon not just Appalachian filmmaking and art made in the Pittsburgh area, but horror filmmaking. Alongside his content relating to Night of the Living Dead , the collection also includes some of his published and unpublished works, novels, and various films that he has taken part in. Some notable pieces of this collection are a facsimile of the original screenplay of Night of the Living Dead , Russo's very first typed novel manuscript for Beer and Apathy , which was written during Russo's time at WVU, and several articles bearing the signature of film director and co-creator of Night of the Living Dead , George Romero.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Horror films
• Horror tales
• Russo, John, 1939-
• Zombies in popular culture