But who is to undertake the formidable task of reading all 750 poems anthologized in The Best American Poetry and picking the 75 "best of the best"? Series editor David Lehman writes that "since poets have done the selecting for the individual volumes, I thought to entrust this new task to a critic — preferably a fearless and influential one, with strong opinions, sophisticated taste, and a passion for poetry that matches any poet's."
That critic is Harold Bloom, author of The Anxiety of Influence and, more recently, The Western Canon. Undoubtedly one of the best-known critics of our age, Bloom precedes his selections with a compelling and highly provocative essay on the state of American letters, in which he fiercely champions the endangered realm of the aesthetic over the politically correct, announcing his "obligation to help (if that I can) make it possible for another Elizabeth Bishop or May Swenson or James Merrill to develop without being impeded by ideological demands." The seventy-five poems Bloom has chosen go a long way toward defining a contemporary canon of American poetry.
Included are unforgettable poems from the poets mentioned above and from A. R. Ammons, John Ashbery, Louise Glück, Jorie Graham, Mark Strand, and Richard Wilbur, among many others. Diverse in form, style, method, and metaphor, the poems are united in their power to move and enlighten readers. Here is American poetry at its most memorable.
Also included are comments from the poets themselves about their work and fascinating excerpts from the introductory essays of the ten previous editors. The Best of the Best American Poetry reflects not only the taste of the current editor, but the predilections of the all-star list of poets who have contributed their time and intellect to make this series what it is today: a "valuable, invaluable, supervaluable" (Beloit Poetry Journal) record of an ever-changing, always exciting art.
- Harold Bloom, Editor
- Harold Bloom was born in the Bronx in 1930. He is Sterling Professor of Humanities at Yale University and Berg Professor of English at New York University. In his first book, Shelley's Mythmaking (1959), Bloom made a spirited case for a poet then out of favor with the academic critical establishment. His subsequent books include The Visionary Company (1961), The Anxiety of Influence (1973), A Map of Misreading (1975), Poetry and Repression (1976), and The Western Canon (1994). He has edited numerous volumes, including several hundred critical studies of major authors that appear under the Chelsea House imprint. Ruin the Sacred Truths (1989) presents the lectures Bloom delivered as the Charles Eliot Norton Professor at Harvard. In The Book of J (1990), Bloom speculated that the author of the oldest portions of the Hebrew Bible may have been a woman in the court of King Solomon. He has also written on religion in two other books, The American Religion (1992) and Omens of Millennium: The Gnosis of Angels, Dreams, and Resurrection (1996). Bloom, who has held a MacArthur Fellowship, is currently finishing a study of Shakespeare under the title Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human.