Robert Bloch

Robert Albert Bloch (April 5 1917 – September 23 1994) was a prolific American writer.

Related Topics:
April 5 - 1917 - September 23 - 1994 - American

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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 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.

Related Topics:
Crime fiction - Science fiction - Horror fiction - Pulp magazine - Screenwriter - Hugo Award - Bram Stoker Award - World Fantasy Award - Mystery Writers of America

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

Related Topics:
Science fiction fanzine - Fandom - Fantastic Adventures

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He was a friend and correspondent of H. P. Lovecraft, and was the author of a number of stories that were set in, and which extended, the world of the Cthulhu Mythos. Bloch even appears, thinly disguised, as the character "Robert Blake" in Lovecraft's story The Haunter of the Dark. Lovecraft kills the character off, a courtesy Bloch repaid in "The Shambler from the Stars".

Related Topics:
H. P. Lovecraft - Cthulhu Mythos

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He became most famous as the author of the novel Psycho, which was adapted — quite faithfully, but by Joseph Stefano rather than Bloch— into 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. Aside from his immense output, he gained a reputation among fellow writers for his kindness, generosity and laughably atrocious puns.

Related Topics:
Psycho - Alfred Hitchcock - William Castle - Kindness - Generosity - Puns

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Bloch was born in Chicago, Illinois. In addition to writing science fiction, he also worked in vaudeville and, along with Harold Gauer, helped to elect Carl Zeidler as mayor of Milwaukee in 1940.

Related Topics:
Chicago, Illinois - Vaudeville - Harold Gauer - Carl Zeidler - Milwaukee - 1940

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His autobiography entitled Once Around the Bloch (ISBN 0-312-85373-4) was published in 1993. There is an essay on his work, with particular reference to the novels Psycho and The Scarf, in S. T. Joshi's book The Modern Weird Tale (2001).

Related Topics:
1993 - S. T. Joshi

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He also contributed to Harlan Ellison's science fiction anthology, Dangerous Visions. His story, "A Toy for Juliette" featured themes stemming from 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".

Related Topics:
Harlan Ellison - Science fiction - Anthology - Dangerous Visions - Marquis de Sade - Jack the Ripper

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