¡Feliz Cumpleaños, Robert Bloch!

AKA Robert Albert Bloch

Born April 5, 1917. Died September 23, 1994.

He was the author of so many scary stories, not to mention the novel Psycho. He was also a friend of the late H. P. Lovecraft and won a Hugo Award for his short story "That Hell-Bound Train". He wrote some novels and short stories in the science fiction genre but his most popular work was in horror.

Trailer of the Week: Asylum (1972)

Of course, one would have to be crazy to set a horror movie in a mental hospital nowadays. Just ask John Carpenter.

Science Fiction Quote of the Week

“What‘s that again, lover?” he murmured. “Do my ears deceive me or are you sounding like one of those lousy radical politicians? Where’d you pick up that kind of talk, anyway -- you got ancestors in the GOP, maybe?”
--Robert Bloch, Sneak Preview

All the Classic Horror Novels That I Have Read, Part One

1. Frankenstein (1818) -- Mary Shelley.

The one that started it all -- at least, historically speaking. Ironically, I never read the whole thing until recently but I do remember reading the plot synopsis in my parent's Masterplots collection over and over again.

2. The Portrait of Dorian Gray (1890) -- Oscar Wilde.

Another book I've read recently. (I did read Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" in high school, but unfortunately, it's technically a novella, not a novel, so I can't really put it on this list.)

3. Dracula (1897) -- Bram Stoker.

Another one that I've only recently read all the way through.

4. The Invisible Man (1897) -- H. G. Wells.

Horror novel or science fiction? You decide. One of the few classic horror novels I've read in high school.

5. The Werewolf of Paris (1933) -- Guy Endore.

Yes, I already mentioned it on another list, but it really is a good novel.

6. Conjure Wife (1943) -- Fritz Leiber.

One of the first novels of contemporary horror. Also the inspiration of at least two movies.

7. I Am Legend (1954) -- Richard Matheson.

Another co-mingling of science fiction and horror. This book has been ripped off so often it's a wonder Matheson gets any royalties at all.

8. Psycho (1959) -- Robert Bloch.

Yes, the novel that inspired the Alfred Hitchcock movie of the same name. Definitely different -- and more realistic -- than the movie. Save for that decapitation scene.

9. Carrie (1974) -- Stephen King.

The first book from some obscure writer named Stephen King. Whatever happened to him?

10. Ghost Story (1979) -- Peter Straub.

One of the best -- and most artistically ambitious -- horror novels I've ever read. Also way better than its cinematic namesake.

Books That Scared the Hell Out of Me When I Was a Kid



For some reason, I encountered this book long before I discovered its prequel Tales to Tremble By. And I was always more impressed by this book than I was by its prequel. Perhaps because it was one of the first book of horror stories that I ever owned.

The first story in the book -- H. Russell Wakefield's "The Red Lodge" -- scared the hell out of me and even today there are times when I remember certain images from that story in my dreams. Especially the scene when the narrator keeps fighting this urge to get up and look out the window, an urge he dare not give in to lest he'd gaze upon something so hideous that my words can't really do it justice.

I was also scared by the book's other stories such as Percival Landon's "Thurnley Abbey", William Hope Hodgson's "A Voice in the Night" and August Derleth's "The Extra Passenger." For that matter, this book also marked my first exposure to champion ghost story writer M.R. James but alas, I was too young to appreciate it.



Another book I remember from my youth. It was not quite as scary as More Tales to Tremble By but it had its moments. Plus, it gave me my first exposure to the short stories of Robert Bloch -- the author of Psycho -- as well as my first look at William Hope Hodgson's character Carnacki the Ghost Finder.



For some reason, I was a sucker for anything associated with the actor Boris Karloff. I used to stay up late and watch monster movies -- a habit I inherited from my older cousins -- and of course, Boris Karloff often played a key part in such movies. It didn't hurt that he also narrated one of my favorite anthology series Thriller -- no, not the Michael Jackson version. Thriller wasn't always as scary as it should be -- but it had more than its share of genuinely scary episodes. And I like to think the series holds up better than more recent anthology shows like Tales from the Darkside. But then I'm biased.

Anyway, the book itself was very eerie. They eventually published a sequel called More Tales of the Frightened, but for some reason, I didn't care for that book as much as the first.