An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia

American novelist and short story writer. He first encountered HPL’s work in WTin 1927; he corresponded with HPL (1933–37); see Letters to Robert Bloch,ed. David E.Schultz and S.T.Joshi (Necronomicon Press, 1993; supplement, 1993). Bloch invented an analogue to HPL’s Necronomicon, Ludvig Prinn’s Mysteries of the Worm,in “The Secret in the Tomb” ( WT,May 1935); HPL coined the Latin title, De Vermis Mysteriis . Bloch also created Cultes des Goules(often misattributed to August Derleth because the fictionalauthor is the “Comte d’Erlette”), The Cabala of Saboth,and the Black Ritesof the mad priest Luveh-Keraph. He wrote a playful trilogy with HPL, comprising Bloch’s “The Shambler from the Stars” ( WT,September 1935), HPL’s “The Haunter of the Dark” (written November 1935; WT,December 1936), and Bloch’s “The Shadow from the Steeple” ( WT,September 1950). HPL lent advice on Bloch’s early tale “Satan’s Servants” (written in early 1935; first published in Cats), but does not appear to have written any prose in the story. Most of Bloch’s Lovecraftian tales are collected in Mysteries of the Worm,ed. Lin Carter (1981; rev. ed. [by Robert M.Price] Chaosium, 1993). Bloch later turned to the genres of mystery and suspense, writing such notable novels as The Scarf(1947), Psycho(1959), The Dead Beat(1960), and many others. Strange Eons (1978) is a Lovecraftian pastiche. See his autobiography, Once Around the Bloch(1993). See Randall Larson, Robert Bloch(Starmont House, 1986); Randall Larson, The Complete Robert Bloch: An Illustrated International Bibliography(Fandom Unlimited, 1986); S.T.Joshi, “A Literary Tutelage: Robert Bloch and H.P. Lovecraft,” Studies in Weird FictionNo. 16 (Winter 1995): 13–25. “Bolshevism.”

Essay (500 words); probably written in the summer of 1919. First published in the Conservative(July 1919); rpt. MW. A warning not to listen to “long-haired anarchists” who preach social upheaval and a condemnation of the “almost sub-human Russian rabble” who caused the Russian revolution in 1917. Bolton.

Actual town in east-central Massachusetts, cited by HPL in “Herbert West—Reanimator” (1921–22), “The Rats in the Walls” (1923), and “The Colour out of Space” (1927). The earlier story cites a Bolton Worsted Mills, but that mention is puzzling because in HPL’s day Bolton was a tiny agricultural hamlet with no industries of significance. This led Robert D.Marten (see entry on “Arkham”) to conjecture that HPL coined the name Bolton, unaware of the real town of that name. Its location appears to be near Arkham (Salem), as the real

< previous page page_22 next page > < previous page page_23 next page >

Page 23

Bolton is not. HPL mentioned passing through Bolton in October 1934, so he may have known of it earlier.

Bonner, Marion F. (1883–1952).

Neighbor and correspondent of HPL (1936–37). Several of HPL’s letters to her (the originals of which at JHL contain hand-colored illustrations of letterhead for HPL’s imaginary feline fraternity, the Kappa Alpha Tau) are included in SL5. See her article, “Miscellaneous Impressions of H.P.L.” (1945; in LR). “Book, The”

(title supplied by R.H.Barlow). Story fragment (1,200 words); probably written c. October 1933. First published in Leaves(1938); first collected in Marginalia;corrected text in D. The unnamed firstperson narrator, whose “memories are very confused,” tells of coming upon a “worm-riddled book” in an obscure bookstall near the river. Recognizing it, in spite of the absence of its opening pages, as a rare and forbidden work, he wishes to purchase it; but the old man tending the bookstall merely “leered and tittered,” refusing payment for it. The narrator hurries through the narrow streets to his home, sensing vague and disturbing presences around him. As he reaches home and begins examining the book in his attic study, he hears a faint scratching at the window—evidently a creature he had summoned by uttering an incantation in the book. After that time his perceptions are seriously affected: “Mixed with the present scene was always a little of the past and a little of the future….” Further bizarre events occur as the narrator continues to chant the formulae in the book. At this point the fragment ends.