Once Around the Bloch: An Unauthorized Autobiography

About this book

Robert Bloch was destined to make generations nervous about showering when he penned PSYCHO. But theres more to his story than just a brief stay at the Bates Motel. In ONCE AROUND THE BLOCH he recounts it all in the fast furious and funny way that only he can. ONCE AROUND THE BLOCH takes us from Blochs early years in Chicago to his first fateful encounter with the pulp magazine classic Weird Tales. Within its pages he discovers the peerless horror fiction of H.P Lovecraft and he begins a correspondence with Lovecraft which changes the course of his life. It is Lovecraft himself who first suggests that young Mr. Bloch might just have the knack for dreaming up literary terrors of his own. And how right he is. As a young family man in Wisconsin our struggling author finds the inspiration for his masterwork PSYCHO thanks to the real-life exploits of a - mercifully - distant neighbor. His name is Ed Gein and he is lonely backwoods sort of fellow with a penchant for digging up corpses for company (not to mention arts and crafts). And hes not above making a few fresh corpses of his own when excavating gets dull. In the hands of a master craftsman this raw material will become the stuff of legendary nightmare and Norman Bates will be born. But ONCE AROUND THE BLOCH is not just the story of a literary life - it is also a tale of Tinsel Town. Aside from providing the genesis for Alfred Hitchcocks favorite black comedy Robert Bloch has also lent his talents to the big and small screens over the years as a scriptwriter. He has helped to create such cinematic terrors as STRAIT-JACKET (directed by the immortal showman William Castle) ASYLUM and THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD and written teleplays for TV cult classics like THRILLER NIGHT GALLERY and STAR TREK.