Allan David Bloom was an American philosopher, essayist and academic. Bloom championed the idea of 'Great Books' education, as did his mentor Leo Strauss. Bloom became famous for his criticism of contemporary American higher education, with his views being expressed most forcibly in his bestselling 1987 book, The Closing of the American Mind.

In 2000, years after Bloom's passing, Saul Bellow, Bloom's friend and teaching partner at the University of Chicago, wrote a novel based on his colleague titled Ravelstein. In it, among other personal details previously not disclosed publicly, it was revealed that Bloom was gay and likely died of complications from HIV-AIDS.