Robert Bloch

• Born: April 5, 1917
• Place of Birth: Chicago, Illinois
• Died: September 23, 1994
• Place of Death: Los Angeles, California

Robert Bloch was a prolific author of novels and short stories known for his horror, crime, and science-fiction works, especially the novel Psycho (1959), which gained additional fame through its iconic film adaptation by Alfred Hitchcock. He also wrote for film, radio, and television.

Working in the tradition of , Bloch portrayed characters who are plagued by their psychological imbalances. In addition, he gave new life to the surprise ending. Often readers are shocked or even appalled at the ending with which they are confronted. Unlike many writers in the genre, Bloch did not always let those who are right succeed or even live. In fact, many times those who are good are the ones who die in his works.

The characters Bloch employed tend to be quite ordinary. They are hotel owners, nuns, psychiatrists, and secretaries. The use of seemingly normal people as inhabitants of a less than normal world is part of what made Bloch one of the masters of the psychological novel. His novels do not have vampires jumping out of coffins, but they manage to make a hotel owner coming out of their office just as unsettling.

Biography

Robert Albert Bloch was born on April 5, 1917, in Chicago. He attended public schools in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. During his early years in school, Bloch was pushed ahead from the second grade to the fifth grade. By the time he was in sixth grade, the other children were at least two years older than he. Although Bloch was more interested in history, literature, and art than were most children his age, he was not an outsider and was, in fact, the leader in many of the games in the neighborhood.

At the age of nine, Bloch attended a first-release screening of the 1925 silent classic Phantom of the Opera, starring Lon Chaney. He was at once converted to the genres of horror and suspense. In the 1930s, he began reading the horror stories of H. P. Lovecraft. When he was fifteen, he wrote to Lovecraft asking for a list of the latter’s published works. After an exchange of letters, Lovecraft encouraged Bloch to try writing fiction. By the time he was seventeen, Bloch had sold his first story to Weird Tales magazine. As a tribute to his mentor, Bloch wished to include Lovecraft in a 1935 short story titled “The Shambler from the Stars.” Lovecraft authorized Bloch to “portray, murder, annihilate, disintegrate, transfigure, metamorphose or otherwise manhandle the undersigned.” Lovecraft later reciprocated by featuring a writer named Robert Blake in his 1936 story “The Haunter of the Dark.”

Bloch worked as a copywriter for the Gustav Marx advertising agency in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, from 1942 to 1953. Copywriting did not get in the way of creative writing, however. Besides a short stint as a stand-up comic—Bloch was often in much demand as a toastmaster at conventions because of his wit—he wrote scripts for thirty-nine episodes of the 1944 radio horror show Stay Tuned for Terror, based on his own stories. After leaving advertising, he turned to freelance writing full-time.

Bloch published his first short-story collection, The Opener of the Way, in 1945. His first novel, The Scarf, about a serial strangler, appeared two years later. Its theme of psychological horror would be one Bloch returned to in other works, including his most famous novel, Psycho (1959), which was loosely inspired by Wisconsin serial killer Ed Gein (1906–84).

In 1959 Bloch received the Hugo Award at the World Science Fiction Convention for his short story “The Hellbound Train.” The following year he received the Screen Guild Award and the Award for literature. The great success of Alfred Hitchock's 1960 film adaptation of Psycho further boosted Bloch's reputation considerably. While he continued to publish short stories and novels, his writing after 1960 was dominated by screenplays for films and television. He wrote for television shows including Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1960–62), Star Trek (1966–67), and Night Gallery (1971), and his film screenplays included Strait-Jacket (1964), Torture Garden (1967), The House That Dripped Blood (1971), and Asylum (1972).

Throughout the 1970s, Bloch received much recognition as an important figure in genre fiction. He served as president of the Mystery Writers of America in 1970 and received a Life Achievement Award at the first World Fantasy Convention in 1975. He also continued to write, revisiting Lovecraftian themes with Strange Eons (1978) and the Jack the Ripper murders with The Night of the Ripper (1984).

Bloch earned several Bram Stoker Awards, granted by the Horror Writers Association, for his autobiography, Once Around the Bloch: An Unauthorized Autobiography (1993) in 1994, for his fiction collection The Early Fears (1994) in 1995, for his novelette “The Scent of Vinegar” in 1995, and for lifetime achievement in 1990. At the 1991 World Horror Convention he was proclaimed a Grand Master of the field. Likewise, the World Science Fiction Association presented Bloch with a Hugo Special Award for “50 Years as an SF Professional” in 1984.

Bloch was married twice, first to Marion Holcombe, with whom he had a daughter, Sally Francy. In 1964 he married Eleanor Alexander. Bloch died of esophageal cancer in 1994.

Principal Works

Long Fiction

The Scarf, 1947

Psycho, 1959

The Star Stalker, 1968

Night-World, 1972

American Gothic, 1974

Strange Eons, 1978

The Night of the Ripper, 1984

The Jekyll Legacy, 1990 (with Andre Norton)

Short Fiction

The Opener of the Way, 1945

Terror in the Night, 1958

Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper, 1962

The Skull of the Marquis de Sade and Other Stories, 1965

The Selected Stories of Robert Bloch, 1987

Bibliography

Bloch, Robert. “The Movie People.” In Roger Ebert’s Book of Film, edited by Roger Ebert. New York: W. W. Norton, 1997.

Bloch, Robert. Once Around the Bloch: An Unauthorized Autobiography. New York: Tor, 1995.

Bloch, Robert. The Robert Bloch Companion: Collected Interviews, 1969-1986. San Bernardino, Calif.: Borgo Press, 1990.

Bloom, Clive, ed. Gothic Horror: A Reader’s Guide from Poe to King and Beyond. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998.

Haining, Peter. The Classic Era of American Pulp Magazines. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2000.

Horsley, Lee. The Noir Thriller. New York: Palgrave, 2001.

Lovecraft, H. P. Selected Letters V, 1934-1937. Edited by August Derleth and James Turner. Sauk City, Wis.: Arkham House, 1976.

Matheson, Richard, and Ricia Mainhardt, eds. Robert Bloch: Appreciations of the Master. New York: Tor, 1995.