| 1 | Name: | Dr. Harold Bloom | |
| Institution: | Yale University & New York University | ||
| Year Elected: | 1995 | ||
| Class: | 4. Humanities | ||
| Subdivision: | 404. History of the Arts, Literature, Religion and Sciences | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Deceased | ||
| Birth Date: | 1930 | ||
| Death Date: | October 14, 2019 | ||
Born in New York City in 1930, Harold Bloom, studied at Cornell University under Meyer Abrams before undertaking graduate work at Yale University. He received his Ph.D. from Yale in 1957 and has been a member of the faculty there since that time, becoming Sterling Professor of the Humanities in 1977. Also Berg Professor of English at New York University, Dr. Bloom is known for his notably original books on Shelley, Blake, Stevens, and Yeats as well as for his theory of poetic influence, which he voiced in a series of books including The Anxiety of Influence, A Map of Misreading, and Ruin the Sacred Truths. Advocating an aesthetic approach to literature that stands in opposition to more ideologically-driven studies, he has characterized literature as largely a creative process of borrowing and misreading. He was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1985. In 1994 Dr. Bloom published The Western Canon, a survey of the major literary works of post-Roman Europe. In 2011, at the age of 80, he wrote The Anatomy of Influence: Literature as a Way of Life, as a sort of "summing-up" of his decades of celebrated work. In 2015 he wrote The Daemon Knows. With his wit, brio and critical style, he is credited with revitalizing the Romantic poets and redefining modern ones. Harold Bloom died October 14, 2019 in New Haven, Connecticut at the age of 89. | |||