The Wisconsin author who killed H.P. Lovecraft

And wrote a little book inspired by Ed Gein

Psycho author Robert Bloch was born on this day in 1917. If you’ve never actually read the book, now is a great time to crack those pages open and appreciate the genius of this Wisconsin author.

Besides penning the story that introduced much of the world to the crimes of Ed Gein, Bloch also has the distinction of having killed, and having been killed by, horror author H.P. Lovecraft.

Bloch was a member of the "Lovecraft Circle," a group of writers (which included another Wisconsin resident, August Derleth) who kept in regular correspondence with Lovecraft.

With Lovecraft's blessing, Bloch brutally killed off a literary proxy for Lovecraft in his short story “The Shambler from the Stars,” published in Weird Tales in 1935.

Lovecraft returned the favor the following year in his story “The Haunter of the Dark” - which even included Bloch's actual Milwaukee address at the time: 620 East Knapp Street.

“Believe me, beyond all doubt, I don’t know anyone else I’d rather be killed by,” Bloch later said of the honor.

Lovecraft in Wisconsin

Bloch and Derleth and been planning to pay for Lovecraft to visit Wisconsin, but Lovecraft died (poor and virtually unknown) in 1937 before they could make it happen. Derleth founded Arkham House in his hometown of Sauk City in order to publish a memorial collection of Lovecraft’s greatest works.

Derleth believed Wisconsin was home to “Cthulhu power-zones,” cosmic centers of dark energy through which actual Lovecraftian monsters could be conjured.

And he wasn’t alone.

A group of Lovecraftian occultists from Chicago made frequent trips to Wisconsin to perform bizarre rituals intended to awaken the Deep Ones from the depths of several Wisconsin lakes.

Read more about that here: Lovecraftian Lake Monsters in Wisconsin