Harold bloom studied at Cornell University and Yale University successively, and received his doctorate. 1955 has been teaching at Yale university. Early romantic poetry research published monographs on British and American poets, such as Blake, Shelley, Ye Zhi and Stevens. Bloom's in-depth study of English romantic poets in the 1960s has shaken the dominant position of American academic circles in criticizing T S Eliot's conservative formalism. In the early 1970s, he turned to the study of general literary theory, and was called the four major critics of Yale together with De Man, Hartman and Miller. He updated his understanding of literary tradition with the anxiety theory of poetry misunderstanding and influence. After 1990s, he turned to Bible and religious studies.
1973 "anxiety of influence" was published, "knocking everyone's nerves with a little book", which caused great repercussions in American critics.
The main research fields include poetry criticism, theoretical criticism and religious criticism. With his unique theoretical construction and critical practice, he is known as "the most talented, original and inflammatory literary critic in western tradition".