Harold Bloom: the uncommon reader

For a beautiful appreciation and clear dissection of Harold Bloom’s career as America’s most gifted literary critic and poet of the sublime influence of like-minded writers, click here. By Sam Tanenhaus, editor of The New York Times Book Review. Bloom’s new book, The Anatomy of Influence, is a summation of his early and latter work, focusing on the esthetic links, sometimes not readily apparent, that bind the pantheon of Western writers together, with the centerpiece his great hero Shakespeare. Bloom has two more books in the works, one a look at the Bible as literature, narrative storehouse and infuence called “The Shadow of a Great Rock: A Literary Appreciation of the King James Bible” due in September. He also has begun work on his next, “Evening of the Imagined Land: Achievements in American Literature.”
 To see a video of an extraordinarily vibrant Bloom, now 80,  talking to Tanenhaus and reciting poetry, click here.