Psycho by Robert Bloch first UK edition 1960

London: Robert Hale Limited, 1960
 
8vo., black publisher’s boards lettered in green to spine with publisher’s device in silver to foot; together in the vibrant pictorial dustwrapper (clipped); pp. [x], 5- 185, [i]; a very good, square copy, light pushed at spine tips, and bumped to corners; light spotting to endleaves and edges of text block; previous bookseller sticker to front paste-down; the very good, bright wrapper a little creased to folds, a small strip of dark marking along spine, and light rubbing to edges, particularly spine ends and fold extremities, with a little creasing and nicking. 
 
First UK edition, published the previous year in the US by Simon and Schuster. This edition with the more aesthetically-pleasing dustwrapper in full colour.  
 
Often considered to be one of the most influential horror novels of the 20th century, Psycho follows the story of Norman Bates, a caretaker working in a remote motel who struggles under the influence of his domineering mother, leading him to commit a series of horrific murders. Ending with the classic twist (if you know, you know), the story was likely influenced by the case of Ed Gein, who murdered two women in November 1957 and in whose home police found clothing made of human skins. Psychiatrists at the time theorised that Gein was attempting to make a "woman suit" to wear so he could pretend to be his dead mother. Bloch was living just 35km away from Gein’s hometown at the time of writing Psycho. 
 
In the same year, the book was adapted into the infamous film by Alfred Hitchcock, setting new and unprecedented levels in terms of violence, sexuality and deviant behaviour. It is now considered to be one of the earliest examples of ‘slasher films’, along with Peeping Tom (1960). After the success of his first work, Bloch went on to write a further two sequels, including  Psycho II (1982) and Psycho House (1990). The latter continues the story of the first, describing a series of murders which begin again when the Bates Motel is reopened as a tourist attraction.
 
Bloch was a prolific writer, contributing hundreds of stories, articles and novelettes for mystery, fantasy and science fiction magazines. Highly influenced by the great Edgar Allen Poe, he posthumously completed Poe’s last, unfinished story ‘The Lighthouse’. Once asked by a fan what he was really like, Bloch creepily replied “I have the heart of a small boy. I keep it on my desk in a bottle”. 
 
“His novels… always make the reader’s eyes goggle, hair stand up and knuckles whiten as he grips the book in terror to the end”. (Dust jacket)