Robert Bloch was an American fiction writer, primarily of crime, psychological horror and fantasy, much of which has been dramatized for radio, cinema and television. Best known as the writer of Psycho (1959), the basis for the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock, which really blew the doors off Plainfield, Wisconsin. While this little town would have liked nothing more than to continue to pretend nothing bad ever happens in the Badger State, their neighbor Bloch had different ideas. The Library of America selected Bloch’s essay “The Shambles of Ed Gein” for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American true crime.

Bloch wrote hundreds of short stories and over 30 novels. He won the Hugo Award, the Bram Stoker Award, and the World Fantasy Award. He served a term as president of the Mystery Writers of America and was a member of that organization and of Science Fiction Writers of America, the Writers Guild of America, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Count Dracula Society.