Robert Bloch | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Bloch in 1976 | |
| Born | Robert Albert Bloch (1917-04-05)April 5, 1917 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
| Died | September 23, 1994(1994-09-23) (aged 77) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Pen name | Tarleton Fiske, Will Folke, Nathan Hindin, E. K. Jarvis, Floyd Scriltch, Wilson Kane, John Sheldon, Collier Young[1] |
| Occupation | Novelist, short-story writer |
| Nationality | American |
| Period | 1934–1994 |
| Genre | Crime,Fantasy,Horror,Science fiction |
| Notable works | Psycho,Psycho II,Psycho House,American Gothic,Firebug |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
| Website | |
| robertbloch | |
Robert Albert Bloch (/blɒk/; April 5, 1917 – September 23, 1994) was an American fiction writer, primarily ofcrime, psychologicalhorror, andfantasy, much of which has been dramatized for radio, cinema and television. He also wrote a relatively small amount of science fiction. His writing career lasted 60 years, including more than 30 years in television and film. He began his professional writing career immediately after graduation from high school, aged 17. He is best known as the writer of the novelPsycho (1959), the basis for the1960 filmPsycho directed byAlfred Hitchcock. Bloch wrote hundreds of short stories and over 30 novels. He was a protégé ofH. P. Lovecraft, who was the first to seriously encourage his talent. However, while he started emulating Lovecraft and his brand ofcosmic horror, he later specialized in crime and horror stories, often emphasizing psychological aspects of the characters within.
Bloch was a contributor topulp magazines such asWeird Tales in his early career, and was also a prolific screenwriter and a major contributor toscience fiction fanzines andfandom in general.
He won theHugo Award (for his story "That Hell-Bound Train"), theBram Stoker Award, and theWorld Fantasy Award. He served a term as president of theMystery Writers of America (1970) and was a member of that organization and ofScience Fiction Writers of America, theWriters Guild of America, theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Count Dracula Society. In 2008,The Library of America selected Bloch's essay "The Shambles ofEd Gein" (1962)[2] for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of Americantrue crime.[3]
His favorites among his own novels wereThe Kidnapper,The Star Stalker,Psycho,Night-World, andStrange Eons.[4] His work has been extensively adapted into films, television productions, comics, and audiobooks.
Bloch was born in Chicago, the son of Raphael "Ray" Bloch (1884–1952), a bank cashier, and his wife Stella Loeb (1880–1944), a social worker, both ofGermanJewish descent. Bloch's family moved toMaywood, a Chicago suburb, when he was five; he lived there until he was ten. He attended theMethodist Church there, despite his parents' Jewish heritage, and studied at Emerson Grammar School.[5] In 1925, at eight years of age, living in Maywood, he attended (alone at night) a screening ofLon Chaney, Sr.'s filmThe Phantom of the Opera (1925). The scene of Chaney removing his mask terrified the young Bloch ("it scared the living hell out of me and I ran all the way home to enjoy the first of about two years of recurrent nightmares"). It also sparked his interest in horror.[6][7] Bloch was a precocious child and found himself in fourth grade when he was eight. He also obtained a pass into the adult section of the public library, where he read omnivorously. Bloch considered himself a budding artist and worked in pencil sketching and watercolours, but myopia in adolescence seemed to effectively bar art as a career. He had passions for German-made leadtoy soldiers and forsilent cinema.[7]
In 1929, Bloch's father Ray Bloch lost his bank job, and the family moved toMilwaukee, where Stella worked at theMilwaukee Jewish Settlementsettlement house. Robert attended Washington, thenLincoln High School, where he met lifelong friend Harold Gauer. Gauer was editor ofThe Quill, Lincoln'sliterary magazine, and accepted Bloch's first published short story, a horror story titled "The Thing" (the "thing" of the title wasDeath). Both Bloch and Gauer graduated from Lincoln in 1934[6] during the height of theGreat Depression. Bloch was involved in the drama department at Lincoln and wrote and performed in school vaudeville skits.
During the 1930s, Bloch was an avid reader of the pulp magazineWeird Tales, which he had discovered at the age of ten in 1927. In the Chicago Northwestern Railroad depot with his parents and aunt Lil, his aunt offered to buy him any magazine he wanted and he pickedWeird Tales (Aug 1927 issue) off the newsstand over her shocked protest.[7][8][9] He began his readings of the magazine with the first instalment ofOtis Adelbert Kline's "The Bride of Osiris" which dealt with a secret Egyptian city called Karneter located beneath Bloch's birth city ofChicago.[10] The Depression came in the early 1930s. He later recalled, in accepting the Lifetime Achievement Award at the First World Fantasy Convention (1975), how "times were very hard.Weird Tales cost twenty-five cents in a day when most pulp magazines cost a dime. I remember that meant a lot to me." He went on to relate how he would get up very early on the last day of the month, with twenty-five cents saved from his monthly allowance of one dollar, and would run all the way to a combination tobacco/magazine store and buy the newWeird Tales issue, sometimes smuggling it home under his coat if the cover was particularly risqué.[11] His parents were not impressed withHugh Doak Rankin's sexy covers for the magazine, and when the Bloch family moved to Milwaukee in 1928 young Bloch gradually abandoned his interest. But by the time he had entered high school, he returned to readingWeird Tales during convalescence from flu.[7]
H. P. Lovecraft, a frequent contributor toWeird Tales, became one of his favorite writers. The first of Lovecraft's stories he had read was "Pickman's Model", inWeird Tales for October 1927.[12] Bloch wrote: "In school I was forced to squirm my way through the works ofOliver Wendell Holmes,James Lowell andHenry Wadsworth Longfellow. In 'Pickman's Model', the ghouls ate all three. Now that, I decided, was poetic justice."[12] As a teenager, Bloch wrote a fan letter to Lovecraft (1933), asking where he could find copies of earlier stories of Lovecraft's that Bloch had missed.[13] Lovecraft lent them to him. Lovecraft also gave Bloch advice on his early fiction-writing efforts,[14] asking whether Bloch had written any weird work and, if so, whether he might see samples of it. Bloch took up Lovecraft's offer in late April 1933, sending him two short items, "The Gallows" and another work whose title is unknown.[15]
Lovecraft also suggested Bloch write to other members of the Lovecraft Circle, includingAugust Derleth,R. H. Barlow,Clark Ashton Smith,Donald Wandrei,Frank Belknap Long,Henry S. Whitehead,E. Hoffmann Price,Bernard Austin Dwyer andJ. Vernon Shea. Bloch's first completed tales were "Lilies", "The Laughter of a Young Ghoul" and "The Black Lotus". Bloch submitted these toWeird Tales; editor Farnsworth Wright summarily rejected them all. However Bloch successfully placed "Lilies" in the semi-professional magazineMarvel Tales (Winter 1934) and "Black Lotus" inUnusual Stories (1935). Bloch later commented, "I figured I'd better do something different or I'd end up as a florist."[16]
Bloch graduated from high school in June 1934. He then wrote a story which promptly (six weeks later) sold toWeird Tales. Bloch's first publication inWeird Tales was a letter criticising theConan stories ofRobert E. Howard. His first professional sales, at the age of 17 (July 1934), toWeird Tales, were the short stories "The Feast in the Abbey" and "The Secret in the Tomb". "Feast ..." appeared first, in the January 1935 issue,[17] which actually went on sale November 1, 1934; "The Secret in the Tomb" appeared in the May 1935Weird Tales.[18]
Bloch's correspondence with Derleth led to a visit to Derleth's home in Sauk City, Wisconsin (the headquarters ofArkham House).[19] Bloch was impressed by Derleth who "fulfilled my expectations as a writer by wearing this purple velvet smoking jacket. That impressed me even more because Derleth didn't even smoke."[20] Following this, and continued correspondence with Lovecraft, Bloch went to Chicago and metFarnsworth Wright, the then editor ofWeird Tales. He also met the firstWeird Tales writer outside of Derleth he had encountered -Otto Binder.[21]
Bloch's early stories were strongly influenced by Lovecraft. Indeed, a number of his stories were set in, and extended, the world of Lovecraft'sCthulhu Mythos. These include "The Dark Demon", in which the character Gordon is a figuration of Lovecraft, and which featuresNyarlathotep; "The Faceless God" (features Nyarlathotep); "The Grinning Ghoul" (written after the manner of Lovecraft) and "The Unspeakable Betrothal" (vaguely attached to the Cthulhu Mythos). It was Bloch who invented, for example, the oft-cited Mythos textsDe Vermis Mysteriis andCultes des Goules. Many other stories influenced by Lovecraft were later collected in Bloch's volumeMysteries of the Worm (now in its third, expanded edition). In 1935, Bloch wrote the tale "Satan's Servants", on which Lovecraft lent much advice, but none of the prose was by Lovecraft; this tale did not appear in print until 1949, inSomething About Cats and Other Pieces.
The young Bloch appears, thinly disguised, as the characterRobert Blake in Lovecraft's story "The Haunter of the Dark" (1936), which is dedicated to Bloch. Bloch was the only individual to whom Lovecraft ever dedicated a story.[citation needed] In this story, Lovecraft kills off Robert Blake, the Bloch-based character, repaying a "courtesy" Bloch earlier paid Lovecraft with his 1935 tale "The Shambler from the Stars", in which the Lovecraft-inspired figure dies; the story goes so far as to use Bloch's then-current address (620 East Knapp Street) in Milwaukee.[22] (Bloch even had a signed certificate from Lovecraft [and some of his creations] giving Bloch permission to kill Lovecraft off in a story.) Bloch later recalled "believe me, beyond all doubt, I don't know anyone else I'd rather be killed by."[23] Bloch later wrote a third tale, "The Shadow From the Steeple", picking up where "The Haunter of the Dark" finished (Weird Tales Sept 1950).
Lovecraft's death in 1937 deeply affected Bloch, who was then aged only 20. He recalled "Part of me died with him, I guess, not only because he was not a god, he was mortal, that is true, but because he had so little recognition in his own lifetime. There were no novels or collections published, no great realization, even here in Providence, of what was lost."[23] Elsewhere he wrote, "the news of his fate came to me as a shattering blow; all the more so because the world at large ignored his passing. Only my parents and a few correspondents seemed to sense my shock, and my feeling that a part of me had died with him."
After Lovecraft's death in 1937, Bloch continued writing forWeird Tales, where he became one of its most popular authors. He also began contributing to other pulps, such as the science fiction magazineAmazing Stories. Bloch broadened the scope of his fiction. His horror themes includedvoodoo ("Mother of Serpents"), theconte cruel ("The Mandarin's Canaries"),demonic possession ("Fiddler's Fee"), andblack magic ("Return to the Sabbat"). Bloch visitedHenry Kuttner in California in 1937. Bloch's first science fiction story, "Secret of the Observatory", was published inAmazing Stories (August 1938).
In 1935 Bloch joined a writers' group, The Milwaukee Fictioneers, members of which includedStanley Weinbaum,Ralph Milne Farley andRaymond A. Palmer. Another member of the group was Gustav Marx, who offered Bloch a job writing copy in his advertising firm, also allowing Bloch to write stories in his spare time in the office. Bloch was close friends withC. L. Moore and her husbandHenry Kuttner, who visited him in Milwaukee.
During the years of the Depression, Bloch appeared regularly in dramatic productions, writing and performing in his own sketches. Around 1936 he sold some gags to radio comediansStoopnagle and Budd, and toRoy Atwell. Also in 1936, his tale "The Grinning Ghoul" was published inWeird Tales (June); "The Opener of the Way" appeared inWeird Tales (Oct); "Mother of Serpents" appeared in the December issue. The December issue also contained Lovecraft's tale "The Haunter of the Dark" in which he killed off young author "Robert Blake".
In 1937, following Lovecraft's death, "The Mannikin" appeared inWeird Tales for April.Weird Tales published "Return to the Sabbath" in July 1938. Bloch's first science fiction story, "The Secret of the Observatory" appeared inAmazing Stories (Aug 1938). In a profile accompanying this tale, Bloch described himself as "tall, dark, unhandsome" with "all the charm and personality of a swamp adder". He noted that "I hate everything", but reserved particular dislike for "bean soup, red nail polish, house-cleaning, and optimists".[24]
In 1939, Bloch was contacted by James Doolittle, who was managing the campaign forMayor of Milwaukee of a little-known assistant city attorney namedCarl Zeidler. He was asked to work on Zeidler's speechwriting, advertising, and photo ops, in collaboration with his long-time friend Harold Gauer. They created elaborate campaign shows; in Bloch's 1993 autobiography,Once Around the Bloch, he gives an inside account of the campaign, and the innovations he and Gauer came up with – for instance, the original releasing-balloons-from-the-ceiling schtick. He comments bitterly on how, after Zeidler's victory, they were ignored and not even paid their promised salaries. He ends the story with a wryly philosophical point:
If Carl Zeidler had not asked Jim Doolittle to manage his campaign, Doolittle would never have contacted me about it. And the only reason Doolittle knew me to begin with was because he read my yarn ("The Cloak") inUnknown. Rattling this chain of circumstances, one may stretch it a bit further. If I had not written a littlevampire story called "The Cloak", Carl Zeidler might never have become mayor of Milwaukee.
Also in 1939, two of Bloch's tales were published: "The Strange Flight of Richard Clayton" (Amazing Stories, August) and "The Cloak" (Unknown, March). Many of the stories Bloch published inStrange Stories in 1939 as by 'Tarleton Fiske' were fantasy/horror hybrids of thecontes cruels type.
In October 1941, the tale "A Good Knight's Work" inUnknown Worlds first appeared. Shortly thereafter, Bloch created theDamon Runyon-esque humorous series character Lefty Feep in the story "Time Wounds All Heels"Fantastic Adventures (April 1942). This magazine, along withWeird Tales, published most of the over 100 stories Bloch wrote in the first decade of his career. Around the same time, he began work as an advertising copywriter at the Gustav Marx Advertising Agency, a position he held until 1953. Marx allowed Bloch to write stories in the office in quiet times. Bloch published a total of 23 Lefty Feep stories inFantastic Adventures, the last one published in 1950, but the bulk appeared during World War II. Feep's character name had actually been coined by Bloch's friend/collaborator Harold Gauer for their unpublished novelIn the Land of Sky-Blue Ointments,[25] Bloch also worked for a time in localvaudeville and tried to break into writing for nationally-known performers.
Bloch gradually evolved away from Lovecraftian imitations towards a unique style of his own. One of the first distinctly "Blochian" stories was "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" (Weird Tales, July 1943). The story was Bloch's take on theJack the Ripper legend, and was filled out with more genuine factual details of the case than many other fictional treatments.[26] It cast the Ripper as an eternal being who must makehuman sacrifices to extend hisimmortality.[27] It was adapted for both radio (inStay Tuned for Terror) and television (as an episode ofThriller in 1961 adapted byBarré Lyndon).[28] Bloch followed up this story with a number of others in a similar vein dealing with half-historic, half-legendary figures such as theMan in the Iron Mask ("Iron Mask", 1944), theMarquis de Sade ("The Skull of the Marquis de Sade", 1945) andLizzie Borden ("Lizzie Borden Took an Axe ...", 1946).
In 1944,Laird Cregar performed Bloch's tale "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" over a coast-to-coast radio network.[29]
Towards the end of World War Two, in 1945, Bloch was asked to write 39 15-minute episodes of his own radio horror show calledStay Tuned for Terror. Many of the programs were adaptations of his own pulp stories. (All episodes were broadcast, but recordings were thought to be lost. However, in 2020, two episodes, "The Bogeyman Will Get You" and "Lizzie Borden Took an Axe" were re-discovered amongst the archives of an old-time radio enthusiast. These episodes have now been posted on YouTube and Internet Archive).[30][1][2]. The same year he published "The Skull of theMarquis de Sade" (Weird Tales, September issue).August Derleth'sArkham House, Lovecraft's publisher, published Bloch's first collection of short stories,The Opener of the Way, in an edition of 2,000 copies, with jacket art byRonald Clyne. At the same time, his best-known early tale, "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper", received considerable attention through dramatization on radio and reprinting in anthologies. This story, as noted below, involving a Ripper who has found literal immortality through his crimes, has been widely imitated (or plagiarized); Bloch himself would return to the theme (see below). Stories published in 1946 include "Enoch" (September issue ofWeird Tales) andLizzie Borden Took an Axe (Weird Tales, November).
Bloch's first novel was published in hardcover – the thrillerThe Scarf (The Dial Press 1947; the Fawcett Gold medal paperback of 1966 features a revised text). It tells the story of a writer, Daniel Morley, who uses real women as models for his characters. But as soon as he is done writing the story, he is compelled to murder them, and always the same way: with the maroon scarf he has had since childhood. The story begins inMinneapolis and follows him and his trail of dead bodies toChicago,New York City, and finallyHollywood, where his hit novel is going to be turned into a movie, and where his self-control may have reached its limit.
In 1948, Bloch was the Guest of Honor atTorcon I,World Science Fiction Convention,Toronto, Canada. In 1952 he published "Lucy Comes to Stay" (Weird Tales, January issue). Bloch popularised the "Auction Bloch" at science fiction conventions during the 1950s, a practice in which fans bid on professionals, buying an hour of their time. Bloch would auction off an hour of some well-known writer's time at a convention to raise money for a worthy cause. (The time gave the winner an hour of personal interaction with the writer at the convention.)[3]
Bloch published three novels in 1954 –Spiderweb,The Kidnapper andThe Will to Kill as he endeavored to support his family. That same year he was a weekly guest panelist on the TV quiz showIt's a Draw.Shooting Star (1958), a mainstream novel, was published in a double volume with a collection of Bloch's stories titledTerror in the Night.This Crowded Earth (1958) was science fiction.
With the demise ofWeird Tales, Bloch continued to have his fiction published inAmazing,Fantastic,The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, andFantastic Universe; he was a particularly frequent contributor toImagination andImaginative Tales. His output of thrillers increased and he began to appear regularly inThe Saint,Ellery Queen and similar mystery magazines, and to such suspense and horror-fiction magazine projects asShock.
Bloch continued to revisit the Jack the Ripper theme. His contribution toHarlan Ellison's 1967 science fiction anthologyDangerous Visions was a story, "A Toy for Juliette", which evoked both Jack the Ripper and theMarquis de Sade in a time-travel story. The same anthology had Ellison's sequel to it titled "The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World". His earlier idea of the Ripper as an immortal being resurfaced in Bloch's contribution to the originalStar Trek series episode "Wolf in the Fold". His 1984 novelNight of the Ripper is set during the reign ofQueen Victoria and follows the investigation of InspectorFrederick Abberline in attempting to apprehend the Ripper, and includes some famous Victorians such asSir Arthur Conan Doyle within the storyline.
Bloch won theHugo Award for Best Short Story for "That Hellbound Train" in 1959, the same year that his sixth novel,Psycho, was published. Bloch had written an earlier short story involvingdissociative identity disorder, "The Real Bad Friend", which appeared in the February 1957Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, that foreshadowed the 1959 novelPsycho. However,Psycho also has thematic links to the story "Lucy Comes to Stay". Also in 1959, Bloch delivered a lecture titled "Imagination and Modern Social Criticism" at the University of Chicago; this was reprinted in the critical volumeThe Science Fiction Novel (Advent Publishers). His story "The Hungry Eye" appeared inFantastic (May). This was also the year in which, despite having graduated from painting watercolours to oils, he gave up painting completely.[7]
Norman Bates, the main character inPsycho, was very loosely based on two people. First was the real-life killerEd Gein, about whom Bloch later wrote a fictionalized account, "The Shambles of Ed Gein". (The story can be found inCrimes and Punishments: The Lost Bloch, Volume 3). Second, it has been indicated by several people, including Noel Carter (wife ofLin Carter) andChris Steinbrunner, as well as allegedly by Bloch himself, that Norman Bates was partly based on Calvin Beck, publisher ofCastle of Frankenstein.[31] Bloch's basing of the character of Norman Bates on Ed Gein is discussed in the documentaryEd Gein: The Ghoul of Plainfield, which can be found on Disc 2 of the DVD release of the remake ofThe Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003). However, Bloch also commented that it was the situation itself – a mass murderer living undetected and unsuspected in a typical small town in middle America – rather than Gein himself who sparked Bloch's storyline. He writes: "Thus the real-life murderer was not the role model for my character Norman Bates. Ed Gein didn't own or operate a motel. Ed Gein didn't kill anyone in the shower. Ed Gein wasn't into taxidermy. Ed Gein didn't stuff his mother, keep her body in the house, dress in a drag outfit, or adopt an alternative personality. These were the functions and characteristics of Norman Bates, and Norman Bates didn't exist until I made him up. Out of my own imagination, I add, which is probably the reason so few offer to take showers with me."[32]
Though Bloch had little involvement with thefilm version of his novel, which was directed byAlfred Hitchcock from an adapted screenplay byJoseph Stefano, he was to become most famous as its author. Bloch was awarded a specialMystery Writers of America scroll for the novel in 1961.
The novel is one of the first examples at full length of Bloch's use of modern urban horror relying on the horrors of interior psychology rather than the supernatural. "By the mid-1940s, I had pretty well mined the vein of ordinary supernatural themes until it had become varicose," Bloch explained toDouglas E. Winter in an interview. "I realized, as a result of what went on duringWorld War II and of reading the more widely disseminated work in psychology, that the real horror is not in the shadows, but in that twisted little world inside our own skulls."[33] While Bloch was not the first horror writer to utilise a psychological approach (it originates in the work ofEdgar Allan Poe), Bloch's psychological approach in modern times was comparatively unique.
Bloch's agent, Harry Altshuler, received a "blind bid" for the novel – the buyer's name was not mentioned – of $7,500 for screen rights to the book. The bid eventually went to $9,500, which Bloch accepted. Bloch had never sold a book to Hollywood before. His contract withSimon & Schuster included no bonus for a film sale. The publisher took 15 percent according to contract, while the agent took his 10%; Bloch wound up with about $6,750 before taxes. Despite the enormous profits generated by Hitchcock's film, Bloch received no further direct compensation.
Only Hitchcock's film was based on Bloch's novel. The later films in thePsycho series bear no relation to either of Bloch's sequel novels. Indeed, Bloch's proposed script for the filmPsycho II was rejected by the studio (as were many other submissions), and it was this that he subsequently adapted for his own sequel novel.
The filmHitchcock (2012) tells the story of Alfred Hitchcock's making of the film version ofPsycho. Although it mentions Bloch and his novel, Bloch himself is not a character in the movie.
Following his move to Hollywood, around 1960, Bloch had multiple assignments from various television companies. However, he was not allowed to write for five months when theWriters Guild had a strike. After the strike was over, he became a frequent scriptwriter for television and film projects in the mystery, suspense, and horror genre. His first assignments were for theMacdonald Carey vehicle,Lock-Up, (penning five episodes) as well as one forWhispering Smith. Further TV work included an episode ofBus Stop ("I Kiss Your Shadow"), 10 episodes ofThriller (1960–62, several based on his own stories), and 10 episodes ofAlfred Hitchcock Presents (1960–62). His short story collectionPleasant Dreams - Nightmares was published by Arkham House in 1960.
Bloch wrote the screenplay forThe Cabinet of Caligari (1962), which is only very loosely related tothe 1920 German silent film, and proved to be an unhappy experience. The same year, Bloch penned the story and teleplay "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" forAlfred Hitchcock Presents. The episode was shelved when theNBC Television Network and sponsorRevlon called its ending "too gruesome" (by 1960s standards) for airing. Bloch was pleased later when the episode was included in the program's syndication package to affiliate stations, where not one complaint was registered. Today, due topublic domain status, the episode is readily available in home media formats from numerous distributors and is even available on freevideo on demand.[34][35][36][37]
His TV work did not slow Bloch's fictional output. In the early 1960s he published several novels, includingThe Dead Beat (1960), andFirebug (1961), for whichHarlan Ellison, then an editor at Regency Books, contributed the first 1,200 words.[38] In 1962 numerous works appeared in book form. Bloch's novelThe Couch (1962) (the basis for the screenplay of his first movie, filmed the same year) was published.[39] That year several Bloch short story collections –Atoms and Evil,More Nightmares andYours Truly, Jack the Ripper – were published, as well as another novel,Terror (whose working titles includedAmok andKill for Kali). Editor Earl Kemp assembled a selection of Bloch's prolific output for fan magazines asThe Eight Stage of Fandom: Selections from 25 years of Fan Writing (Advent Publishers). In this era,Stephen King later wrote, "What Bloch did with such novels asThe Deadbeat,The Scarf,Firebug,Psycho, andThe Couch was to re-discover the suspense novel and reinvent the antihero as first discovered byJames Cain."[40]
During 1963, Bloch saw into print two further collections of short stories,Bogey men andHorror-7. In 1964 Bloch married Eleanor Alexander and wrote original screenplays for two films produced and directed byWilliam Castle,Strait-Jacket (1964) andThe Night Walker (also 1964), along withThe Skull (1965). The latter film was based on his short story "The Skull of the Marquis de Sade".
Bloch's further TV writing in this period includedThe Alfred Hitchcock Hour (7 episodes, 1962–1965),[41]I Spy (1 episode, 1966),Run for Your Life (1 episode, 1966), andThe Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1 episode, 1967). He penned three scripts for the originalStar Trek series which were screened in 1966 and 1967: "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", "Wolf in the Fold" (anotherJack the Ripper variant), and "Catspaw".
In 1968, Bloch returned to London to do two episodes for the EnglishHammer Films seriesJourney to the Unknown forTwentieth Century Fox. One of the episodes, "The Indian Spirit Guide", was included in the American TV movieJourney to Midnight (1968). The other episode was "Girl of My Dreams", co-scripted withMichael J. Bird and based on the eponymous story byRichard Matheson.
Following the movieThe Skull (1965), which was based on a Bloch story but scripted byMilton Subotsky, he wrote the screenplays for five feature films produced byAmicus Productions –The Psychopath (1966),The Deadly Bees (co-written with Anthony Marriott, 1967),Torture Garden (also 1967),The House That Dripped Blood (1971) andAsylum (1972). The last two films featured stories written by Bloch that were printed first in anthologies he wrote in the 1940s and early 1950s.
During the 1970s, Bloch wrote two TV movies for directorCurtis Harrington –The Cat Creature (1973) (anABC Movie of the Week) andThe Dead Don't Die.The Cat Creature was an unhappy production experience for Bloch. Producer Doug Cramer wanted to do an update ofCat People (1942), theVal Lewton-produced film. Bloch commented: "Instead, I suggested a blending of the elements of several well-remembered films, and came up with a story line which dealt with the Egyptian cat-goddess (Bast), reincarnation and the first bypass operation ever performed on an artichoke heart."[42] A detailed account of the troubled production of the film is described in Bloch's autobiography.[43]
Bloch meanwhile (interspersed between his screenplays for Amicus Productions and other projects), penned single episodes forNight Gallery (1971),Ghost Story (1972),The Manhunter (1974), andGemini Man (1976).
In 1965, two further collections of short stories appeared -The Skull of theMarquis de Sade andTales in a Jugular Vein. 1966 saw Bloch win theAnn Radcliffe Award for Television and publisher yet another collection of shorts -Chamber of Horrors. Bloch returned to the site of his childhood home at 620 East Knapp St, Milwaukee (the address used by Lovecraft for the character Robert Blake in "The Haunter of the Dark") only to find the neighborhood razed and the entire neighborhood leveled and replaced by expressway approaches.[44]
In 1967, another Bloch collection,The Living Demons was issued. He also published another classic story ofJack the Ripper, "A Toy for Juliette" inHarlan Ellison'sDangerous Visions anthology. In 1968 he published a duo of long sf novellas asLadies' Day andThis Crowded Earth. His novelThe Star Stalker was published, andDragons and Nightmares (the first collection of Lefty Feep stories) appeared in hardcover (Mirage Press).
The collectionBloch and Bradbury (a collaboration withRay Bradbury) and the hardcover novelThe Todd Dossier, originally as by Collier Young, were published in 1969.Bloch won a second Ann Radcliffe Award, this time for Literature, in 1969. That same year, Bloch was invited to the Second International Film Festival inRio de Janeiro, March 23–31, along with other science fiction writers from the United States, Britain and Europe.[45]
In 1971, Bloch served as president of theMystery Writers of America, meanwhile publishing the novelSneak Preview, the collectionFear Today, Gone Tomorrow, and the short novelIt's All in Your Mind. In 1972 he published another novel,Night-World. In 1973 Bloch was the Guest of Honor atTorcon II,World Science Fiction Convention, Toronto. 1974 saw the publication of his novelAmerican Gothic, inspired by the true life story of serial killerH. H. Holmes.
In 1975, Bloch won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the FirstWorld Fantasy Convention held inProvidence, Rhode Island. The award was a bust of H. P. Lovecraft. The occasion of this convention was the first time Bloch actually visited the city of Providence.[46] An audio recording was made of Robert Bloch during that 1975 convention, accessible online.[4]
In 1976, two records of Bloch recordings of his stories were released by Alternate World recordings –"Gravely, Robert Bloch!" and "Blood! The Life and Times of Jack the Ripper! (with Harlan Ellison). In 1977,Lester del Rey editedThe Best of Robert Bloch for Del Rey books. Two further short story collections appeared –Cold Chills andThe King of Terrors.
Bloch continued to published short story collections throughout this period. HisSelected Stories (reprinted in paperback with the incorrect titleThe Complete Stories) appeared in three volumes just prior to his death, although many previously uncollected tales have appeared in volumes published since 1997 (see below). Bloch also contributed the story "Heir Apparent", set inAndre Norton's Witch World, toTales of the Witch World (Vol. 1), NY: Tor, 1987.
1979 saw the publication of Bloch's novelThere is a Serpent in Eden (also reissued asThe Cunning), and two more short story collections,Out of the Mouths of graves andSuch Stuff as Screams Are Made Of.
His numerous novels of the 1970s demonstrate Bloch's thematic range, from science fiction –Sneak Preview (1971) – through horror novels such as the loving Lovecraftian tributeStrange Eons (Whispers Press, 1978) and the non-supernatural mysteryThere is a Serpent in Eden (1979).
Bloch's screenplay-writing career continued active through the 1980s, with teleplays forTales of the Unexpected (one episode, 1980),Darkroom (two episodes,1981),Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1 episode, 1986),Tales from the Darkside (three episodes, 1984–87: "Beetles", "A Case of the Stubborns" and "Everybody Needs a Little Love") andMonsters (three episodes, 1988–1989: "The Legacy", "Mannikins of Horror", and "Reaper"). No further screen work appeared in the last five years before his death, although an adaptation of his "collaboration" withEdgar Allan Poe, "The Lighthouse", was filmed as an episode ofThe Hunger in 1998.
The First World Fantasy Convention: Three Authors Remember (Necronomicon Press, 1980) features reminiscences of that important event by Bloch,T.E.D. Klein andFritz Leiber. In 1981, Zebra Books issued the first edition of theCthulhu Mythos-themed collectionMysteries of the Worm. This item was reprinted some years later in an expanded edition by Chaosium.
Bloch's sequel to the originalPsycho,Psycho II, was published in 1982 and in 1983 he novelizedTwilight Zone: The Movie. His novelNight of the Ripper (1984), was another return to one of Bloch's favourite themes, the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888.
In 1986, Scream Press published the hardcover omnibusUnholy Trinity, collecting three by now scarce Bloch novels,The Scarf,The Dead Beat, andThe Couch. A second retrospective selection of Bloch's nonfiction was published by NESFA Press asOut of My Head.
In 1987, Bloch celebrated his 70th birthday. Underwood-Miller issued the three-volume hardcover setThe Selected Stories of Robert Bloch (individual volumes titledFinal Reckonings,Bitter Ends andLast Rites). When Citadel Press reissued this in paperback they incorrectly named itThe Collected Stories of Robert Bloch. The same year a collection,Midnight Pleasures appeared from Doubleday, andLost in Time and Space with Lefty Feep (Creatures at Large Press) collected a number of the stories on the Lefty Feep series. The latter was the first of a projected series of three volumes, but the further volumes were never published. In 1988, Tor Books reissued Bloch's scarce second novel,The Kidnapper.
In 1989, several works were published: the collectionFear and Trembling, the thriller novelLori (later adapted as a standalone graphic novel) and another omnibus of long out-of-print early novels,Screams (containingThe Will to Kill,Firebug, andThe Star Stalker). Randall D. Larson issuedThe Robert Bloch Companion: Collected Interviews 1969-1986 (Starmont House), together withRobert Bloch (Starmont Reader's Guide No 37), an exhaustive study of Bloch's work, andThe Complete Robert Bloch: An Illustrated, Comprehensive Bibliography (Fandom Unlimited Enterprises). Larson's three books were bound in hardcover and distributed by Borgo Press.
Bloch's novel,The Jekyll Legacy (1990), was a collaboration withAndre Norton and a sequel toRobert Louis Stevenson'sDr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The same year he returned to the Norman Bates "mythos" withPsycho House (Tor), the third Psycho novel. As with the second novel in the sequence, it bears no relation to the film titledPsycho III. It would prove to be his last published novel.
In February 1991, he was given the Honor of Master of Ceremonies at the firstWorld Horror Convention held inNashville, Tennessee. Weird Tales issued a special Robert Bloch issue in Spring, including his screenplay for the televised version of his tale "Beetles"". A standalone chapbook of the story "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper" was issued in both hardcover and paperback by Pulphouse, and Bloch co-edited withMartin H. Greenberg the original anthologyPsycho-Paths (Tor). In 1991 Bloch contributed an Introduction toIn Search of Lovecraft byJ. Vernon Shea.
In 1992, Bloch celebrated his 75th birthday with a bash at a Los Angeles mystery/horror bookstore which was attended by many sf/horror notables. In 1993, he published his "unauthorized autobiography",Once Around the Bloch (Tor) and edited the original anthologyMonsters in Our Midst.
In early 1994, Fedogan and Bremer published a collection of 39 of his stories,The Early Fears. Bloch began editing a new original anthology,Robert Bloch's Psychos but was unable to complete work on it prior to his death; Martin H. Greenberg finished the work posthumously and the book appeared several years later (1997).
On October 2, 1940, Bloch married Marion Ruth Holcombe; it was reportedly a marriage of convenience designed to keep Bloch out of the army.[47] During their marriage, she suffered (initially undiagnosed) fromtuberculosis of the bone, which affected her ability to walk.[48]
After working for 11 years for the Gustav Marx Advertising Agency in Milwaukee, Bloch left in 1953 and moved toWeyauwega, Marion's home town, so she could be close to friends and family. Although she was eventually cured of tuberculosis, she and Bloch divorced in 1963. Bloch's daughter Sally (born 1943) elected to stay with him.
On January 18, 1964, Bloch met recently widowed Eleanor ("Elly") Alexander (née Zalisko), who had lost her first husband, writer/producer John Alexander, to a heart attack three months earlier, and married her in a civil ceremony on the following October 16. Elly was a fashion model and cosmetician.[49] They honeymooned inTahiti, and in 1965 visited London, thenBritish Columbia.[50] They remained happily married until Bloch's death. Elly remained in the Los Angeles area for several years after selling their Laurel Canyon Home to fans of Bloch, eventually choosing to go home to Canada to be closer to her own family. She died March 7, 2007, at the Betel Home inSelkirk, Manitoba, Canada. Her ashes have been placed next to Bloch's in a similar book-shaped urn at Pierce Brothers in Westwood, California.
Bloch died on September 23, 1994 from cancer aged 77.[51][52][53] He survived by seven months the death of another member of the original "Lovecraft Circle",Frank Belknap Long, who had died in January 1994.[54]
Bloch wascremated and his ashes interred in the Room of Prayercolumbarium atWestwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.[55] His wife Elly is also interred there.
The Robert Bloch Award is presented at the annual NecronomiCon convention. Its recipient in 2013 was editor and scholarS.T. Joshi. The award is in the shape of theShining Trapezohedron as described in H. P. Lovecraft's tale dedicated to Bloch, "The Haunter of the Dark".
A number of Bloch's works have been adapted in graphic form for comics. These include:
The comicAardwolf (No 2, Feb 1995) is a special tribute issue to Bloch. It contains brief tributes to Bloch fromHarlan Ellison,Ray Bradbury,Richard Matheson,Julius Schwartz andPeter Straub incorporated within a piece called "Robert Bloch: A Retrospective" compiled by Clifford Lawrence. The first part of the text of Bloch's story "The Past Master" is also reprinted in this issue.
Bloch also contributed a script as part of the DCone-shot benefit comicHeroes Against Hunger.
The character Inspector Bloch in the Italian comicDylan Dog is partly inspired by Robert Bloch.
A number of Bloch's works have been adapted for audio productions.
Other adaptations include:
Various recordings of Bloch speaking at fantasy and sf conventions are also extant. Many of these are available for download from Will Hart's CthulhuWho site:[7]
Note: The following three entries represent paperback reprints of the Underwood MillerSelected Stories set.Complete Stories is a misnomer as these three volumes do not contain anywhere near the complete oeuvre of Bloch's short fiction.
| Year | Award | Category | Work | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1959 | Hugo Award | Short Story | That Hell-Bound Train | Won | [65] |
| 1959 | E. Everett Evans "Big Heart" Memorial Award | for Fantasy and Science Fiction Work | Won | ||
| 1973 | Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association | Toastmaster Award | Won | [66] | |
| 1974 | LASFS Forry Award | Life Achievement Award (named in honor ofForrest J Ackerman) | Won | [67] | |
| 1975 | World Fantasy Award | Life Achievement Award | Won | [68] | |
| 1975 | Inkpot Award | For prose writing | Won | [69] | |
| 1978 | World Fantasy Award | Collection | Cold Chills | Nominated | |
| 1978 | Hugo Award | Best Dramatic Presentation | Blood!: The Life and Future Times of Jack the Ripper (Alternate World Recordings | Nominated | |
| 1979 | Balrog Awards | Novel | Strange Eons | Nominated | |
| 1981 | Balrog Awards | Collection/Anthology | Mysteries of the Worm | Nominated | |
| 1983 | British Fantasy Award | August Derleth Award | Psycho II | Nominated | [70] |
| 1983 | Special Committee Award, LAcon II | 50 years as an SF Professional | Won | > | |
| 1985 | First Fandom Hall of Fame award (presented at the Hugo Awards) | For contributions to the field of science fiction. | Won | [71] | |
| 1987 | Bram Stoker Award | Fiction Collection | Midnight Pleasures | Nominated | |
| 1989 | Locus Award | Collection | Final Reckonings | Nominated | [72] |
| 1990 | Bram Stoker Award | Lifetime Achievement | Won | [73] | |
| 1991 | World Horror Convention Grand Master Award | For contributing greatly to the field of horror literature. | Won | [74] | |
| 1993 | Bram Stoker Award | Non-Fiction | Once Around the Bloch: An Unauthorized Autobiography | Won | [75] |
| 1994 | Bram Stoker Award | Fiction Collection | The Early Fears | Won | [77] |
| 1994 | Bram Stoker Award | Long Fiction | The Scent of Vinegar | Won | [77] |
| 1994 | Hugo Award | Best Related Work | Once Around the Bloch: An Unauthorized Autobiography | Nominated | |
| 1995 | Locus Award | Collection | The Early Fears | Nominated | [78] |
| 1995 | World Fantasy Award | Collection | The Early Fears | Nominated | |
| 1998 | Bram Stoker Award | Anthology | Robert Bloch's Psychos | Nominated | |
| 2019 | Hugo Award | Retro Hugos: Short Story | Yours Truly - Jack the Ripper | Nominated | |
| 2019 | Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards | Monster Kid Hall of Fame: Author | Won | [79] |
Other awards:
See also42nd World Science Fiction Convention
Guest of Honorships: [For further details on these conventions see[9]
The following is a list of films based on Bloch's work. For some of these he wrote the original screenplay; for others, he supplied the story or a novel (as in the case ofPsycho) on which the screenplay was based.
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1960 | Psycho | Director:Alfred Hitchcock. Based on Bloch's original novel but scripted byJoseph Stefano. |
| 1962 | The Couch | Director:Owen Crump. Screenplay by Bloch, based on a story byBlake Edwards and director Owen Crump. Bloch later novelized his own screenplay. StarringGrant Williams andShirley Knight. |
| The Cabinet of Caligari | Director: Roger Kay. The story of how director Roger Kay tried to rob Bloch of the writing credit for the film and of how Bloch won out is told in Bloch's autobiography. StarringGlynis Johns andDan O'Herlihy.[83] | |
| 1964 | Strait-Jacket | Director:William Castle. Original screenplay by Bloch. The first of his two screenplays for director William Castle. StarringJoan Crawford andDiane Baker. |
| The Night Walker | Director:William Castle. Original screenplay by Bloch. The second of two screenplays for director William Castle. The screenplay was later novelized by Sidney Stuart (a pseudonym ofMichael Avallone), with an introduction by Bloch. (The Night Walker, Award Books, Dec 1964. [ISBN unspecified]; Award KA124F). StarringRobert Taylor andBarbara Stanwyck. | |
| 1965 | The Skull | Director:Freddie Francis. The first of Bloch's six films made forAmicus Productions. Based on Bloch's storyThe Skull of the Marquis de Sade but scripted byMilton Subotsky. |
| 1966 | The Psychopath | Director:Freddie Francis. 2nd of Bloch's Amicus films. Original screenplay by Bloch. StarringPatrick Wymark. |
| 1967 | The Deadly Bees | Director:Freddie Francis. 3rd of Bloch's Amicus films. Screenplay by Bloch based onGerald Heard'sA Taste of Honey. StarringSuzanna Leigh. |
| Torture Garden | Director:Freddie Francis. 4th of Bloch's Amicus films. Screenplay by Bloch based on four of his stories, includingThe Man Who Collected Poe (aboutEdgar Allan Poe). StarringJack Palance andBurgess Meredith. | |
| 1971 | The House That Dripped Blood | Director:Peter Duffell. 5th of Bloch's Amicus films. Screenplay by Bloch based on four of his stories (except that Russ Jones adaptedWaxworks, uncredited). StarringChristopher Lee andPeter Cushing. |
| Journey to Midnight | [TV movie] Director:Roy Ward Baker. This was one of four "fix-up" films which twinned episodes from the 1968–69 British TV anthology seriesJourney to the Unknown, produced by Hammer for screening as TV movies in the USA. These "fix-up" TV movies had new segment introduction footage provided by actorsPatrick McGoohan,Sebastian Cabot andJoan Crawford serving as hosts; Cabot provided the intro segment forJourney to Midnight. Bloch's contribution was "The Indian Spirit Guide" alongside a non-Bloch episode, "Poor Butterfly". | |
| 1972 | Asylum | Director:Roy Ward Baker. 6th and final of Bloch's Amicus films. Screenplay by Bloch based on four of his stories. The screenplay was novelized byWilliam Johnston (Asylum, Bantam Books, Dec 1972. [ISBN unspecified]; Bantam 9195). Note: Bloch's story "Lucy Comes to Stay", one of the four stories incorporated in the film can be found reprinted inPeter Haining (ed)Ghost Movies: Classics of the Supernatural, Severn House, 1995 as "Asylum". StarringPeter Cushing andBritt Ekland. |
| 1973 | The Cat Creature | [TV movie] Director:Curtis Harrington. Original teleplay by Bloch, based upon a story by himself,Douglas S. Cramer and Wilfred Lloyd Baumes. The first of his two teleplays for director Harrington. StarringMeredith Baxter,David Hedison,Gale Sondergaard,John Carradine,Keye Luke,Kent Smith,John Abbott,Stuart Whitman and "Peter Lorre Jr." (actually Eugene Weingand, an unrelated imposter once taken to court by Lorre for illegal use of his name).[84] |
| 1975 | The Dead Don't Die | [TV movie] Director:Curtis Harrington. Teleplay by Bloch based on his story which first appeared inFantastic Adventures in July 1951. The second of his two teleplays for director Harrington. StarringRay Milland,George Hamilton andJoan Blondell. |
| 1978 | The Return of Captain Nemo | [TV miniseries] Director: Alex March. Also released theatrically asThe Amazing Captain Nemo. Bloch penned one episode,"Atlantis Dead Ahead", in collaboration with Larry Alexander. StarringJosé Ferrer andBurgess Meredith. |
| 1998 | Psycho | Director:Gus Van Sant. A remake of the Hitchcock film based on Bloch's original novel. |
Bloch wrote a number of screenplays that remain unproduced. These includeMerry-Go-Round for MGM (loosely based onRay Bradbury's story "Black Ferris");[85][86]Night-World (from Bloch's novel, for MGM; this was aborted when its producer lost confidence, and his job when MGM went under new management); "The Twenty-First Witch";Day of the Comet (from theH. G. Wells story) and "Berg!" (both forGeorge Pal); and a television adaptation of "Out of the Aeons". See alsoThe Todd Dossier. Other unproduced scripts include a science fiction movie commissioned by AIP for 1972 release,Barracuda 2000 A.D. (about a cycle gang surviving atomic holocaust in 2000); James Whiton (co-writer ofThe Abominable Dr. Phibes) also worked on Bloch's script but AIP abandoned the film when the bottom fell out of the cycle-picture vogue. There was alsoLinda, based on aJohn D. MacDonald novella; Bloch's script was not used but the movie was eventually done in another form on TV as a 1973ABCSaturday Suspense Movie starring Stella Stevens, with Ed Nelson playing Paul and John McIntire.
Some scenes from Bloch's incomplete screenplay for the unproduced movieEarthman's Burden, to have been based on the Hoka stories ofGordon R. Dickson andPoul Anderson, appear in Richard Matheson and Ricia Mainhardt, eds.,Robert Bloch: Appreciations of the Master. New York: Tor Books, 1995, pp. 157–63.
Bloch appeared in the documentaryThe Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal (1985) produced and directed byArnold Leibovit.
Many of Bloch's published works, manuscripts (including those of the novelsThe Star Stalker,This Crowded Earth, andNight World), correspondence, books, recordings, tapes and other memorabilia are housed in the Special Collections division of the library at the University of Wyoming. The collection includes several unpublished short stories, such as "Dream Date", "The Last Clown", "A Pretty Girl is Like a Malady", "Twilight of a God", "It Only Hurts When I Laugh", "How to Pull the Wings Off a Barfly", "The Craven Image", "Afternoon in the Park", "Title Bout", and 'What Freud Can't Tell You". In addition, there is an unpublished one-act play entitledThe Birth of a Notion – A Tragedy of Hollywood. Thousands of other items from fanzines and professional periodicals to film stills, lobby cards, one-sheets and posters and press-books connected with Bloch's films, together with transcripts of several of his speeches, are also housed in the collection.[87]
The article begins as Phil and fellow scifi authorsAlfred Bester,Arthur C. Clarke,Harlan Ellison,Harry Harrison,Sam Moskowitz, andA. E. von Vogt (sic), are getting on the plane to come home. Most of the report, which he calls a travelog of the mind, takes place on the plane ride home.
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