Book 15 of 26 books for 2024! Still aiming for 20.

Valancourt Books, of who I am a huge fan of, continues to impress with quality editions of quality authors. Recently, they have started reprinting the works of horror master Robert Bloch, best known for writing Psycho, which led to the famous Hitchcock movie. Fans of horror fiction probably love him best for his weird horror short stories, which includes cosmic horror in the vein of H.P. Lovecraft. Bloch corresponded with Lovecraft regularly until the latter’s death, and Lovecraft served as a mentor to the young Bloch.

The Opener of the Way was the first published collection of Bloch’s stories, originally released by Arkham House in 1945. The Valancourt edition, featuring a new introduction by horror great Ramsey Campbell and an eye-catching new cover, was just released in fall of 2024.

The book features 22 stories from Bloch’s early career, and I do mean early: he started writing professionally at age 17 and the collection came out when he was 28. The stories are very rough and arguably unpolished, but they also represent some of Bloch’s most imaginative work, when he was experimenting with a variety of story types and styles.

A few of the ones I found particularly noteworthy are listed below:

1. The Fiddler’s Fee. When a chance encounter allows a young musician to cross paths with the infamous Paganini, a deal with otherworldly powers is struck for fame and fortune. As is the case with all such deals, however, it comes with a horrific and unexpected price.
2. Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper. An investigator comes to a psychiatrist in Chicago with an impossible story: the serial killer Jack the Ripper is immortal, continues to kill to this day, and is in the city right now. Finding such an ancient, ruthless being may not be such a good idea, however. This is one of Bloch’s most famous stories.
3. The Opener of the Way. One of many early stories by Bloch featuring ancient Egyptian tombs, this one involves a father and son who find a lost tomb of a priest of Anubis, but are unprepared for what guards it.
4. Slave of the Flames. A disturbed young man who is obsessed with burning things finds kindred spirits in several men who have used horrific fires to keep themselves alive for ages.
5. The Shambler from the Stars. One of at least two stories where Robert Bloch introduced his mentor as a character and killed him off! The story is dedicated to Lovecraft, and Lovecraft would return the favor in a story dedicated to Bloch, “The Haunter of the Dark.” A young man seeking forbidden knowledge (clearly Bloch) finds a copy of a forbidden eldritch tome, De Vermis Mysteriis, and brings it to a mystic in Providence (clearly Lovecraft) to decipher. The results do not go well for either of them.
6. The Secret of Sebek. Another Egyptian-themed, story, this one focuses on the crocodile-headed god Sebek. When mystics steal a mummy of one of the priests of Sebek, they find that the god is none too happy with their meddling.
7. The Eyes of the Mummy. A direct sequel to the previous story! The narrator and survivor of “The Secret of Sebek” discovers the location of another tomb of a priest of Sebek, and is determined to steal its treasures for himself. The treasure in this case is the jeweled eyes of the mummy, which possess unfathomable and deadly powers.

Bloch’s stories are fun, though relatively straightforward. Modern readers will probably see where a lot of them are going well in advance (though in part that is probably because Bloch set some of the tropes that are now common). They are nevertheless worth reading and enjoyable, a snapshot of a master of the craft as he learned the ropes of writing.

It should be noted that some stories are really racially problematic for a modern reader, such as “Mother of Serpents,” which has negative stereotypes of Haiti, Haitians and voodoo. These stories are few and far between and for me don’t detract from the overall collection, and I’m glad that they are included for completeness and for posterity.

It is also worth noting that there is one science fiction story in the collection — “The Strange Flight of Richard Clayton” — that foreshadows Bloch’s eventual work on teleplays for shows like Star Trek. He wrote three scripts for the original series, including “Wolf in the Fold,” which also perhaps unsurprisingly features Jack the Ripper.

Overall, this is a collection that is a must for fans of classic horror! There is a lot to love in Robert Bloch’s weird tales, and he was one of the great masters of horror fiction.