Stephen King has stated that Earth Abides was an inspiration for his post-apocalyptic novel The Stand.
https://github.com/davepinch/pinchy.cc/blob/master/content/topics/works/s/stephen-king/the-stand/the-stand.md
On Christmas Day 2006, Brown died at approximately 1:45 a.m. EST (05:45 UTC), at age 73, from congestive heart failure, resulting from complications of pneumonia.