Robert Albert Bloch was a prolific American writer, primarily of crime, horror and science fiction. He was the son of Raphael "Ray" Bloch , a bank cashier, and his wife Stella Loeb , a social worker, both of German-Jewish descent.

Bloch wrote hundreds of short stories and over twenty novels, usually crime fiction, science fiction, and, perhaps most influentially, horror fiction . He was one of the youngest members of the Lovecraft Circle; Lovecraft was Bloch's mentor and one of the first to seriously encourage his talent.