Pleasant Dreams was published by Arkham House in 1960 — Bloch’s second major collection with the press that had been the primary publisher of Lovecraft’s circle since the late 1930s. The collection represents a transitional moment: Bloch had already published Psycho (1959) and was moving decisively from his early Lovecraftian pastiche toward psychological horror, but these stories still carry traces of the supernatural alongside the purely psychological.
The Arkham House edition — 2,000 copies, cloth binding in dust jacket — is the only edition that matters to collectors. August Derleth, Arkham House’s founder, had published Bloch’s first collection (The Opener of the Way, 1945) and remained his primary short-fiction publisher through this period.
The stories here range from the genuinely disturbing (“The Man Who Collected Poe” — about a collector whose obsession with Poe memorabilia has crossed into something far darker) to the blackly comic (“A Good Knight’s Work”) to the atmospheric supernatural (“Sweets to the Sweet,” adapted for the film Asylum in 1972). Bloch’s signature is the twist ending: not the mechanical O. Henry surprise but a revelation that recontextualizes everything preceding it, making the reader complicit in assumptions that were always wrong.
Collecting Pleasant Dreams
First edition (Arkham House, Sauk City, Wisconsin, 1960): 2,000 copies printed. Dark cloth binding with gold spine lettering. Dust jacket by Frank Utpatel.
Market values:
- First edition in fine dust jacket: $80–$200
- Good dust jacket, some wear: $50–$100
- Without dust jacket: $20–$40
Arkham House editions are one of the few horror presses where every title eventually appreciates. The small print runs (rarely exceeding 3,000) and the historical importance of the press (it preserved Lovecraft, published early Bradbury, Leiber, Bloch) guarantee continuing collector interest.