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111-647: Harold Bloom (July 11, 1930 – October 14, 2019) was an American literary critic and the Sterling Professor of humanities at Yale University . In 2017, Bloom was called "probably the most famous literary critic in the English-speaking world". After publishing his first book in 1959, Bloom wrote more than 50 books, including over 40 books of literary criticism , several books discussing religion, and one novel. He edited hundreds of anthologies concerning numerous literary and philosophical figures for

222-511: A God , who could be all-powerful and all-knowing and would allow the Nazi death camps and schizophrenia ." Influenced by his reading, he began a series of books that focused on the way in which poets struggle to create their individual poetic visions without being overcome by the influence of the poets who inspired them to write. The first of these books, Yeats , challenged the conventional critical view of William Butler Yeats 's poetic career. In

333-487: A 1998 New York Times article called him "one of the most gifted of contemporary critics". James Wood wrote: "Vatic, repetitious, imprecisely reverential, though never without a peculiar charm of his own – a kind of campiness, in fact – Bloom as a literary critic in the last few years has been largely unimportant." Bloom responded to questions about Wood in an interview by saying: "There are period pieces in criticism as there are period pieces in

444-567: A 2005 interview, Jeanne said that she and Harold were both atheists , which he denied: "No, no, I'm not an atheist. It's no fun being an atheist." Bloom was the subject of a 1990 article in GQ titled "Bloom in Love", which accused him of having affairs with female graduate students. He called the article a "disgusting piece of character assassination". Bloom's friend and colleague the biographer R. W. B. Lewis said in 1994 that Bloom's "wandering, I gather

555-532: A 2010 population of 129,779, with 47,094 households and 25,854 families within the city of New Haven. The population density was 6,859.8 inhabitants per square mile (2,648.6/km ). There were 52,941 housing units at an average density of 2,808.5 per square mile (1,084.4/km ). The racial makeup of the city was 42.6% White , 35.4% African American , 0.5% Native American , 4.6% Asian , 0.1% Pacific Islander , 12.9% from other races , and 3.9% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race were 27.4% of

666-435: A B.A. degree in classics from Cornell, where he was a student of English literary critic M. H. Abrams , and in 1955 a Ph.D. from Yale. In 1954–55 Bloom was a Fulbright Scholar at Pembroke College, Cambridge . Bloom was a standout student at Yale, where he clashed with the faculty of New Critics , including William K. Wimsatt . Several years later Bloom dedicated his book The Anxiety of Influence to Wimsatt . Bloom

777-608: A Poem (WW Norton, 2012), Bloom indicated the influence Abrams had upon him in his years at Cornell. Bloom's theory of poetic influence regards the development of Western literature as a process of borrowing and misreading. Writers find their creative inspiration in previous writers and begin by imitating them, but must make their own work different from their precursors'. As a result, Bloom argues, authors of real power must inevitably "misread" their precursors to make room for fresh imaginings. Observers often identified Bloom with deconstruction , but he never admitted to sharing more than

888-442: A U.S. Senator and judge on Connecticut's highest court. Daggett denigrated African Americans, denied they were citizens, and presided over the trial of a woman persecuted for trying to admit an African American girl to her boarding school and, having that effort blocked, running a boarding school for African American girls. New Haven was home to one of the important early events in the burgeoning anti-slavery movement when, in 1839,

999-500: A book under the working title Living Labyrinth , centering on Shakespeare and Walt Whitman , which was published as The Anatomy of Influence: Literature as a Way of Life (2011). In July 2011, after the publication of The Anatomy of Influence and after finishing work on The Shadow of a Great Rock , Bloom was working on three further projects: In 1986, Bloom credited Northrop Frye as his nearest precursor. He told Imre Salusinszky in 1986: "In terms of my own theorizations ...

1110-469: A female householder with no husband present, and 45.1% were non-families. 36.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 10.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size 3.19. The ages of New Haven's residents were 25.4% under the age of 18, 16.4% from 18 to 24, 31.2% from 25 to 44, 16.7% from 45 to 64, and 10.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age

1221-418: A few ideas with deconstructionists. He told Robert Moynihan in 1983, "What I think I have in common with the school of deconstruction is the mode of negative thinking or negative awareness, in the technical, philosophical sense of the negative, but which comes to me through negative theology  ... There is no escape, there is simply the given, and there is nothing that we can do." Bloom's association with

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1332-584: A financial services firm, United Illuminating , the electricity distributor for southern Connecticut (NYSE: UIL), and Transpro Inc. (AMEX: TPR). The American division of Assa Abloy (one of the world's leading manufacturers of locks) is located in the city. The Southern New England Telephone Company (SNET) began operations in the city as the District Telephone Company of New Haven in 1878; the company remains headquartered in New Haven as

1443-601: A four-by-four grid , creating the "Nine Square Plan". The central common block is the New Haven Green , a 16-acre (6 ha) square at the center of Downtown New Haven . The Green is now a National Historic Landmark , and the "Nine Square Plan" is recognized by the American Planning Association as a National Planning Landmark. New Haven is the home of Yale University , New Haven's biggest taxpayer and employer, and an integral part of

1554-459: A handful of living writers in English can equal him as a stylist, and most of them are poets ... only Philip Roth consistently writes on Crowley's level". Bloom called Crowley's Little, Big "a neglected masterpiece" and "the most enchanting twentieth-century book I know". He wrote the afterword to a 40th-anniversary edition of the novel. Shortly before his death, Bloom expressed admiration for

1665-602: A hotel, and large shopping complexes. Other parts of the city, particularly the Wooster Square and Fair Haven neighborhoods were affected by the construction of Interstate 95 along the Long Wharf section, Interstate 91 , and the Oak Street Connector . The Oak Street Connector ( Route 34 ), running between Interstate 95, downtown, and The Hill neighborhood, was originally intended as a highway to

1776-502: A list – noted by the general public with widespread interest – of the Western works from antiquity to the present that Bloom considered either permanent members of the canon of literary classics, or candidates for that status. Bloom said that he made the list off the top of his head at his editor's request, and that he did not stand by it. Bloom had a deep appreciation for William Shakespeare , considering him

1887-581: A small trading system of beaver pelts with the local inhabitants, but trade was sporadic and the Dutch did not settle permanently in the area. In 1637, a small party of Puritans did a reconnaissance of the New Haven harbor area and wintered over. In April 1638, the main party of five hundred Puritans, who had left the Massachusetts Bay Colony under the leadership of Reverend John Davenport and London merchant Theophilus Eaton , sailed into

1998-451: A social purpose in their work. Bloom asserted that the goals of reading must be solitary aesthetic pleasure and self-insight rather than the goal of improving one's society held by "forces of resentment". He cast the latter as absurd, writing: "The idea that you benefit the insulted and injured by reading someone of their own origins rather than reading Shakespeare is one of the oddest illusions ever promoted by or in our schools." His position

2109-560: A subsidiary of Frontier Communications and provides telephone service for all but two municipalities in Connecticut. SeeClickFix was founded and has been headquartered in the city since 2007. Peter Paul Candy Manufacturing Company (a candy-making division of the Hershey Company ) was formerly located in the city. Achillion Pharmaceuticals and Alexion Pharmaceuticals were also formerly headquartered in New Haven. New Haven

2220-520: A survey of the major literary works of Europe and the Americas since the 14th century, focuses on 26 works Bloom considers sublime and representative of their nations and of the Western canon . Besides analyses of the canon's various representative works, Bloom's major concern in the volume was to reclaim literature from what he called the " School of Resentment ", the mostly academic critics who espoused

2331-498: A week after the New Haven raid, preserving many of the town's colonial features. New Haven was incorporated as a city in 1784, and Roger Sherman , one of the signers of the Constitution and author of the " Connecticut Compromise ", became the new city's first mayor. The city struck fortune in the late 18th century with the inventions and industrial activity of Eli Whitney , a Yale graduate who remained in New Haven to develop

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2442-438: Is a thing of the past. I hate to say it, but he rather bragged about it, so that wasn't very secret for a number of years." In a 2004 article for New York magazine, Naomi Wolf wrote that while she was an undergraduate student at Yale University in 1983, Bloom attended a dinner with her, saying he would discuss her writing. Instead, she claims that he came on to her, placing his hand on her inner thigh. Bloom "vigorously denied"

2553-605: Is an amendment to Shakespeare: Invention of the Human written after Bloom decided the chapter on Hamlet in the earlier book had been too focused on the textual question of the Ur-Hamlet to cover his most central thoughts on the play itself. Some elements of religious criticism were combined with his secular criticism in Where Shall Wisdom Be Found (2004), and a more complete return to religious criticism

2664-519: Is noted for its local style of pizza . A study of the demographics of the New Haven metro area, based on age, educational attainment, and race and ethnicity, found that they were the closest of any American city to the national average. New Haven's economy originally was based in manufacturing, but the postwar period brought rapid industrial decline ; the entire Northeast was affected, and medium-sized cities with large working-class populations, like New Haven, were hit particularly hard. Simultaneously,

2775-562: Is the death of art." When Doris Lessing received the Nobel Prize in Literature , he bemoaned the "pure political correctness" of the award to an author of "fourth-rate science fiction", while conceding his appreciation of Lessing's earlier work. MormonVoices, a group associated with Foundation for Apologetic Information & Research , included Bloom on its Top Ten Anti-Mormon Statements of 2011 list for saying, "The current head of

2886-574: The 1950s , New Haven began to suffer white flight of middle-class workers. One author suggested that aggressive redlining and rezoning made it difficult for residents to obtain financing for older, deteriorating urban housing stock, thereby condemning such structures to deterioration. In 1954; then-mayor Richard C. Lee began some of the earliest major urban renewal projects in the United States. Certain sections of downtown New Haven were redeveloped to include museums, new office towers,

2997-556: The Chelsea House publishing firm. Bloom's books have been translated into more than 40 languages. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1995. Bloom was a defender of the traditional Western canon at a time when literature departments were focusing on what he derided as the " School of Resentment " (which included multiculturalism , feminism , Marxism , and other ideologies). He

3108-567: The Northeast Corridor and Vermont . The vision for this corridor is to restore the alignment to its original route via the Knowledge Corridor in western Massachusetts , improving trip time and increasing the population base that can be served." Set for construction in 2013, the "Knowledge Corridor high speed intercity passenger rail" project will cost approximately $ 1 billion, and the ultimate northern terminus for

3219-508: The Western canon provoked a substantial interest in his opinion of the relative importance of contemporary writers. In the late 1980s, Bloom told an interviewer: "Probably the most powerful living Western writer is Samuel Beckett . He's certainly the most authentic." Of British writers, Bloom said: " Geoffrey Hill is the strongest British poet now active" and "no other contemporary British novelist seems to me to be of Iris Murdoch 's eminence". After Murdoch died, Bloom expressed admiration for

3330-579: The Yale Corporation capped the number of simultaneous appointments at 27, but further endowment growth allowed this number to expand to 40 by 2011. In addition to currently appointed faculty, a number of former Sterling Professors retain emeritus appointments at the university and continue to teach. The first woman to be named Sterling Professor was cell biologist Marilyn Farquhar, in 1987. After Farquhar left Yale in 1989, Middle English scholar Marie Borroff and geneticist Carolyn Slayman were

3441-549: The Yale Corporation , can be granted to any Yale faculty member, and up to forty professors can hold the title at the same time. The position was established through a 1918 bequest from John William Sterling , and the first Sterling Professor was appointed in 1920. The professorships are named for and funded by a $ 15-million bequest left by John W. Sterling , partner in the New York law firm Shearman & Sterling and an 1864 graduate of Yale College . In addition to financing

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3552-561: The cotton gin and establish a gun-manufacturing factory in the northern part of the city near the Hamden town line. That area is still known as Whitneyville , and the main road through both towns is known as Whitney Avenue. The factory is now the Eli Whitney Museum , which has a particular emphasis on activities for children and exhibits pertaining to the A. C. Gilbert Company . His factory, along with that of Simeon North , and

3663-639: The town was renamed New Haven, with ' haven ' meaning harbor or port. However, the area to the north remained Quinnipiac until 1678, when it was renamed Hamden . The settlement became the headquarters of the New Haven Colony , distinct from the Connecticut Colony previously established to the north centering on Hartford . Reflecting its theocratic roots, the New Haven Colony forbade the establishment of other churches, whereas

3774-506: The "twentieth-century American Sublime", the greatest works of American art produced in the 20th century. Playwright Tony Kushner sees Bloom as an important influence on his work. Bloom's work has drawn polarized responses, even among established literary scholars. Bloom was called "probably the most celebrated literary critic in the United States" and "America's best-known man of letters". A 1994 New York Times article said that many younger critics see Bloom as an "outdated oddity", whereas

3885-462: The 1960s through the late 1990s, central areas of New Haven continued to decline both economically and in terms of population despite attempts to resurrect certain neighborhoods through renewal projects. In conjunction with its declining population, New Haven experienced a steep rise in its crime rate . Since approximately 2000, many parts of downtown New Haven have been revitalized with new restaurants, nightlife, and small retail stores. In particular,

3996-702: The Civil Rights Act of 1964 . As a result, a district court subsequently ordered the city to promote 14 of the white firefighters. In 2010 and 2011, state and federal funds were awarded to Connecticut (and Massachusetts) to construct the Hartford Line , with a southern terminus at New Haven's Union Station and a northern terminus at Springfield's Union Station. According to the White House , "This corridor [currently] has one train per day connecting communities in Connecticut and Massachusetts to

4107-524: The Connecticut Colony permitted them. Economic disaster struck New Haven in 1646, when the town sent its first fully loaded ship of local goods (the "Great Shippe") back to England. It never reached its destination, and its disappearance hindered New Haven's development as compared to the rising trade powers of Boston and New Amsterdam (modern day New York ). In 1660, Colony founder John Davenport's wishes were fulfilled, and Hopkins School

4218-561: The High Romantics against neo-Christian critics influenced by such writers as T. S. Eliot , who became a recurring intellectual foil. Bloom had a contentious approach: his first book, Shelley's Myth-making , charged many contemporary critics with sheer carelessness in their reading of the poet. After a personal crisis during the late 1960s, Bloom became deeply interested in Ralph Waldo Emerson , Sigmund Freud , and

4329-960: The Human (1998), Bloom provided an analysis of each of Shakespeare's 38 plays, "twenty-four of which are masterpieces". Written as a companion to the general reader and theater-goer, Bloom declared that bardolatry "ought to be even more a secular religion than it already is". He also contended in the work that Shakespeare "invented" humanity, in that he prescribed the now-common practice of "overhearing" ourselves, which drives our changes. The two paragons of his theory were Sir John Falstaff of Henry IV and Hamlet , whom Bloom saw as representing self-satisfaction and self-loathing, respectively. These two characters, Iago , and Cleopatra Bloom believed (citing A. C. Bradley ) are "the four Shakespearean characters most inexhaustible to meditation". Throughout Shakespeare , characters from disparate plays are imagined alongside and interacting with each other. Contemporary academics and critics decried this as harking back to

4440-559: The Mormon Church, Thomas S. Monson , known to his followers as 'prophet, seer and revelator', is indistinguishable from the secular plutocratic oligarchs who exercise power in our supposed democracy." This was despite Bloom's sympathy for Joseph Smith , the founding prophet of Mormonism , whom he called a "religious genius". Sterling Professor The appointment, made by the President of Yale University and confirmed by

4551-561: The Style of our Age" and that "each has composed canonical works", he identified them as Thomas Pynchon , Philip Roth , Cormac McCarthy , and Don DeLillo . He named their respective masterpieces as The Crying of Lot 49 , Gravity's Rainbow and Mason & Dixon ; Sabbath's Theater and American Pastoral ; Blood Meridian ; and Underworld . He added to this estimate the work of John Crowley , with special interest in his Aegypt Sequence and novel Little, Big , saying, "only

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4662-779: The allegation. Bloom never retired from teaching, swearing that he would need to be removed from the classroom "in a great big body bag". He had open heart surgery in 2002 and broke his back after a fall in 2008. He died at a hospital in New Haven, Connecticut , on October 14, 2019. He was 89 years old. Bloom began his career with a sequence of highly regarded monographs on Percy Bysshe Shelley ( Shelley's Myth-making , Yale University Press , originally Bloom's doctoral dissertation), William Blake ( Blake's Apocalypse , Doubleday ), W. B. Yeats ( Yeats , Oxford University Press ), and Wallace Stevens ( Wallace Stevens: The Poems of Our Climate , Cornell University Press ). In these, he defended

4773-403: The ancient mystic traditions of Gnosticism , Kabbalah , and Hermeticism . In a 2003 interview with Bloom, Michael Pakenham , the book editor for The Baltimore Sun , noted that Bloom had long called himself a "Jewish Gnostic". Bloom responded: "I am using 'Gnostic' in a very broad way. I am nothing if not Jewish... I really am a product of Yiddish culture. But I can't understand a Yahweh , or

4884-491: The area surrounding the New Haven Green has experienced an influx of apartments and condominiums. In addition, two new supermarkets opened to serve downtown's growing residential population: a Stop & Shop opened just west of downtown, while Elm City Market, located one block from the Green, opened in 2011. The recent turnaround of downtown New Haven has received positive press from various periodicals. Major projects include

4995-465: The biblical Bathsheba . In Jesus and Yahweh: The Names Divine (2004), he revisits some of the territory covered in The Book of J in discussing the significance of Yahweh and Jesus of Nazareth as literary characters, while casting a critical eye on historical approaches and asserting the fundamental incompatibility of Christianity and Judaism . In The American Religion (1992), Bloom surveyed

5106-522: The central square was left open, in the tradition of many New England towns, as the city green (a commons area). The city also instituted the first public tree planting program in America. As in other cities, many of the elms that gave New Haven the nickname "Elm City" perished in the mid-20th century due to Dutch elm disease , although many have since been replanted. The New Haven Green is currently home to three separate historic churches which speak to

5217-447: The city's economy. Health care, professional and financial services and retail trade also contribute to the city's economic activity. The city served as co-capital of Connecticut from 1701 until 1873, when sole governance was transferred to the more centrally located city of Hartford . New Haven has since billed itself as the "Cultural Capital of Connecticut" for its supply of established theaters, museums, and music venues. New Haven had

5328-515: The city's first settlement , opened in 1900. New Haven's expansion continued during the two World Wars, with most new inhabitants being African Americans from the American South , and Puerto Ricans . The city reached its peak population after World War II . The area of New Haven is only 17 square miles (44 km ), encouraging further development of new housing after 1950 in adjacent, suburban towns. Moreover, as in other U.S. cities in

5439-565: The city's neighborhoods, including Wintergreen Brook, the Beaver Ponds Outlet, Wilmot Brook, Belden Brook, and Prospect Creek. Not all of these small streams have continuous flow year-round. According to the Köppen classification , New Haven experiences a humid subtropical climate ( Cfa ), bordering a hot-summer humid continental climate ( Dfa ). The city has hot, humid summers and cool to cold winters. From May to late September,

5550-554: The city's western suburbs but was only completed as a highway to the downtown area, with the area to the west becoming a boulevard (See "Redevelopment" below). In 1970, a series of criminal prosecutions against various members of the Black Panther Party took place in New Haven, inciting mass protests on the New Haven Green involving twelve thousand demonstrators and many well-known New Left political activists. (See "Political Culture" below for more information). From

5661-608: The city. The city has many distinct neighborhoods. In addition to Downtown, centered on the central business district and the Green , are the following neighborhoods: the west central neighborhoods of Dixwell and Dwight ; the southern neighborhoods of The Hill , historic water-front City Point (or Oyster Point), and the harborside district of Long Wharf ; the western neighborhoods of Beaver Hills , Edgewood , West River , Westville , Amity , and West Rock-Westhills ; East Rock , Cedar Hill , Prospect Hill , and Newhallville in

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5772-463: The city. In 2017, New Haven was ranked by a Verizon study as one of the top 10 cities in America for launching tech startups, and top two in New England. Industry sectors : Agriculture (.6%), Construction and Mining (4.9%), Manufacturing (2.9%), Transportation and Utilities (2.9%), Trade (21.7%), Finance and Real Estate (7.1%), Services (55.9%), Government (4.0%) The Knights of Columbus ,

5883-480: The city. The suit involved the 2003 promotion test for the New Haven Fire Department. After the tests were scored, no black firefighters scored high enough to qualify for consideration for promotion, so the city announced that no one would be promoted. In the subsequent Ricci v. DeStefano decision the court found 5–4 that New Haven's decision to ignore the test results violated Title VII of

5994-713: The colonial militia alongside regular British forces, including the French and Indian War . As the American Revolution approached, General David Wooster and other influential residents hoped that the conflict with the British parliament could be resolved short of rebellion. On April 23, 1775, Captain Benedict Arnold commanded the Second Company, Governor's Foot Guard , of New Haven to break into

6105-588: The coming year. Additionally, foundation and ramp work to widen I-95 to create a new harbor crossing for New Haven, with an extradosed bridge to replace the 1950s-era Q Bridge , has begun. The city still hopes to redevelop the site of the New Haven Coliseum , which was demolished in 2007. In April 2009, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear a suit over reverse discrimination brought by 18 white firefighters against

6216-527: The course of their careers. A Map of Misreading picks up where The Anxiety of Influence left off, making several adjustments to Bloom's system of revisionary ratios. Kabbalah and Criticism attempts to invoke the esoteric interpretive system of the Lurianic Kabbalah , as explicated by scholar Gershom Scholem , as an alternate system of mapping the path of poetic influence. Figures of Capable Imagination collected odd pieces Bloom had written in

6327-416: The current construction of a new campus for Gateway Community College downtown, and also a 32-story, 500-unit apartment/retail building called 360 State Street . The 360 State Street project is now occupied and is the largest residential building in Connecticut. A new boathouse and dock is planned for New Haven Harbor, and the linear park Farmington Canal Trail is set to extend into downtown New Haven within

6438-414: The early 19th century, was a short-lived transporter of goods into the interior regions of Connecticut and Massachusetts, and ran from New Haven to Northampton, Massachusetts . New Haven was to be the site of the first college for African Americans in the United States, but the plan was obstructed by efforts led by Yale Law School founder and former New Haven Mayor David Daggett , who went on to serve as

6549-539: The first public tree planting program in the U.S., producing a canopy of mature trees (including some large elms ) that gave the city the nickname "The Elm City". Before Europeans arrived, the New Haven area was the home of the Quinnipiac tribe of Native Americans , who lived in villages around the harbor and sustained an economy of local fisheries and the farming of maize . The area was briefly visited by Dutch explorer Adriaen Block in 1614. Dutch traders set up

6660-529: The generation following those three. He expressed great admiration for the Canadian poets Anne Carson , particularly her verse novel Autobiography of Red , and A. F. Moritz , whom Bloom called "a true poet". Bloom also listed Jay Wright as one of only a handful of major living poets and the best living American poet after Ashbery's death. Bloom's introduction to Modern Critical Interpretations: Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow (1986) features his canon of

6771-604: The growth and expansion of Yale University further affected the economic shift. Today, over half (56%) of the city's economy is now made up of services, in particular education and health care; Yale is the city's largest employer, followed by Yale – New Haven Hospital . Other large employers include Southern Connecticut State University , Assa Abloy lock manufacturing, the Knights of Columbus headquarters, Higher One, Alexion Pharmaceuticals , Covidien and United Illuminating . Clothing stores Gant and Ann Taylor were founded in

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6882-486: The harbor. It was their hope to set up a theological community with the government more closely linked to the church than that in Massachusetts, and to exploit the area's potential as a port. The Quinnipiacs, who were under attack by neighboring Pequots , sold their land to the settlers in return for a pledge of protection. By 1640, "Quinnipiac's" theocratic government and nine-square grid plan were in place, and

6993-494: The introduction to this volume, Bloom set out the basic principles of his new approach to criticism: "Poetic influence, as I conceive it, is a variety of melancholy or the anxiety-principle." New poets become inspired to write because they have read and admired previous poets, but this admiration turns into resentment when the new poets discover that the poets they idolized have already said everything they wish to say. The poets become disappointed because they "cannot be Adam early in

7104-538: The largest city in the South Central Connecticut Planning Region , and the principal municipality of Greater New Haven , which had a total population of 864,835 in 2020. Prior to 1960, it was the county seat of New Haven County until the county governments were abolished that year. New Haven was one of the first planned cities in the U.S. A year after its founding by English Puritans in 1638, eight streets were laid out in

7215-612: The lively clock-making and brass hardware sectors, contributed to making early Connecticut a powerful manufacturing economy; so many arms manufacturers sprang up that the state became known as "The Arsenal of America". It was in Whitney's gun-manufacturing plant that Samuel Colt invented the automatic revolver in 1836. Many other talented machinists and firearms designers would go on to found successful firearms manufacturing companies in New Haven, including Oliver Winchester and O.F. Mossberg & Sons . The Farmington Canal , created in

7326-768: The local economy with wartime purchases of industrial goods, including that of the New Haven Arms Company , which would later become the Winchester Repeating Arms Company . (Winchester would continue to produce arms in New Haven until 2006, and many of the buildings that were a part of the Winchester plant are now a part of the Winchester Repeating Arms Company Historic District ). After the war, population grew and doubled by

7437-604: The major varieties of Protestant and post-Protestant religious faiths that originated in the United States and argued that, in terms of their psychological hold on their adherents, most had more in common with gnosticism than with historical Christianity. The exception was the Jehovah's Witnesses , whom Bloom regards as non-Gnostic. He elsewhere predicted that the Mormon and Pentecostal strains of American Christianity would overtake mainstream Protestant divisions in popularity in

7548-409: The morning. There have been too many Adams, and they have named everything." In order to evade this psychological obstacle, according to Bloom, poets must be convinced that earlier poets have gone wrong somewhere and failed in their vision, thus leaving open the possibility that they have something to add to the tradition. Poets' love for their heroes turns into antagonism toward them: "Initial love for

7659-529: The next few decades. In Omens of Millennium (1996), Bloom identifies these American religious elements as on the periphery of an old – and not inherently Christian – gnostic, religious tradition that invokes a complex of ideas and experiences concerning angelology , interpretation of dreams as prophecy , near-death experiences , and millennialism . In his essay in The Gospel of Thomas , Bloom writes that none of Thomas's Aramaic sayings have survived in

7770-521: The next women appointed, in 1991. Among the youngest appointees were John Farquhar Fulton , made Sterling Professor of Physiology in 1929 at age 30, and later-U.S Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas , appointed in 1932 at the age of 33. Joan Steitz and Thomas Steitz , biochemists appointed in 1999 and 2001 respectively, were the first married couple to have both held the appointment. In 2021, Michael Della Rocca and Christine Hayes , professors of philosophy and religious studies, respectively, became

7881-613: The northeast and northwest of the city core. These trap rocks are known respectively as East Rock and West Rock , and both serve as extensive parks. West Rock has been tunneled through to make way for the east–west passage of the Wilbur Cross Parkway (the only highway tunnel through a natural obstacle in Connecticut), and once served as the hideout of the " Regicides " (see: Regicides Trail ). Most New Haveners refer to these men as "The Three Judges". East Rock features

7992-536: The northern side of town; the east central neighborhoods of Mill River and Wooster Square , an Italian-American neighborhood; Fair Haven , an immigrant community located between the Mill and Quinnipiac rivers; Quinnipiac Meadows and Fair Haven Heights across the Quinnipiac River; and facing the eastern side of the harbor, The Annex and East Shore (or Morris Cove). The U.S. Census Bureau reports

8103-425: The novel and in poetry. The wind blows and they will go away... There's nothing to the man... I don't want to talk about him". In the early 21st century, Bloom often found himself at the center of literary controversy after criticizing popular writers such as Adrienne Rich , Maya Angelou , and David Foster Wallace . In the pages of The Paris Review , he criticized the populist -leaning poetry slam , saying: "It

8214-543: The novelists Peter Ackroyd , Will Self , John Banville , and A. S. Byatt . In Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds (2003), he called the Portuguese writer José Saramago "the most gifted novelist alive in the world today" and "one of the last titans of an expiring literary genre". Of American novelists, Bloom said in 2003, "there are four living American novelists I know of who are still at work and who deserve our praise". Saying that "they write

8325-621: The original language. Marvin Meyer generally agreed and further confirmed that the earlier versions of that text were likely written in either Aramaic or Greek. Meyer ends his introduction with an endorsement of much of Bloom's essay. Bloom notes the otherworldliness of the Jesus in Thomas's sayings by making reference to "the paradox also of the American Jesus". The Western Canon (1994),

8436-541: The original theocratic nature of the city. The Green remains the social center of the city today. It was named a National Historic Landmark in 1970. Downtown New Haven , occupied by nearly 7,000 residents, has a more residential character than most downtowns. The downtown area provides about half of the city's jobs and half of its tax base and in recent years has become filled with dozens of new upscale restaurants, in addition to shops and thousands of apartments and condominium units which subsequently help overall growth of

8547-426: The others. None of the three were ever returned to England for trial; Dixwell died of old age in New Haven, the others likewise elsewhere in New England. In 1664, New Haven became part of the Connecticut Colony when the two colonies were merged under political pressure from England. Seeking to establish a new theocracy elsewhere, some members of the New Haven Colony went on to establish Newark, New Jersey . New Haven

8658-483: The out-of-fashion character criticism of Bradley (and others), who are explicitly praised in the book. As in The Western Canon , Bloom criticizes what he calls the "School of Resentment" for its failure to live up to the challenge of Shakespeare's universality and for balkanizing the study of literature through multicultural and historicist departments. Asserting Shakespeare's singular popularity throughout

8769-411: The past, including 1938 Hurricane ( Long Island Express ), Hurricane Carol in 1954, Hurricane Gloria in 1985. The hardiness zone is 7a. New Haven has a long tradition of urban planning and a purposeful design for the city's layout. The city could be argued to have some of the first preconceived layouts in the country. Upon founding, New Haven was laid out in a grid plan of nine square blocks;

8880-694: The patience to read anything by Frye" and nominated Angus Fletcher among his living contemporaries as his "critical guide and conscience". Elsewhere that year, he recommended Fletcher's Colors of the Mind and M. H. Abrams 's The Mirror and the Lamp . In this late phase, Bloom also emphasized the tradition of earlier critics such as William Hazlitt , Ralph Waldo Emerson , Walter Pater , A. C. Bradley , and Samuel Johnson , describing Johnson in The Western Canon as "unmatched by any critic in any nation before or after him". In his 2012 foreword to The Fourth Dimension of

8991-463: The population were living below the poverty line , including 32.2% of those under age 18 and 17.9% of those age 65 or over. It is estimated that 14% of New Haven residents are pedestrian commuters, ranking it number four by highest percentage in the United States. This is primarily due to New Haven's small area and the presence of Yale University . New Haven is noted for having the highest percentage of Italian American residents of any US city, and

9102-484: The population. Non-Hispanic Whites were 31.8% of the population in 2010, down from 69.6% in 1970. The city's Latino population is growing rapidly. Previous influxes among ethnic groups have been African-Americans in the postwar era, and Irish, Italian and (to a lesser degree) Slavic peoples in the prewar period. As of the 2010 census, of the 47,094 households, 29.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 27.5% include married couples living together, 22.9% had

9213-627: The powder house to arm themselves for a three-day march to Cambridge, Massachusetts , an event still celebrated in New Haven as Powder House Day . Other New Haven militia members were on hand to escort George Washington from his overnight stay in New Haven on his way to Cambridge. Contemporary reports, from both sides, remark on the New Haven volunteers' professional military bearing, including uniforms. On July 5, 1779, 2,600 loyalists and British regulars under General William Tryon , governor of New York, landed in New Haven Harbor and raided

9324-593: The precursor proper has to be Northrop Frye. I purchased and read Fearful Symmetry a week or two after it had come out and reached the bookstore in Ithaca, New York. It ravished my heart away. I have tried to find an alternative father in Mr. Kenneth Burke , who is a charming fellow and a very powerful critic, but I don't come from Burke, I come out of Frye." But in Anatomy of Influence (2011), Bloom wrote, "I no longer have

9435-566: The precursor's poetry is transformed rapidly enough into revisionary strife, without which individuation is not possible." The book that followed Yeats , The Anxiety of Influence , which Bloom started writing in 1967, drew upon the example of Walter Jackson Bate 's The Burden of the Past and The English Poet and recast in systematic psychoanalytic form Bate's historicized account of the despair 17th- and 18th-century poets felt about their inability to equal their predecessors. Bloom attempted to trace

9546-399: The process of composing his "influence" books. Bloom continued to write about influence theory throughout the 1970s and '80s, and penned little thereafter that did not invoke his ideas about influence. Bloom's fascination with David Lindsay 's fantasy novel A Voyage to Arcturus led him to take a brief break from criticism to compose a sequel to it. This novel, The Flight to Lucifer ,

9657-674: The project is reported to be Montreal in Canada. Train speeds between will reportedly exceed 110 miles per hour (180 km/h) and increase both cities' rail traffic exponentially. According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 20.1 square miles (52.1 km ), of which 18.7 square miles (48.4 km ) is land and 1.4 square miles (3.7 km ), or 6.67%, is water. New Haven's best-known geographic features are its large, shallow harbor, and two reddish basalt trap rock ridges which rise to

9768-514: The prominent Soldiers and Sailors war monument on its peak as well as the "Great/Giant Steps" which run up the rock's cliffside. The city is drained by three rivers; the West , Mill , and Quinnipiac , named in order from west to east. The West River discharges into West Haven Harbor, while the Mill and Quinnipiac rivers discharge into New Haven Harbor. Both harbors are embayments of Long Island Sound . In addition, several smaller streams flow through

9879-425: The psychological process by which poets broke free from their precursors to achieve their own poetic visions. He drew a sharp distinction between "strong poets", who perform "strong misreadings" of their precursors, and "weak poets", who merely repeat their precursors' ideas as though following a kind of doctrine. He described this process in terms of a sequence of "revisionary ratios", through which strong poets pass in

9990-589: The second married couple to be named Sterling Professors. New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in New Haven County, Connecticut , United States. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound and is part of the New York City metropolitan area . With a population of 135,081 as determined by the 2020 U.S. census , New Haven is the third largest city in Connecticut after Bridgeport and Stamford ,

10101-456: The start of the 20th century, most notably due to the influx of immigrants from southern Europe, particularly Italy. Today, roughly half the populations of East Haven, West Haven, and North Haven are Italian-American . Jewish immigration to New Haven has left an enduring mark on the city. Westville was the center of Jewish life in New Haven, though today many have fanned out to suburban communities such as Woodbridge and Cheshire. Lowell House ,

10212-519: The supreme center of the Western canon. The first edition of The Anxiety of Influence almost completely avoided Shakespeare, whom Bloom then considered barely touched by the psychological drama of anxiety. The second edition, published in 1997, added a long preface that mostly expounded Shakespeare's debt to Ovid and Chaucer , and his agon with Christopher Marlowe , who set the stage for him by breaking free of ecclesiastical and moralizing overtones. In his later survey, Shakespeare: The Invention of

10323-513: The town of 3,500. A militia of Yale students had been preparing for battle, and former Yale president and Yale Divinity School professor Naphtali Daggett rode out to confront the Redcoats. Yale president Ezra Stiles recounted in his diary that while he moved furniture in anticipation of battle, he still couldn't quite believe the revolution had begun. New Haven was not torched as the invaders did with Danbury in 1777, or Fairfield and Norwalk

10434-589: The trial of mutineering Mende tribesmen being transported as slaves on the Spanish slaveship Amistad was held in New Haven's United States District Court . There is a statue of Joseph Cinqué , the informal leader of the slaves, beside City Hall. See "Museums" below for more information. Abraham Lincoln delivered a speech on slavery in New Haven in 1860, shortly before he secured the Republican nomination for President . The American Civil War boosted

10545-422: The university more than $ 5 million for this purpose—about $ 225,000 per chair. The first Sterling Professor was chemist John Johnston , who was awarded the rank in 1920, and was joined later that year by school administrator Frank E. Spaulding, biochemist Lafayette Mendel , and astronomer Ernest William Brown . By the mid-1920s, the endowment allowed eighteen Sterling Professors to be appointed. In 1958,

10656-498: The university's largest construction projects throughout the 1920s, including the Sterling Memorial Library and flagship facilities for many of its professional schools, Sterling stipulated the bequest would allow "to some extent, the foundation of Scholarships, Fellowships or Lectureships, the endowment of new professorships and the establishment of special funds for prizes." Sterling's trustees eventually left

10767-543: The weather is typically hot and humid, with average temperatures exceeding 80 °F (27 °C) on 70 days per year. In summer, the Bermuda High creates as southern flow of warm and humid air, with frequent (but brief) thundershowers. October to early December is normally mild to cool late in the season, while early spring (April) can be cool to warm. Winters are more variable, with cool to cold temperatures, mixed with warmer spells, with both rain and snow fall. While

10878-443: The weather patterns that affect New Haven result from a primarily offshore direction, thus reducing the marine influence of Long Island Sound, the location on Long Island Sound often influences the weather along the coastline compared to inland. During summer heat waves, temperatures may reach 95 °F (35 °C) or higher on occasion with heat-index values of over 100 °F (38 °C). Tropical cyclones have struck New Haven in

10989-482: The work of a great literary artist who had no intention of composing a dogmatically religious work (see Jahwist ). They envisaged this anonymous writer as a woman attached to the court of the successors of the Israelite kings David and Solomon  – a piece of speculation that drew much attention. Later, Bloom said that the speculations did not go far enough, and perhaps he should have identified J with

11100-400: The works of Joshua Cohen , William Giraldi , and Nell Freudenberger . In Kabbalah and Criticism (1975), Bloom identified Robert Penn Warren , James Merrill , John Ashbery , and Elizabeth Bishop as the most important living American poets. By the 1990s, he regularly named A. R. Ammons along with Ashbery and Merrill, and he later identified Henri Cole as the crucial American poet of

11211-640: The world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization and a Fortune 1000 company, is headquartered in New Haven. Amphenol , based in Greater New Haven ( Wallingford ), is a Fortune 100 company. Eight Courant 100 companies are based in Greater New Haven, with four headquartered in New Haven proper. New Haven-based companies traded on stock exchanges include NewAlliance Bank , the second largest bank in Connecticut and fourth-largest in New England (NYSE: NAL), Higher One Holdings (NYSE: ONE),

11322-483: The world, Bloom proclaims him the only truly multicultural author. Repudiating the "social energies" to which historicists ascribed Shakespeare's authorship, Bloom pronounced his modern academic foes – and all of society – to be but "a parody of Shakespearean energies". Bloom consolidated his work on the Western canon with the publication of How to Read and Why (2000) and Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds (2003). Hamlet: Poem Unlimited (also 2003)

11433-444: Was 29 years, which was significantly lower than the national average. There were 91.8 males per 100 females. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.6 males. The median income for a household in the city was $ 29,604, and the median income for a family was $ 35,950. Median income for males was $ 33,605, compared with $ 28,424 for females. The per capita income for the city was $ 16,393. About 20.5% of families and 24.4% of

11544-608: Was Bloom's only work of fiction. Bloom then entered a phase of what he called "religious criticism", beginning with Ruin the Sacred Truths: Poetry and Belief from the Bible to the Present (1989). In The Book of J (1990), he and David Rosenberg (who translated the biblical texts) portrayed one of the posited ancient documents that formed the basis of the first five books of the Bible (see documentary hypothesis ) as

11655-703: Was a member of the Yale English Department from 1955 to 2019, teaching his final class four days before his death. He received a MacArthur Fellowship in 1985. From 1988 to 2004, Bloom was Berg Professor of English at New York University while maintaining his position at Yale. In 2010, he became a founding patron of Ralston College , a new institution in Savannah, Georgia , that focuses on primary texts. Fond of endearments , Bloom addressed both male and female students and friends as "my dear". Bloom married Jeanne Gould in 1958. They had two children. In

11766-583: Was born in Odesa and his Lithuanian Jewish mother, a homemaker, near Brest Litovsk in what is today Belarus . Harold had three older sisters and an older brother. He was the last living sibling. As a boy, Bloom read Hart Crane 's Collected Poems , a collection that inspired his lifelong fascination with poetry. Bloom went to the Bronx High School of Science , where his grades were poor but his standardized-test scores were high. In 1951 he received

11877-521: Was educated at Yale University , the University of Cambridge , and Cornell University . Bloom was born in New York City on July 11, 1930, to Paula (née Lev) and William Bloom. He lived in the Bronx at 1410 Grand Concourse . He was raised as an Orthodox Jew in a Yiddish -speaking household, where he learned literary Hebrew ; he learned English at the age of six. Bloom's father, a garment worker,

11988-525: Was founded in New Haven with money from the estate of Edward Hopkins . In 1661, the Regicides who had signed the death warrant of Charles I of England were pursued by Charles II . Two of them, Colonel Edward Whalley and Colonel William Goffe , fled to New Haven for refuge. Davenport arranged for them to hide in the West Rock hills northwest of the town. A third judge, John Dixwell , later joined

12099-489: Was made co- capital of Connecticut in 1701, a status it retained until 1873. In 1716, the Collegiate School relocated from Old Saybrook to New Haven, establishing it as a center of learning. In 1718, in response to a large donation from East India Company merchant Elihu Yale , former Governor of Madras , the Collegiate School was renamed Yale College . For over a century, New Haven citizens had fought in

12210-537: Was marked by the publication of Jesus and Yahweh: The Names Divine (2005). Throughout the decade he also compiled, edited and introduced several major anthologies of poetry. Bloom took part in Paul Festa 's 2006 documentary Apparition of the Eternal Church . It centers on people's reactions to hearing for the first time Olivier Messiaen 's organ piece Apparition de l'église éternelle . Bloom began

12321-424: Was that politics had no place in literary criticism: that a feminist or Marxist reading of Hamlet would tell us something about feminism and Marxism but probably nothing about Hamlet . In addition to considering how much influence a writer had had on later writers, Bloom proposed the concept of "canonical strangeness" (cf. uncanny ) as a benchmark of a literary work's merit. The Western Canon also included

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