Today, April 5, is the birthday of Robert Bloch (1917-1994). Bloch was one of the best writers of horror, suspense, crime, fantasy, and science fiction of the 20th Century. Sadly, his excellent body of work will probably always be overshadowed by his most famous novel, and the basis of the Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name, Psycho. And if you’re only  familiar with Psycho from the movie, there are some differences between the film and the book.

Bloch took the story of real-life killer Ed Gein and turned it into the source of many people’s nightmares, and in the process made taking a shower an act of courage.

For today’s post I’m going to look at his fictionalization of another famous murderer, H. H. Holmes, who killed many people (the exact number is open to question) during the Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in 1893. Like he did with Gein, Bloch fictionalized the events and changed the name of the character.

The result was the novel American Gothic. It was first published in 1974 and has had five different editions. That’s the cover of the 1987 Tor edition on the left.

G. Gordon Gregg is a physician and pharmacist who has opened a pharmacy near the Exhibition. In addition to selling his own elixir and renting rooms, he also engages in a bit of insurance fraud, usually involving wealthy and beautiful young widows. Wealthy and beautiful young widows who tend to have accidents or disappear soon after he meets them.

This attracts the attention of a beautiful young reporter, one who is trying to make her mark in the world of journalism.

While this novel wasn’t bad and in fact was quite enjoyable for the most part, it wasn’t up to the level of Psycho. But really, few novels can be, and it’s not fair to Bloch to compare his most famous work to this one. Other than the resolution of the reporter’s romance, which I felt was a bit forced (she doesn’t end up with the man she is engaged to at the novel’s opening, which is no big surprise), Bloch tells a compelling tale. Others must agree, because as noted above, it had five editions, including one British edition.

For this post I had originally planned to read some short fiction by Bloch that I hadn’t read before. I had enough time to read a novel, so I picked this one which I hadn’t read before. I’l probably return to the short fiction sometime over the next few months.