Haffner Press has just published The Vampire Stories of Robert Bloch. I first read ROBERT BLOCH back in the 1960s when Pyramid Books published several paperback short story collections featuring some of Bloch’s best stories.
Of course, Robert Bloch is best known for Psycho but the 28 stories in The Vampire Stories of Robert Bloch show the range of his work. Bloch wrote several stories in H.P. Lovecraft mode. This collection includes the classic “The Shambler from the Stars.” Just great!
I’ve reread several of the stories in this collection: “The Opener of the Way” is a story that really stays with me! And, who can forget “The Skull of the Marquis de Sade” or “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper”!
“Tooth or Consequences” was a new Bloch story for me…and extremely silly. A great contrast to the other, darker stories in this wonderful volume!
If you’re a Robert Bloch fan, The Vampire Stories of Robert Bloch is a must-buy! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
“Foreword” by Paul Winters
“Introduction” by Robert Eighteen-Bisang
“The Shambler from the Stars”
“The Opener of the Way”
“The Mannikin”
“A Question of Identity”
“The Cloak”
“Unheavenly Twin”
“Nursemaid to Nightmares”
“The Fear Planet”
“Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper”
“Black Barter”
“Death Is a Vampire”
“The Bat Is My Brother”
“The Skull of the Marquis de Sade”
“The Bogey Man Will Get You”
“The Girl from Mars”
“Tooth or Consequences”
“The Hungry House”
“The Man Who Collected Poe”
“The Light-House”
“I Kiss Your Shadow—”
“Dig That Crazy Grave”
“Sleeping Beauty”
“Hungarian Rhapsody”
“Underground”
“The Undead”
“The Yougoslaves”
“The Bedposts of Life”
“The Scent of Vinegar”
“Afterword” by Gahan Wilson
George the Tempter strikes again! I’ve read a couple of Bloch’s collections, but this sounds like a must buy. When I discovered Lovecraft in the early ’70s, I read Bloch’s classic “The Opener of the Way.” And “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper,” is one of the classics of the field.
At last…a collection with some bite!
Bloch — and to a lesser degree, Ray Bradbury — was my gateway drug to the world of the fantastic back in the days of my halcyon youth — as he was also to a number of my friends.
As a person, he was a man of warmth, charm, humor, and grace; he had an overwhelming talent on the page that was matched by his modest humanity. I never met him in person but he was kind enough to sign and return a book that had traveled three thousand miles for his signature. When he announced with typical humility and nonchalance in an article in OMNI that he was dying from cancer, I actually cried for the first time in years.
Haffner has produced many fine and important collections over the years; this may well b e the best of them.
Jerry, we saw him at a Bouchercon – maybe Milwaukee ’81? – and he was very entertaining.