Althouse: "He read 'Moby-Dick' at 9. He could devour 400-page books in an hour. He had a photographic memory."

June 7, 2026

"He read 'Moby-Dick' at 9. He could devour 400-page books in an hour. He had a photographic memory."

"As an after-dinner party game, he liked to recite 'Paradise Lost,' starting from any line a tipsy guest chose."

Writes Dwight Garner, in "Inside the Mind of the ‘Man Who Read Everything’/A collection of Harold Bloom’s letters details the working life of one of America’s most influential intellects" (NYT).

17 comments:

john mosby said...: Pro tip: don't put 'Dick' and 'devour' too close to each other if you are trying to praise someone. CC, JSM; 6/7/26, 6:53 PM
Josephbleau said...: I did not read the NYT article because it demands email, but Bloom’s “Western Canon” and the “Anxiety of Influence” introduced me, who Clep tested out of humanities due to great hs English I-IV classes, to what literature is. I even read a complete Shakespeare. Hurra for Bloom and his love for fine literature.; 6/7/26, 7:14 PM
Lazarus said...: So he claimed anyway ...

One can devour a book without necessarily reading every word.; 6/7/26, 7:15 PM
Assistant Village Idiot said...: CS Lewis would do the same from any book in his Oxford library, and loved to challenge students to see if they could catch him up. There are people who can just do such things; 6/7/26, 7:45 PM
Josephbleau said...: In hs I was assigned to memorize the prolog to the Canterbury Tales in Middle English. I can still say it today in perfect accent. You remember what you like, what you learn in reinforcement.; 6/7/26, 8:10 PM
Josephbleau said...: I am sure there are many in China who can recite verbatim from Mao’s red book.; 6/7/26, 8:13 PM
bagoh20 said...: I think I can recite the Pledge of Allegiance, but only in bell bottoms and tie dye.; 6/7/26, 8:22 PM
Josephbleau said...: For some reason I read “All Quiet on thr Western Front” at 10 and all my adult relatives thought I was a pervert. Çest la vie.; 6/7/26, 8:34 PM
Wince said...: Sure, but can he count dropped toothpicks instantly by sight?; 6/7/26, 10:14 PM
Jupiter said...: Inna-gadda-da-vida, baby!; 6/7/26, 10:46 PM
mccullough said...: Sounds like bullshit.; 6/7/26, 10:56 PM
Ampersand said...: I've met prodigiously talented people. Exceptional talents come with a cost. There seems to be a distance from others attributable to feeling one's own oddness.; 6/7/26, 10:57 PM
Tina Trent said...: Whatever. He was a serial liar about things that really counted.

That he could memorize everything only hurts his case as a human.; 6/8/26, 5:32 AM
Tina Trent said...: He hobnobbed with terrorists, at dinners with Obama in Chicago, and hated ordinary Americans. Yes, he was good at Moby Dick.

Typical gormless academician.; 6/8/26, 5:41 AM
narciso said...: I'll take allan bloom for a thousand; 6/8/26, 6:41 AM
Tina Trent said...: I'm not impressed with Dwight Garner. Can't the Times do better? And why not have an editor for fiction and one for non-fiction?; 6/8/26, 7:32 AM
narciso said...: Bring back zombie dwight mcdonald; 6/8/26, 7:40 AM