Friendship yields bounty for St. Michael's College; a 30-year friendship brings a small Catholic college in Vermont the library of literary maven Harold Bloom

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 31, 2003 by Claire Schaeffer-Duffy

"The idea is to have a technically correct space to protect the legacy, a space where human beings can frequent.... There is a certain symbolism in setting something aside that says we want to pay our dues to literature," said Marc vanderHeyden, president of St. Michael's. Construction on the new library will begin next year.

As soon as the structure is up, Bloom plans "to donate a couple of thousand books to help get them started. The bulk of my library, because I intend to go on teaching and writing, will come after I pass on to some other existence."

He makes no prediction as to what impact his legacy might have on future students at St. Michael's. Asked to name the books he loves and what he hopes those students might read, Bloom lists genres rather specific titles: the great poets of the Western tradition, the major novelists. Yet it is clear he hopes the presence of a well-stocked library will enrich the students' lives. The son of poor immigrants, Bloom attended New York public schools. They could not satiate his curiosity, and his real learning, he said, occurred in the city's public libraries. When he was 17, he received a fellowship to Cornell.

The only Edmundite College in the United States, St. Michael's enrolls 1,925 undergraduate students, offers 29 undergraduate degrees and has a small graduate program. Last August, the college was accredited to establish a chapter of Phi Beta Kappa, the nationally prestigious academic honor society.

VanderHeyden said the combination of Bloom's gift and St. Michael's accreditation for Phi Beta Kappa "is an extraordinary recognition of the college's quality. These are peer reviews." He is delighted that both honors have come on the eve of the school's centenary. "The timing is wonderful. As president, you can only hope to have that happen once on your watch."

Claire Schaeffer-Duffy is a freelance writer living in Worcester, Mass.