For many people, horror is an acquired taste. It takes a certain type of person to not only suffer through the rapid heartbeat, sweaty palms, and bone-chilling fear that the genre evokes, but to actually enjoy it. This is precisely what happened to horror novelist Robert Albert Bloch. When he was eight years old, Bloch attended a night screening of Lon Chaney, Sr.’s film The Phantom of the Opera – alone. The scene of Chaney removing his mask terrified the young Bloch so much that he “ran all the way home to enjoy the first of about two years of recurrent nightmares.” It is also what sparked his immediate love of horror. 

After his family relocated to Milwaukee, Bloch attended Lincoln High School where he became lifelong friends with the editor of the school’s literary magazine, Harold Gauer. Gauer actually published Bloch's first short horror story, “The Thing,” in the The Quill. During the 1930s, Bloch became an avid reader of the pulp magazine Weird Tales. Although these pulps cost 25¢, where others only cost a dime, Bloch would save up a month’s allowance in order to buy the latest Weird Tales issue. His favorite writer was frequent contributor Weird Tales H.P. Lovecraft, along with Oliver Wendell Holmes, James Lowell and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Later on, Bloch reached out to Lovecraft and the seasoned writer offered him advice and even reviewed some of his earlier works. 

Bloch went on to write to other members of the Lovecraft Circle, and started submitting his work to Weird Tales. By 17, Bloch successfully sold his short stories “The Feast in the Abbey,” “The Secret in the Tomb,” “Feast…,” and “Secret in the Tomb” to Weird Tales. His story “Lilies” was also published in Marvel Tales, while “Black Lotus” was featured in Unusual Stories. Inspired by Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, Bloch penned “The Dark Demon,” “The Faceless God,” “The Grinning Ghoul,” and “The Unspeakable Betrothal.” Many other stories influenced by Lovecraft were later collected in Bloch's volume Mysteries of the Worm. 

Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Bloch began to evolved away from Lovecraftian imitations and began crafted more of his unique style. During this period his works included “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper,” “Iron Mask,” “The Skull of the Marquis de Sade,” and “Lizzie Borden Took an Axe.” Bloch revisited the Jack the Ripper theme with his anthology story “A Toy for Juliette” and his 1984 novel Night of the Ripper. Perhaps one of his most notable contributions to the world of horror was his sixth novel, Psycho. Loosely inspired by real life serial killer Ed Gein, Psycho centers around Norman Bates and the mysterious going-ons at the Bates Motel. Along with winning the Mystery Writer of America scroll for the novel, Psycho was later adapted into a classic film by horror luminary Alfred Hitchcock. 

After moving to Hollywood, Bloch contributed to an episode of Bus Stop, 10 episodes of Thriller, 10 episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and wrote the screenplay for The Cabinet of Caligari, Strait-Jacket, The Night Walker, and The Skull. Along with writing for several TV series, Bloch continued to collect his short stories in different collections, while also releasing his new novels Ladies Day/This Crowded Earth, The Star Stalker, and The Todd Dossier. For Amicus Productions, Bloch penned five feature movies: The Psychopath, The Deadly Bees, Torture Garden, The House That Dripped Blood, and Asylum. His final works included The Jekyll Legacy, Psycho-Paths, Once Around the Bloch, Monsters in Our Midst, and The Early Fears.  

On September 23, 1994, following a long battle with cancer, Bloch passed away at the age of 77. Across his writing career, which lasted 60 years and included more than 30 years in television and film, Bloch earned over 20 prestigious awards including several Lifetime Achievement awards. To this day, Bloch is remembered for helping to revolutionize suspense novels and for his countless contributions in the genres of crime, horror, fantasy and science fiction.