Robert Bloch

Robert BlochRobert Bloch (born April 5, 1917, died September 23, 1994) was a prolific American writer. He was the son of Raphael "Ray" Bloch (1884, Chicago-1952, Chicago), a bank cashier, and his wife Stella Loeb (1880, Attica, IN-1944, Milwaukee, WI), a social worker, both of German-Jewish descent.

Bloch wrote hundreds of short stories and over twenty novels, usually crime fiction, science fiction, and, perhaps most influentially, horror fiction. He was a contributor to pulp magazines like Weird Tales in his early career, and was also a prolific screenwriter. He was the recipient of the Hugo Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the World Fantasy Award. He served a term as president of the Mystery Writers of America.

Robert Bloch was also a major contributor to science fiction fanzines and fandom in general. In the 1940s, he created the humorous character Lefty Feep in a story for Fantastic Adventures. He also worked for a time in vaudeville.

Robert Bloch became most famous as the author of the novel Psycho, which was adapted quite faithfully by Joseph Stefano into the screenplay for the film of the same name, directed by Alfred Hitchcock. His best-known work as a screenwriter is probably The Night Walker (1964), which he wrote for William Castle, although he also penned several scripts for the original series of Star Trek; he seemed happiest, among his television work, with his contributions to the Boris Karloff-hosted series Thriller.

Bloch also contributed to Harlan Ellison's science fiction anthology, Dangerous Visions. His story, "A Toy for Juliette", evoked both the Marquis de Sade and Jack the Ripper. In fact, Ellison's own contribution to the anthology was a direct follow-up of Bloch's, and was titled "The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World".

Robert Bloch died in 1994 and was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. Aside from his immense output, Bloch left a reputation among fellow writers for his kindness, generosity and laughably atrocious puns.

Selected Bibliography

Novels

  • The Scarf (1947, rev. 1966)
  • Spiderweb (1954)
  • The Kidnapper (1954)
  • The Will to Kill (1954)
  • Shooting Star (1958)
  • Psycho (1959)
  • The Dead Beat (1960)
  • Firebug (1961)
  • The Couch (1962)
  • Terror (1962)
  • Ladies Day / This Crowded Earth (1968)
  • The Star Stalker (1968)
  • The Todd Dossier (1969)
  • Sneak Preview (1971)
  • It's All in Your Mind (1971)
  • Night World (1972)
  • American Gothic (1974)
  • Strange Eons (1978) (a Cthulhu Mythos novel)
  • There Is a Serpent in Eden (1979)
  • Psycho II (1982) (unrelated to the film of the same name)
  • Night of the Ripper (1984)
  • Lori (1989)
  • Psycho House (1990)
  • The Jekyll Legacy (1991)

Short-story collections

  • The Opener of the Way (1945)
  • Sea Kissed (1945)
  • Terror in the Night (1958)
  • Pleasant Dreams (1960)
  • Blood Runs Cold (1961)
  • Nightmares (1961)
  • More Nightmares (1961)
  • Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper (1962)
  • Atoms and Evil (1962)
  • Horror 7 (1963)
  • Bogey Men (1963)
  • House of the Hatchet (1965)
  • The Skull of the Marquis de Sade (1965)
  • Tales in a Jugular Vein (1965)
  • Chamber of Horrors (1966)
  • The Living Demons (1967)
  • Dragons and Nightmares (1968)
  • Bloch and Bradbury (1969)
  • Fear Today, Gone Tomorrow (1971)
  • House of the Hatchet (1976)
  • The King of Terrors (1977)
  • The Best of Robert Bloch (1977)
  • Cold Chills (1977)
  • Out of the Mouths of Graves (1978)
  • Such Stuff as Screams Are Made Of (1979)
  • Mysteries of the Worm (1981)
  • Unholy Trinity (1986)
  • Midnight Pleasures (1987)
  • Lost in Space and Time With Lefty Feep (1987)
  • The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch: Volume 1: Final Reckonings (1987)
  • The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch: Volume 2: Bitter Ends (1987)
  • The Complete Stories of Robert Bloch: Volume 3: Last Rites (1987)
  • Fear and Trembling (1989)
  • Screams (1989)
  • Mysteries of the Worm (rev. 1993)
  • The Early Fears (1994)
  • Robert Bloch: Appreciations of the Master (1995)
  • Flowers from the Moon and Other Lunacies (1998)
  • The Lost Bloch: Volume 1: The Devil With You! (1999)
  • The Lost Bloch: Volume 2: Hell on Earth (2000)
  • The Lost Bloch: Volume 3: Crimes and Punishments (2002)
  • The Reader's Bloch: Volume 1: The Fear Planet and Other Unusual Destinations (2005)

Non-fiction

  • The Eighth Stage of Fandom (1962)
  • Out of My Head (1986)
  • Once Around the Bloch: An Unauthorized Autobiography (1993)

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