Harold Bloom

Harold Bloom is a professor of literature at Yale University, and an esteemed literary critic. He began his career with "The Anxiety of Influence" in 1972, and his books have explicated the experience of creativity and the relationship between artists throughout western history. Bloom has entered into the controversy about the value of literature and the political uses of imaginative work, but in "How to Read and Why", he leaves politics aside, and celebrates the pleasures and difficult pleasures of reading.

William Shakespeare

Bloom considers William Shakespeare the ultimate writer. Little is known about the author himself, but the works—from the sonnets through the history plays and tragedies, reveal an enormously playful sensibility that is marked by a deep affection for human individual and the possibility of change and growth. According to Bloom, the ability to develop as a person was effectively invented by Shakespeare, and...