Weird Tales magazine and the influence of H. P. Lovecraft During the 1930s, Bloch was an avid reader of the pulp magazine
Weird 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 picked
Weird Tales (Aug 1927 issue) off the newsstand over her shocked protest. He began his readings of the magazine with the first instalment of
Otis Adelbert Kline's "The Bride of Osiris" which dealt with a secret Egyptian city called Karneter located beneath Bloch's birth city of
Chicago. 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 new
Weird Tales issue, sometimes smuggling it home under his coat if the cover was particularly risqué. His parents were not impressed with
Hugh 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 reading
Weird Tales during convalescence from flu. Bloch wrote: "In school I was forced to squirm my way through the works of
Oliver Wendell Holmes,
James Lowell and
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. In 'Pickman's Model', the ghouls ate all three. Now that, I decided, was poetic justice." Lovecraft lent them to him. Lovecraft also gave Bloch advice on his early fiction-writing efforts, 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. Lovecraft also suggested Bloch write to other members of the Lovecraft Circle, including
August Derleth,
R. H. Barlow,
Clark Ashton Smith,
Donald Wandrei,
Frank Belknap Long,
Henry S. Whitehead,
E. Hoffmann Price,
Bernard Austin Dwyer and
J. Vernon Shea. Bloch's first completed tales were "Lilies", "The Laughter of a Young Ghoul" and "The Black Lotus". Bloch submitted these to
Weird Tales; editor Farnsworth Wright summarily rejected them all. However Bloch successfully placed "Lilies" in the semi-professional magazine
Marvel Tales (Winter 1934) and "Black Lotus" in
Unusual Stories (1935). Bloch later commented, "I figured I'd better do something different or I'd end up as a florist." Bloch graduated from high school in June 1934. He then wrote a story which promptly (six weeks later) sold to
Weird Tales. Bloch's first publication in
Weird Tales was a letter criticising the
Conan stories of
Robert E. Howard. His first professional sales, at the age of 17 (July 1934), to
Weird Tales, were the short stories "The Feast in the Abbey" and "The Secret in the Tomb". "Feast ..." appeared first, in the January 1935 issue, which actually went on sale November 1, 1934; "The Secret in the Tomb" appeared in the May 1935
Weird Tales. Bloch's correspondence with Derleth led to a visit to Derleth's home in Sauk City, Wisconsin (the headquarters of
Arkham House). 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." Following this, and continued correspondence with Lovecraft, Bloch went to Chicago and met
Farnsworth Wright, the then editor of
Weird Tales. He also met the first
Weird Tales writer outside of Derleth he had encountered -
Otto Binder. Bloch's early stories were strongly influenced by Lovecraft. Indeed, a number of his stories were set in, and extended, the world of Lovecraft's
Cthulhu Mythos. These include "The Dark Demon", in which the character Gordon is a figuration of Lovecraft, and which features
Nyarlathotep; "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 texts
De Vermis Mysteriis and
Cultes des Goules. Many other stories influenced by Lovecraft were later collected in Bloch's volume
Mysteries 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, in
Something About Cats and Other Pieces. The young Bloch appears, thinly disguised, as the character
Robert 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. 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. (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." 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."
Campaign manager for Carl Zeidler In 1939, Bloch was contacted by James Doolittle, who was managing the campaign for
Mayor of Milwaukee of a little-known assistant city attorney named
Carl 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: 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 in
Strange Stories in 1939 as by 'Tarleton Fiske' were fantasy/horror hybrids of the
contes cruels type.
1940s and 1950s '', illustrated by
Hannes Bok. fragment "
The Light-House" was touted by
Fantastic as "A New Edgar Allan Poe Masterpiece". '', illustrated by
Hannes Bok '' in 1955. ''. ''. ''. ''. In October 1941, the tale "A Good Knight's Work" in
Unknown Worlds first appeared. Shortly thereafter, Bloch created the
Damon Runyon-esque humorous series character Lefty Feep in the story "Time Wounds All Heels"
Fantastic Adventures (April 1942). This magazine, along with
Weird 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 in
Fantastic 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 novel
In the Land of Sky-Blue Ointments, Bloch also worked for a time in local
vaudeville 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 the
Jack the Ripper legend, and was filled out with more genuine factual details of the case than many other fictional treatments. It cast the Ripper as an eternal being who must make
human sacrifices to extend his
immortality. It was adapted for both radio (in
Stay Tuned for Terror) and television (as an episode of
Thriller in 1961 adapted by
Barré Lyndon). Bloch followed up this story with a number of others in a similar vein dealing with half-historic, half-legendary figures such as the
Man in the Iron Mask ("Iron Mask", 1944), the
Marquis de Sade ("The Skull of the Marquis de Sade", 1945) and
Lizzie 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. Towards the end of World War Two, in 1945, Bloch was asked to write 39 15-minute episodes of his own radio horror show called
Stay 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).. The same year he published "The Skull of the
Marquis de Sade" (
Weird Tales, September issue).
August Derleth's
Arkham 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 by
Ronald 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 of
Weird Tales) and
Lizzie Borden Took an Axe (
Weird Tales, November). Bloch's first novel was published in hardcover – the thriller
The 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 in
Minneapolis and follows him and his trail of dead bodies to
Chicago,
New York City, and finally
Hollywood, 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 at
Torcon 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.) [https://fancyclopedia.org/Auction_Bloch Bloch published three novels in 1954 –
Spiderweb,
The Kidnapper and
The Will to Kill as he endeavored to support his family. That same year he was a weekly guest panelist on the TV quiz show ''It's a Draw
. Shooting Star'' (1958), a mainstream novel, was published in a double volume with a collection of Bloch's stories titled
Terror in the Night.
This Crowded Earth (1958) was science fiction. With the demise of
Weird Tales, Bloch continued to have his fiction published in
Amazing,
Fantastic,
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and
Fantastic Universe; he was a particularly frequent contributor to
Imagination and
Imaginative Tales. His output of thrillers increased and he began to appear regularly in
The Saint,
Ellery Queen and similar mystery magazines, and to such suspense and horror-fiction magazine projects as
Shock.
Jack the Ripper Bloch continued to revisit the Jack the Ripper theme. His contribution to
Harlan Ellison's 1967 science fiction anthology
Dangerous Visions was a story, "
A Toy for Juliette", which evoked both Jack the Ripper and the
Marquis 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 original
Star Trek series episode "
Wolf in the Fold". His 1984 novel
Night of the Ripper is set during the reign of
Queen Victoria and follows the investigation of Inspector
Frederick Abberline in attempting to apprehend the Ripper, and includes some famous Victorians such as
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle within the storyline.
Psycho Bloch won the
Hugo 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 involving
dissociative identity disorder, "The Real Bad Friend", which appeared in the February 1957
Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, that foreshadowed the 1959 novel
Psycho. 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 volume
The Science Fiction Novel (Advent Publishers). His story "The Hungry Eye" appeared in
Fantastic (May). This was also the year in which, despite having graduated from painting watercolours to oils, he gave up painting completely. Bloch's basing of the character of Norman Bates on Ed Gein is discussed in the documentary
Ed Gein: The Ghoul of Plainfield, which can be found on Disc 2 of the DVD release of the remake of
The 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." Though Bloch had little involvement with the
film version of his novel, which was directed by
Alfred Hitchcock from an adapted screenplay by
Joseph Stefano, he was to become most famous as its author. Bloch was awarded a special
Mystery 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 to
Douglas E. Winter in an interview. "I realized, as a result of what went on during
World 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." While Bloch was not the first horror writer to utilise a psychological approach (it originates in the work of
Edgar 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 with
Simon & 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 the
Psycho series bear no relation to either of Bloch's sequel novels. Indeed, Bloch's proposed script for the film
Psycho 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 film
Hitchcock (2012) tells the story of Alfred Hitchcock's making of the film version of
Psycho. Although it mentions Bloch and his novel, Bloch himself is not a character in the movie.
The early 1960s: Screenwriting and fiction 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 the
Writers 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 the
Macdonald Carey vehicle,
Lock-Up, (penning five episodes) as well as one for
Whispering Smith. Further TV work included an episode of
Bus Stop ("I Kiss Your Shadow"), 10 episodes of
Thriller (1960–62, several based on his own stories), and 10 episodes of
Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1960–62). His short story collection
Pleasant Dreams - Nightmares was published by Arkham House in 1960. Bloch wrote the screenplay for
The Cabinet of Caligari (1962), which is only very loosely related to
the 1920 German silent film, and proved to be an unhappy experience. The same year, Bloch penned the story and teleplay "
The Sorcerer's Apprentice" for
Alfred Hitchcock Presents. The episode was shelved when the
NBC Television Network and sponsor
Revlon 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 to
public domain status, the episode is readily available in home media formats from numerous distributors and is even available on free
video on demand. His TV work did not slow Bloch's fictional output. In the early 1960s he published several novels, including
The Dead Beat (1960), and
Firebug (1961), for which
Harlan Ellison, then an editor at Regency Books, contributed the first 1,200 words. In 1962 numerous works appeared in book form. Bloch's novel
The Couch (1962) (the basis for the screenplay of his first movie, filmed the same year) was published. That year several Bloch short story collections –
Atoms and Evil,
More Nightmares and
Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper – were published, as well as another novel,
Terror (whose working titles included
Amok and
Kill for Kali). Editor Earl Kemp assembled a selection of Bloch's prolific output for fan magazines as
The 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 as
The Deadbeat,
The Scarf,
Firebug,
Psycho, and
The Couch was to re-discover the suspense novel and reinvent the antihero as first discovered by
James Cain." During 1963, Bloch saw into print two further collections of short stories,
Bogey men and
Horror-7. In 1964 Bloch married Eleanor Alexander and wrote original screenplays for two films produced and directed by
William Castle,
Strait-Jacket (1964) and
The Night Walker (also 1964), along with
The Skull (1965). The latter film was based on his short story "The Skull of the Marquis de Sade".
The 1960s and 1970s: Film & TV writing Bloch's further TV writing in this period included
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (7 episodes, 1962–1965),
I Spy (1 episode, 1966),
Run for Your Life (1 episode, 1966), and
The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. (1 episode, 1967). He penned three scripts for the original
Star Trek series which were screened in 1966 and 1967: "
What Are Little Girls Made Of?", "
Wolf in the Fold" (another
Jack the Ripper variant), and "
Catspaw". In 1968, Bloch returned to London to do two episodes for the English
Hammer Films series
Journey to the Unknown for
Twentieth Century Fox. One of the episodes, "The Indian Spirit Guide", was included in the American TV movie
Journey to Midnight (1968). The other episode was "Girl of My Dreams", co-scripted with
Michael J. Bird and based on the eponymous story by
Richard Matheson. Following the movie
The Skull (1965), which was based on a Bloch story but scripted by
Milton Subotsky, he wrote the screenplays for five feature films produced by
Amicus Productions –
The Psychopath (1966),
The Deadly Bees (co-written with Anthony Marriott, 1967),
Torture Garden (also 1967),
The House That Dripped Blood (1971) and
Asylum (1972). The last two films featured stories written by Bloch that were printed first in collections he published in the 1940s and early 1950s. During the 1970s, Bloch wrote two TV movies for director
Curtis Harrington –
The Cat Creature (1973) (an
ABC Movie of the Week) and ''
The Dead Don't Die. The Cat Creature
was an unhappy production experience for Bloch. Producer Doug Cramer wanted to do an update of Cat People'' (1942), the
Val 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." A detailed account of the troubled production of the film is described in Bloch's autobiography. Bloch meanwhile (interspersed between his screenplays for Amicus Productions and other projects), penned single episodes for
Night Gallery (1971),
Ghost Story (1972),
The Manhunter (1974), and
Gemini Man (1976).
The later 1960s and 1970s: Fiction In 1965, two further collections of short stories appeared -
The Skull of the Marquis de Sade and
Tales in a Jugular Vein. 1966 saw Bloch win the
Ann 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. In 1967, another Bloch collection,
The Living Demons was issued. He also published another classic story of
Jack the Ripper, "A Toy for Juliette" in
Harlan Ellison's
Dangerous Visions anthology. In 1968 he published a duo of long sf novellas as ''Ladies' Day
and This Crowded Earth
. His novel The Star Stalker
was published, and Dragons and Nightmares'' (the first collection of Lefty Feep stories) appeared in hardcover (Mirage Press). The collection
Bloch and Bradbury (a collaboration with
Ray Bradbury) and the hardcover novel
The 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 in
Rio de Janeiro, March 23–31, along with other science fiction writers from the United States, Britain and Europe. In 1971, Bloch served as president of the
Mystery Writers of America, meanwhile publishing the novel
Sneak Preview, the collection
Fear Today, Gone Tomorrow, and the short novel ''It's All in Your Mind
. In 1972 he published another novel, Night-World
. In 1973 Bloch was the Guest of Honor at Torcon II, World Science Fiction Convention, Toronto. 1974 saw the publication of his novel American Gothic'', inspired by the true life story of serial killer
H. H. Holmes. In 1975, Bloch won the Lifetime Achievement Award at the First
World Fantasy Convention held in
Providence, 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. An audio recording was made of Robert Bloch during that 1975 convention, accessible online. 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 edited
The Best of Robert Bloch for Del Rey books. Two further short story collections appeared –
Cold Chills and
The King of Terrors. Bloch continued to published short story collections throughout this period. His
Selected Stories (reprinted in paperback with the incorrect title
The 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 in
Andre Norton's Witch World, to
Tales of the Witch World (Vol. 1), NY: Tor, 1987. 1979 saw the publication of Bloch's novel
There is a Serpent in Eden (also reissued as
The Cunning), and two more short story collections,
Out of the Mouths of graves and
Such 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 tribute
Strange Eons (Whispers Press, 1978) and the non-supernatural mystery
There is a Serpent in Eden (1979).
The 1980s Bloch's screenplay-writing career continued active through the 1980s, with teleplays for
Tales 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") and
Monsters (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" with
Edgar Allan Poe, "The Lighthouse", was filmed as an episode of
The 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 and
Fritz Leiber. In 1981, Zebra Books issued the first edition of the
Cthulhu Mythos-themed collection
Mysteries of the Worm. This item was reprinted some years later in an expanded edition by Chaosium. Bloch's sequel to the original
Psycho,
Psycho II, was published in 1982 and in 1983 he novelized
Twilight Zone: The Movie. His novel
Night 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 omnibus
Unholy Trinity, collecting three by now scarce Bloch novels,
The Scarf,
The Dead Beat, and
The Couch. A second retrospective selection of Bloch's nonfiction was published by NESFA Press as
Out of My Head. In 1987, Bloch celebrated his 70th birthday. Underwood-Miller issued the three-volume hardcover set
The Selected Stories of Robert Bloch (individual volumes titled
Final Reckonings,
Bitter Ends and
Last Rites). When Citadel Press reissued this in paperback they incorrectly named it
The Collected Stories of Robert Bloch. The same year a collection,
Midnight Pleasures appeared from Doubleday, and
Lost 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 collection
Fear and Trembling, the thriller novel
Lori (later adapted as a standalone graphic novel) and another omnibus of long out-of-print early novels,
Screams (containing
The Will to Kill,
Firebug, and
The Star Stalker). Randall D. Larson issued
The Robert Bloch Companion: Collected Interviews 1969-1986 (Starmont House), together with
Robert Bloch (Starmont Reader's Guide No 37), an exhaustive study of Bloch's work, and
The Complete Robert Bloch: An Illustrated, Comprehensive Bibliography (Fandom Unlimited Enterprises). Larson's three books were bound in hardcover and distributed by Borgo Press.
The 1990s: Last works Bloch's novel,
The Jekyll Legacy (1990), was a collaboration with
Andre Norton and a sequel to
Robert Louis Stevenson's
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The same year he returned to the Norman Bates "mythos" with
Psycho House (Tor), the third Psycho novel. As with the second novel in the sequence, it bears no relation to the film titled
Psycho III. It would prove to be his last published novel. In February 1991, he was given the Honor of Master of Ceremonies at the first
World Horror Convention held in
Nashville, 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 with
Martin H. Greenberg the original anthology
Psycho-Paths (Tor). In 1991 Bloch contributed an Introduction to
In Search of Lovecraft by
J. 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 anthology
Monsters 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). ==Personal life==