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Harold Bloom GRD ‘55, the Sterling Professor of English and a Yale icon who championed and staunchly defended the Western canon, died on Monday at a New Haven hospital.

The 89-year-old literary critic wrote over forty books in his lifetime and attained widespread academic recognition for his innovative interpretations of poetry. Bloom was known as a “lone warrior in the literary world,” according to a 2003 Atlantic article, because of his passionate defense of romantic poetry.

At Yale, Bloom is teaching two Humanities classes for undergraduates this semester: “Shakespeare and the Canon: Histories, Comedies, and Poems” and “Poetic Influence from Shakespeare to Keats.” He taught his last class at Yale on October 10, 2019.

Bloom joined the Yale faculty over 50 years earlier.

 

Matt Kristofferson | matthew.kristofferson@yale.edu

Valerie Pavilonis | valerie.pavilonis@yale.edu

 

MATT KRISTOFFERSEN
VALERIE PAVILONIS