See Carey McWilliams, Ambrose Bierce: A Biography(A. & C. Boni, 1929); M.E.Grenander, Ambrose Bierce(Twayne, 1971); Roy Morris, Jr., Ambrose Bierce: Alone in Bad Company(Crown, 1995). Birch, George.
The undertaker of Peck Valley (state unknown), who is the subject of “In the Vault.” His carelessness and unprofessionalism not only cause him to be imprisoned in the local cemetery’s receiving tomb but also exact the revenge of one of the corpses temporarily stored there.
Bishop, Mamie.
In “The Dunwich Horror,” the “common-law wife” of Earl Sawyer, who is one of the first to see Wilbur Whateley after he is born. She is the confidante of Wilbur’s mother, Lavinia. Mamie’s relationship to Seth Bishop is unspecified. Seth’s cattle suffer bizarre wounds from Wilbur’s twin brother. Silas Bishop is merely said to be “of the undecayed Bishops.”
Bishop, Zealia Brown Reed (1897–1968).
Revision client and correspondent of HPL. Samuel Loveman introduced her to HPL around 1928. She wished to write romantic fiction, but HPL attempted to steer her toward weird or serious mainstream work. HPL ghostwrote “The Curse of Yig” ( WT,November 1929) in 1928 from a plot synopsis and a questionnaire pertaining to the Oklahoma setting for the story; “The Mound” (December 1929– January 1930) and “Medusa’s Coil” (May 1930) were written from brief plot-germs (HPL’s synopsis for the latter survives in AHT). WTrejected “The Mound” when it was submitted by Frank Belknap Long, who was acting as Bishop’s agent; Long then abridged the text, but it was again rejected. The stories, having been rewritten by August Derleth, appeared in WT (“The Mound” in November 1940; “Medusa’s Coil” in January 1939). The corrected texts were not published until HM . The three stories were published in The Curse of Yig(Arkham House, 1953), for which Bishop wrote an error-filled memoir, “H.P.Lovecraft: A Pupil’s View” (rpt. LR).
Blackwood, Algernon [Henry] (1869–1951).
British author whose work HPL praised highly: he considered “The Willows” (in The Listener and Other Stories[1907]) the best weird tale in all literature. “The Wendigo” (in The Lost Valley and Other Stories[1910]) probably influenced “The Dunwich Horror” in its use of anomalous footprints to indicate the presence of a supernatural entity. Oddly
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enough, HPL did not care for Blackwood when he first read him in 1920 (see HPL to the Gallomo, [January] 1920; AHT); but when HPL read “The Willows” in an anthology in late 1924, he was convinced that, despite his unevenness, Blackwood was among the leading authors of supernatural fiction, particularly in his suggestions of cosmicism. Blackwood was a mystic with a fascination for Eastern thought; his novel The Centaur(1911) is his spiritual autobiography. John Silence—Physician Extraordinary(1908) popularized the use of the “psychic detective”; it was imitated by William Hope Hodgson and others. Blackwood also wrote fantasies for and about children, including Jimbo: A Fantasy(1909) and The Education of Uncle Paul(1909). HPL praised Incredible Adventures(1914), a collection of four long stories, in “Supernatural Horror in Literature” and elsewhere (see, e.g., SL 5.160). Late in life Blackwood became popular on BBC radio and television. See Selected Tales (1938), Tales of the Uncanny and Supernatural(1949), Tales of the Mysterious and Macabre(1967), and his autobiography Episodes Before Thirty(1923).
See Mike Ashley, “Lovecraft and Blackwood: A Surveillance,” CryptNo. 51 (Hallowmas 1987): 3–8, 14; Mike Ashley, “The Cosmic Connection,” CryptNo. 57 (St. John’s Eve 1988): 3–9; Mike Ashley, Algernon Blackwood: A Bio-Bibliography(Greenwood Press, 1987); S.T.Joshi, “Algernon Blackwood: The Expansion of Consciousness,” in Joshi’s The Weird Tale(University of Texas Press, 1990). Blake, Richard.
In “Deaf, Dumb, and Blind,” the author-poet from Boston who rents a country cottage near Fenham, thinking it will provide imaginative stimulus for his work. While there, he becomes aware of an unseen presence and later is found dead.
Blake, Robert.
In “The Haunter of the Dark,” the writer of weird tales from Milwaukee, Wis., who moves to Providence, R.I., for inspiration. He keeps a diary of his investigations of the Free-Will Church, which he had first observed from his window but then sought out across town. He unwittingly disturbs the unseen presence residing in the abandoned church and, in the end, dies from his encounter with the avatar of Nyarlathotep.
Blake is loosely based on Robert Bloch, to whom the story is dedicated. (Blake’s Milwaukee address was Bloch’s real address at the time the story was written.) However, he also embodies attributes of HPL himself. The view from Blake’s room in Providence is exactly that which HPL saw. The titles of the stories attributed to Blake are parodies of HPL’s and Bloch’s own stories.
Blandot.
In “The Music of Erich Zann,” the “paralytic” landlord of the boarding house on the Rue d’Auseil where Zann and the narrator reside.
Blish, James (1921–1975).
Pioneering American science fiction writer who corresponded briefly with HPL (1936). Blish and his friend William Miller planned to issue a fanzine, The Planeteer,and in the spring of 1936 asked HPL for contributions. HPL sent them the poem “The Wood,” which was to appear in September 1936; although the pages containing the poem were printed, the issue
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was never completed. HPL continued to correspond with Blish and Miller (apparently writing to them jointly) until the summer. Three of his letters to them were published in the fanzine Phantastique/Science Fiction Critic(March 1938); rpt. HPL’s Uncollected Letters(Necronomicon Press, 1986). Blish went on to become a distinguished science fiction writer, with such landmark novels as A Case of Conscience(1958), Black Easter(1968), and Doctor Mirabilis(1964; rev. 1971). See David Ketterer, Imprisoned in a Tesseract: The Life and Work of James Blish(1987). Bloch, Robert (1917–1994).
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.”