Robert Bloch: The Man Behind the Shower Curtain

Robert Albert Bloch was born on April 5, 1917, in Chicago, Illinois, to Raphael and Stella Bloch, both of German Jewish descent . His father worked as a bank cashier, while his mother was a social worker. The family moved to the Chicago suburb of Maywood when Robert was five, and later, after his father lost his job during the Great Depression in 1929, they relocated to Milwaukee, where they lived in a cramped three-room apartment .

Bloch’s lifelong fascination with horror began at age eight when he attended a screening of Lon Chaney’s The Phantom of the Opera alone at night. The scene of Chaney removing his mask terrified the young boy so profoundly that it sparked recurrent nightmares—but also ignited his passion for the macabre . In 1927, at age ten, Bloch discovered Weird Tales magazine when his aunt purchased a copy for him at a train station depot. Despite his parents’ disapproval of the magazine’s provocative covers, Bloch became an avid reader, and the publication would eventually become his literary home .

The Lovecraft Connection

Bloch’s career took a decisive turn in 1933 when he wrote a fan letter to H. P. Lovecraft, one of Weird Tales‘ most celebrated contributors. Lovecraft responded generously, offering advice on Bloch’s early writing efforts and encouraging him to develop his craft . The two maintained an ongoing correspondence until Lovecraft’s death in 1937. Bloch’s first professional sale came at just seventeen, when Weird Tales accepted his short stories “The Feast in the Abbey” and “The Secret in the Tomb” in July 1934 . His early work heavily emulated Lovecraft’s style and incorporated elements of the Cthulhu Mythos, including Bloch’s invention of the infamous grimoires De Vermis Mysteriis and Cultes des Goules .

The mutual respect between the two authors manifested in a unique literary tribute. Bloch killed off a Lovecraft-inspired character in his 1935 story “The Shambler from the Stars,” and Lovecraft returned the favor by featuring a thinly disguised Bloch as Robert Blake in “The Haunter of the Dark” (1936)—the only story Lovecraft ever dedicated to anyone. Lovecraft famously killed off the Bloch-inspired character, prompting Bloch to later remark, “Believe me, without any question, this is my best death” .

Finding His Own Voice

During the 1940s, Bloch began moving away from Lovecraftian supernatural horror toward psychological terror. He recognized that the most frightening monsters were not vampires or ghouls but the darkness lurking within ordinary human beings . His first published novel, The Scarf (1947), established his signature technique of telling stories from the first-person perspective of the villain—a groundbreaking approach that brought chilling realism to the genre . In 1940, Bloch married Marion Ruth Holcombe, and the couple had one daughter, Sally, in 1943 .

Psycho and Immortality

In late 1957, Bloch was horrified to learn of the gruesome crimes of Ed Gein, a seemingly respectable resident of Plainfield, Wisconsin—a town merely forty miles from his own childhood home. Gein had murdered at least two women and exhumed numerous corpses from local cemeteries, fashioning trophies and household items from human remains . Rather than writing directly about Gein, Bloch became fascinated by the larger question: how could such a monster operate unnoticed for so long within a small community? The result was Psycho, which he completed in roughly seven weeks . Published by Simon & Schuster in January 1959, the novel received favorable reviews, including mention in The New York Times, and its hardcover print run sold out quickly .

When Alfred Hitchcock adapted Psycho for the screen in 1960, the film became a cultural phenomenon. Though Joseph Stefano wrote the screenplay, Hitchcock himself acknowledged that “Psycho all came from Robert Bloch’s book” . The film’s success propelled Bloch to international fame, and his novel went through numerous printings in over twenty-two languages .

Later Career and Legacy

Following his divorce from Marion in 1963, Bloch married Eleanor Alexander, with whom he remained until his death . His post-Psycho career proved remarkably productive, encompassing over twenty additional novels—including the sequels Psycho II (1982) and Psycho House (1990)—hundreds of short stories, and numerous screenplays for both film and television . He wrote teleplays for Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Thriller, the original Star Trek (including the Jack the Ripper episode “Wolf in the Fold”), Night Gallery, and Darkroom, as well as original screenplays such as Strait-Jacket (1963) starring Joan Crawford .

Bloch received the Hugo Award for Best Short Story in 1959 for “That Hell-Bound Train” and later earned the Bram Stoker Award, the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement (1975), and served as president of the Mystery Writers of America in 1970 . His autobiography, Once Around the Bloch: An Unauthorized Autobiography, was published in 1993. Robert Bloch died of cancer in Los Angeles on September 23, 1994, at the age of seventy-seven . His influence endures not only through his own vast body of work but also through his profound impact on psychological horror, proving that the most terrifying monsters are not those lurking in the shadows, but those hiding in plain sight.

Robert Bloch – First Editions Identification Guide

Note: This list only includes works published prior to 1977.

Robert Bloch – First Printing Dust Jacket Identification Guide

Gallery of First state Dust Jackets of Bloch’s works. Only includes the first appearance in book form. Either the UK or US edition and does not include later printings.

Reference:

• L. W. Currey, Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors: A Bibliography of First Printings of Their Fiction and Selected Nonfiction.