Robert Bloch: Appreciations of the Master

Robert Bloch: Appreciations of the Master is a wonderful tribute to a top writer, combining fond reminiscences from Bloch's friends and peers with several of the stories that won him his well deserved reputation as one of the top genre writers of the last century. I recommend you read this book along with Bloch's charming autobiography, Once Around the Bloch. Together, they serve as a reminder of the great loss the horror, mystery and suspense genres suffered when Bloch passed away.

I just want to say that if you like King, Poe, Christie, and Hitchcock, then BUY THIS BOOK!

Robert Bloch: Appreciations of the Master Edited By Richard Matheson and Ricia Mainhardt TOR Books, 1995, 382 pp.; $24.95 (hc) Review by Scott David Briggs Although Robert Bloch: Appreciations of the Master has been in release for some time, it is certainly a volume that should not go unnoticed, just as its subject should not, and will not, go unremembered, and thus this review. I only met Robert Bloch once, at the first NecronomiCon in August, 1992, a convention held (at the time) near Salem, Massachusetts, honoring all things Lovecraftian and those personalities who have carried on the Lovecraftian tradition in their respective fields, be it fiction, literary, criticism, art, etc. Bloch was Guest of Honor that year, along with artist Gahan Wilson. At one point, Marc Michaud of Necronomicon Press (and a convention organizer) asked me at one point if I wanted to come help escort Mr. Bloch from his hotel suite to one of his autograph sessions, and I eagerly agreed. I was able to speak with Bloch for only a few minutes (and I was probably tongue-tied from meeting a living legend and an idol of mine as well), but in that brief time I realized that all the tributes in this recent book are accurate; Bloch was one of the sweetest, most gracious authors in this field, or indeed, any field. His enviable body of work stands well on its own, and this loving tribute, assembled by author Richard Matheson and Bloch's agent, Ricia Mainhardt, ably serves to demonstrate his immeasurable importance and influence. Matheson and Mainhardt have gathered some of the most famous names in the Horror/Fantasy/Science Fiction field to honor the late Robert Bloch, who passed away in Fall 1994, bringing to a close a creative career which had spanned well over sixty years. Such luminaries as Stephen King, Peter Straub, Arthur C. Clarke, Harlan Ellison, Christopher Lee, Ray Bradbury, and Ramsey Campbell speak at length here about their idol (and, in some cases, mentor) Bloch, and how and why the man came to be such an important influence upon their own careers, and unquestionably the Fantasy/Horror/Suspense fields as a whole. Such relative newcomers as film/television director Mick Garris, artist/writer Neil Gaiman, and horror critic/author Douglas E. Winter round out the impressive list, demonstrating that Bloch's touch extends far beyond the so-called Golden Age into the present. This tribute volume also serves as an invaluable coda of sorts to Bloch's delightful autobiography, Once Around the Bloch, published only a few years ago. While the majority of these recent tribute books are hastily thrown together, shoddily edited affairs, intended merely to generate cash from the reputation of the person or persons being honored, Appreciations of the Master cannot, happily, be said to be in this regrettable category. As the tribute volume becomes an ever more common marketing category for publishers, so does the overall value of such books decrease,