 " Time Enough at Last " is episode 8 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone . The episode was adapted from a short story written by Lynn Venable ( pen name of Marilyn Venable ) . The short story appeared in the January 1953 edition of the science fiction magazine If : Worlds of Science Fiction about seven years before the television episode first aired . " Time Enough at Last " became one of the most famous episodes of the original Twilight Zone and has been frequently parodied since . It is " the story of a man who seeks salvation in the rubble of a ruined world " and tells of Henry Bemis / <unk> / , played by Burgess Meredith , who loves books , yet is surrounded by those who would prevent him from reading them . The episode follows Bemis through the post apocalyptic world , touching on such social issues as anti @-@ intellectualism , the dangers of reliance upon technology , and the difference between aloneness ( solitude ) and loneliness . 
