Biography

Said to have based the Bates character from "Psycho" on the outwardly mild-mannered real-life serial killer Ed Gein.

Corrsponded with legendary horror writer H.P. Lovecraft for many years. Despite reports to the contrary, the two never actually met. However, their correspondence resulted in Lovecraft naming a character after Bloch, that of Robert Blake. Bloch also wrote a number of stories within the Lovecraftian Cthulhu Mythos himself, inventing his own infamous book "De Vermis Mysteriis", which was similar to Lovecraft's own "Necronomicon". He was, however, close friends with the last surviving man to have actually met Lovecraft, comics editor and literary agent Julius Schwartz. For many years Schwartz traditionally joined Bloch and family in Los Angeles for Thanksgiving dinner at Bloch's home in the Hollywood Hills.

Had no formal education beyond high school.

Sold his first story to the pulp magazine 'Weird Tales' in 1934.

Died peacefully in his home in the Hollywood Hills with his beloved wife, Elly, by his side. Before his death, he announced to the Literary world his terminal diagnosis and published an essay on his feelings about approaching death just a short time before he passed away in OMNI Magazine. Much of his best and most rare works have recently become available in new or first time editions which would have pleased him immensely.

I was always so badly frightened as a child, so I thought: "If you can't lick 'em, join em."

I've been told that science fiction writers are a family. If so, then I'm an illegitimate son.

Comedy and horror are opposite sides of the same coin.

I discovered, much to my surprise - and particularly if I was writing in the first person - that I could become a psychopath quite easily. I could think like one and I could devise a manner of unfortunate occurrences. So I probably gave up a flourishing, lucrative career as a mass murderer.

I have the heart of a child; I keep it in a jar on my shelf.