Bloom County
On October 25, 2017 IDW published "Bloom County: Real, Classy, & Compleat: 1980-1989", collecting the complete run of "Bloom County" in two volumes. An "Ultimate Collectors Set" was also released, including the original art from a daily strip featuring Opus, a page from Breathed's sketchbooks, and a personalized sketch of Opus on the slipcover.Published by The Library of American Comics, an imprint of IDW Publishing.
The Closing of the American Mind
"The Closing of the American Mind" was published in March 1987, five years after Bloom published an essay in the "National Review" about the failure of universities to serve the needs of students. With the encouragement of Saul Bellow, his colleague at the University of Chicago, he expanded his thoughts into a book "about a life, I've led" that critically reflected on the current state of higher education in American universities. His friends and admirers imagined the work would be a modest success, as did Bloom, who recognized his publisher's modest advance to complete the project as a lack of sales confidence. Yet on the momentum of strong initial reviews, including one by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt in "The New York Times" and an op-ed piece by syndicated conservative commentator George Will entitled "A How-To Book for the Independent" it became an unexpected best seller, eventually selling close to half a million copies in hardback and remaining at number one on "The New York Times" Non-fiction Best Seller list for four months.