Editing Robert Bloch (section)

==Early life and education==
Bloch was born in Chicago, the son of Raphael "Ray" Bloch (1884–1952), a bank cashier, and his wife Stella Loeb (1880–1944), a social worker, both of [[Germans|German]] [[Jewish]] descent. Bloch's family moved to [[Maywood, Illinois|Maywood]], a Chicago suburb, when he was five; he lived there until he was ten. He attended the [[Methodist Church]] there, despite his parents' Jewish heritage, and studied at Emerson Grammar School.<ref>Robert Bloch. ''Once Around the Bloch: An Unauthorised Autobiography''. NY: Tor, 1993, p. 30</ref> In 1925, at eight years of age, living in Maywood, he attended (alone at night) a screening of [[Lon Chaney, Sr.]]'s film ''[[The Phantom of the Opera (1925 film)|The Phantom of the Opera]]'' (1925). The scene of Chaney removing his mask terrified the young Bloch ("it scared the living hell out of me and I ran all the way home to enjoy the first of about two years of recurrent nightmares"). It also sparked his interest in horror.<ref name="April 6, 1935">''[[Milwaukee Journal Sentinel|Milwaukee Journal]]'', April 6, 1935.</ref><ref name="Graeme Flanagan 1979, pp. 6-12">Reprint of 1949 autobiographical article in Graeme Flanagan, ''Robert Bloch: A Bio-Bibliography''. Canberra: Flanagan, 1979, pp. 6-12</ref> Bloch was a precocious child and found himself in fourth grade when he was eight. He also obtained a pass into the adult section of the public library, where he read omnivorously. Bloch considered himself a budding artist and worked in pencil sketching and watercolours, but myopia in adolescence seemed to effectively bar art as a career. He had passions for German-made lead [[toy soldiers]] and for [[silent cinema]].<ref name="Graeme Flanagan 1979, pp. 6-12"/>

In 1929, Bloch's father Ray Bloch lost his bank job, and the family moved to [[Milwaukee]], where Stella worked at the [[Lizzie Black Kander|Milwaukee Jewish Settlement]] [[settlement house]]. Robert attended Washington, then [[Lincoln High School (Milwaukee, Wisconsin)|Lincoln High School]], where he met lifelong friend Harold Gauer. Gauer was editor of ''The Quill'', Lincoln's [[literary magazine]], and accepted Bloch's first published short story, a horror story titled "The Thing" (the "thing" of the title was [[Personifications of death|Death]]). Both Bloch and Gauer graduated from Lincoln in 1934<ref name="April 6, 1935"/> during the height of the [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]]. Bloch was involved in the drama department at Lincoln and wrote and performed in school vaudeville skits.