The Early Fears

by Robert Bloch

"The Early Fears' brings together for the first time all of the stories from his first two short stories collections, both long out-of-print, plus three previously uncollected stories - 39 stories in all. Included are such classics as 'Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper,' 'Enoch,' 'The Opener of the Way,' and the Hugo Award winning 'That Hell-Bound Train.'

3 • The Cloak • (1939)
18 • Beetles • (1938)
30 • The Fiddler's Fee • (1940)
49 • The Mannikin • (1937)
64 • The Strange Flight of Richard Clayton • (1939)
73 • Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper • (1943)
90 • The Seal of the Satyr • (1939)
103 • The Dark Demon • (1936)
113 • The Faceless God • (1936)
127 • House of the Hatchet • (1941)
145 • The Opener of the Way • (1936)
157 • Return to the Sabbath • (1938)
172 • The Mandarin's Canaries • (1938)
183 • Waxworks • (1939)
205 • The Feast in the Abbey • (1935)
212 • Slave of the Flames • (1938)
230 • The Shambler from the Stars • (1935)
240 • Mother of Serpents • (1936)
248 • The Secret of Sebek • (1937)
264 • The Eyes of the Mummy • (1938)
278 • One Way to Mars • (1945)
287 • Sweets to the Sweet • (1947)
295 • The Dream-Makers • (1953)
321 • The Sorcerer's Apprentice • (1949)
332 • I Kiss Your Shadow— • (1956)
350 • Mr. Steinway • (1954)
363 • The Proper Spirit • (1957)
370 • Catnip • (1948)
382 • The Cheaters • (1947)
400 • Hungarian Rhapsody • (1958)
409 • The Light-House • (1953)
423 • The Hungry House • (1951)
441 • Sleeping Beauty • (1958)
453 • Sweet Sixteen • (1958)
471 • That Hell-Bound Train • (1958)
485 • Enoch • (1946)
498 • The Bedposts of Life • (1991)
504 • The Grab Bag • (1991)
512 • The Creative Urge • (1991)

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Mystery, Fantasy, Fiction

514 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Robert Albert Bloch was a prolific American writer. He was the son of Raphael "Ray" Bloch (1884, Chicago-1952, Chicago), a bank cashier, and his wife Stella Loeb (1880, Attica, Indiana-1944, Milwaukee, WI), a social worker, both of German-Jewish descent.

Bloch wrote hundreds of short stories and over twenty novels, usually crime fiction, science fiction, and, perhaps most influentially, horror fiction (Psycho). He was one of the youngest members of the Lovecraft Circle; Lovecraft was Bloch's mentor and one of the first to seriously encourage his talent.

He was a contributor to pulp magazines such as Weird Tales in his early career, and was also a prolific screenwriter. He was the recipient of the Hugo Award (for his story "That Hell-Bound Train"), the Bram Stoker Award, and the World Fantasy Award. He served a term as president of the Mystery Writers of America.

Robert Bloch was also a major contributor to science fiction fanzines and fandom in general. In the 1940s, he created the humorous character Lefty Feep in a story for Fantastic Adventures. He also worked for a time in local vaudeville, and tried to break into writing for nationally-known performers. He was a good friend of the science fiction writer Stanley G. Weinbaum. In the 1960's, he wrote 3 stories for Star Trek.

Reviews

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 5 out of 5]

In absence of any updated version of "The Best of Robert Bloch", this is the closest you can come to some of the finest and most effective nightmares that had been ever penned by Robert Bloch. Every single story in this volume has that elusive spark that had made Bloch so special amidst all the other writers who were trying to make an earning in the cutthroat world of pulps. It contains the contents of Bloch's first 2 collections, and are special also because the later 3-volume series of 'Selected Stories' (falsely renamed as 'Complete Stories' while being printed as Paperback) don't contain any of them. Highly Recommended.

[Kurt Reichenbaugh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not as crazy about the Lovecraftian stories that Bloch wrote. But this is a nice collection (his first two collections combined) of his stories for anyone looking to get into his work.

[Joseph Patchen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you Robert Bloch. Check out my column at Lurid-lit.com.