New Releases by Joseph Campbell

An updated edition of a beloved classic, Creative Mythology tells the inner story of humanity''s entire philosophical, spiritual, and artistic history since the Dark Ages, ultimately positioning each of us as the creator of our own mythology In this fourth and final volume in The Masks of God series -- Joseph Campbell''s major work of comparative mythology -- the preeminent mythologist looks at the birth of the modern, individualistic mythology as it developed in Europe beginning in the twelfth century. Tracing the disintegration of orthodox tradition up through the radical art and philosophies of the late twentieth century, Campbell arrives at an astonishing insight: modern humans are the first to witness the creation of myth and position themselves as the center of their own mythology. Presaging our current era of personal brands, curated feeds, and celebrity influence, he wrote upon completion of this final volume, "[The unity of humanity] has everywhere unfolded in the manner of a single symphony, with its themes announced, developed, amplified and turned about, distorted, reasserted, and today, in a grand fortissimo of all sections sounding together, irresistibly advancing to some kind of mighty climax, out of which the next great movement will emerge." Updated with recent findings from archeology, anthropology, and psychology that support his perceptive analysis of human cultural evolution, this new edition of Creative Mythology remains as vital, revelatory, and urgent as the original did upon publication more than half a century ago.

Now available in paperback, Joseph Campbell''s collected writings on dance and art, including Campbell''s unpublished manuscript "Mythology and Form in the Performing and Visual Arts," the book he was working on when he died Dance was one of mythologist Joseph Campbell''s wide-ranging passions. His wife, Jean Erdman, was a leading figure in modern dance who worked with Martha Graham and had Merce Cunningham in her first company. When Campbell retired from teaching in 1972, he and Erdman formed the Theater of the Open Eye in New York City, where for nearly fifteen years they presented a wide array of dance and theater productions, lectures, and performance pieces. The Ecstasy of Being brings together seven of Campbell''s previously uncollected articles on dance, along with "Mythology and Form in the Performing and Visual Arts," the treatise he was working on when he died, published here for the first time. In this collection Campbell explores the rise of modern art and dance in the twentieth century; delves into the work and philosophy of Isadora Duncan, Martha Graham, and others; and, as always, probes the idea of art as "the funnel through which spirit is poured into life." This book offers the reader an accessible, yet profound and provocative, insight into Campbell''s lifelong fascination with the relationship of myth to aesthetic form and human psychology.

DigiCat Publishing presents to you this special edition of "Mearing Stones: Leaves from My Note-Book on Tramp in Donegal" by Joseph Campbell. DigiCat Publishing considers every written word to be a legacy of humankind. Every DigiCat book has been carefully reproduced for republishing in a new modern format. The books are available in print, as well as ebooks. DigiCat hopes you will treat this work with the acknowledgment and passion it deserves as a classic of world literature.

Famed mythologist Joseph Campbell explores the form, function, and origin of myths

Many of American journalism’s best-known and most cherished stories are exaggerated, dubious, or apocryphal. They are media-driven myths, and they attribute to the news media and their practitioners far more power and influence than they truly exert. In Getting It Wrong, writer and scholar W. Joseph Campbell confronts and dismantles prominent media-driven myths, describing how they can feed stereotypes, distort understanding about the news media, and deflect blame from policymakers. Campbell debunks the notions that the Washington Post’s Watergate reporting brought down Richard M. Nixon’s corrupt presidency, that Walter Cronkite’s characterization of the Vietnam War in 1968 shifted public opinion against the conflict, and that William Randolph Hearst vowed to “furnish the war” against Spain in 1898. This expanded second edition includes a new preface and new chapters about the first Kennedy-Nixon debate in 1960, the haunting Napalm Girl photograph of the Vietnam War, and bogus quotations driven by the Internet and social media.

A hinge moment in recent American history, 1995 was an exceptional year. Drawing on interviews, oral histories, memoirs, archival collections, and news reports, W. Joseph Campbell presents a vivid, detail-rich portrait of those memorable twelve months. This book offers fresh interpretations of the decisive moments of 1995, including the emergence of the Internet and the World Wide Web in mainstream American life; the bombing at Oklahoma City, the deadliest attack of domestic terrorism in U.S. history; the sensational "Trial of the Century," at which O.J. Simpson faced charges of double murder; the U.S.-brokered negotiations at Dayton, Ohio, which ended the Bosnian War, Europe’s most vicious conflict since the Nazi era; and the first encounters at the White House between Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, a liaison that culminated in a stunning scandal and the spectacle of the president’s impeachment and trial. As Campbell demonstrates in this absorbing chronicle, 1995 was a year of extraordinary events, a watershed at the turn of the millennium. The effects of that pivotal year reverberate still, marking the close of one century and the dawning of another.

"Joseph Campbell made the power of story undeniable through the power of his own storytelling. Editor Evans Lansing Smith here collects Campbell writings on Arthurian legends that make events like Merlin''s death and the Lady of the Lake retrieving Excalibur not just vibrant but also central to the mythologist''s thinking. Three cornerstones of Campbell''s celebrated scholarship are found here"--

The Year that Defined American Journalism explores the succession of remarkable and decisive moments in American journalism during 1897 – a year of significant transition that helped redefine the profession and shape its modern contours. This defining year featured a momentous clash of paradigms pitting the activism of William Randolph Hearst''s participatory ''journalism of action'' against the detached, fact-based antithesis of activist journalism, as represented by Adolph Ochs of the New York Times, and an eccentric experiment in literary journalism pursued by Lincoln Steffens at the New York Commercial-Advertiser. Resolution of the three-sided clash of paradigms would take years and result ultimately in the ascendancy of the Times'' counter-activist model, which remains the defining standard for mainstream American journalism. The Year That Defined American Journalism introduces the year-study methodology to mass communications research and enriches our understanding of a pivotal moment in media history.

A selection of definitive short fiction by the influential teacher of mythology offers insight into the role of the Depression and other historical periods on his creative life, his evocative applications of symbolism, and the early literary achievementsthat shaped his subsequent writings.

In this climax to his series of studies on world mythologies, the author examines a process he sees as beginning in the mid-twelfth century in the west - an accelerating disintegration of the orthodox tradition.

"If daily journalism constitutes history''s first rough draft, then "Getting it Wrong" certainly reveals how rough that draft can be. Joseph Campbell is a dogged and first-rate scholar."--Neil Henry, Dean, University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism "Dr. Campbell has done meticulous research that examines ten media myths in context. This book rightfully calls us to rethink some significant errors that have become a part of our history and our collective memories. It is just downright interesting reading."--Wallace B. Eberhard, recipient of the American Journalism Historians Association Kobre Award for Lifetime Achievement

Joseph Campbell famously defined myth as ''''other people''s religion.'''' But he also said that one of the basic functions of myth is to help each individual through the journey of life, providing a sort of travel guide or map to reach fulfillment - or, as he called it, bliss. For Campbell, many of the world''s most powerful myths support the individual''s heroic path toward bliss. In Pathways to Bliss, Campbell examines this personal, psychological side of myth. Like his classic bestselling books Myths to Live By and The Power of Myth, Pathways to Bliss draws from Campbell''s popular lectures and dialogues, which highlight his remarkable storytelling and ability to apply the larger themes of world mythology to personal growth and the quest for transformation. Here he anchors mythology''s symbolic wisdom to the individual, applying the most poetic mythical metaphors to the challenges of our daily lives. Campbell dwells on life''s important questions. Combining cross-cultural stories with the teachings of modern psychology, he examines the ways in which our myths shape and enrich our lives. He explores the many insights of Carl Jung; the notion of self as the hero; and how East and West differ in their approaches to the ego. The book also includes an extensive question-and-answer session that ranges from mythological readings of the Bible to how the Hero''s Journey unfolds for women. With his usual wit and insight, Campbell draws connections between ancient symbols and modern art, schizophrenia and the Hero''s Journey. Along the way, he shows how myth can help each of us truly identify and follow our bliss.

This newly redesigned edition of Campbell''s seminal 1949 work combines the insights of modern psychology with the author''s revolutionary understanding of comparative mythology. Illustrated.

These 12 eclectic essays explore the topic for which Campbell was best known: myth and its fascinating context within the human imagination in the arts, literature, and culture, as well as in everyday life.

Since its publication in 1939, countless would-be readers of "Finnegans Wake" - James Joyce''s masterwork, which consumed a third of his life - have given up after a few pages, dismissing it as a "perverse triumph of the unintelligible." In 1944, a young professor of mythology and literature named Joseph Campbell, working with Henry Morton Robinson, wrote the first "key" or guide to entering the fascinating, disturbing, marvelously rich world of "Finnegans Wake." The authors break down Joyce''s "unintelligible" book page by page, stripping the text of much of its obscurity and serving up thoughtful interpretations via footnotes and bracketed commentary. They outline the book''s basic action, and then simplify -- and clarify -- its complex web of images and allusions. "A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake" is the latest addition to the "Collected Works of Joseph Campbell" series.

The Spanish-American War spawned the myth that by inflaming popular pressure newspapers can start wars. While mythological it does highlight the press''s political and popular power at the dawn of the twentieth century, the peak years of yellow journalism.

Joseph Campbell, arguably the greatest mythologist of our time, was certainly one of our greatest storytellers.

This previously unpublished title shows Campbell''s remarkable mind engaged with a favorite topic, the myths and metaphors of Asian religions. The book collects seven lectures and articles ranging from the ancient Hindu Vedas to Zen koans, Tantric yoga, and the Tibetan Book of the Dead. Campbell conveys complex insights through warm, accessible storytelling, revealing the intricacies and secrets of his subjects with his typical enthusiasm.--From publisher description.

The mythographer who has command of scholarly literature, the analytic ability and the lucid prose and the staying power.

Baksheesh & Brahman illustrates Campbell''s working method and grants an illuminating look at the thoughts and experiences of an incredible mind, as well as a revealing portrait of the roiling Indian subcontinent of fifty years ago."--BOOK JACKET.

A previously unpublished sequel to Baksheesh and Brahman reports on the author''s travels through east Asia and his five-month stay in Japan in the 1950s, during which he experienced local culture and witnessed the area''s struggles with Cold War tensions and western values. 20,000 first printing.

This offers a detailed and long-awaited reassessment of one of the most maligned periods in American journalism-the era of the yellow press. The study challenges and dismantles several prominent myths about the genre, finding that the yellow press did not foment-could not have fomented-the Spanish-American War in 1898, contrary to the arguments of many media historians. The study presents extensive evidence showing that the famous exchange of telegrams between the artist Frederic Remington and newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst-in which Hearst is said to have vowed to "furnish the war" with Spain-almost certainly never took place. The study also presents the results of a systematic content analysis of seven leading U. S. newspapers at 10 year intervals throughout the 20th century and finds that some distinguishing features of the yellow press live on in American journalism.

This volume is the first in a series of the collected works of comparative mythologist Joseph Campbell. Editor Eugene Kennedy, a psychologist and former Catholic priest, presents previously unavailable essays and lectures of Campbell''s which focus on the symbols and metaphors of the Judaeo-Christian tradition, including the virgin birth, the child as teacher, and the cross. Other topics include the purpose of myths, theological inquiry, and the experience of religious mystery. c. Book News Inc.

Joseph Campbell (1879-1944) was a talented poet, reared in Catholic Belfast, who became a pioneer of Irish Studies in the United States. His reputation as an Irish Irelander was gained in London, but in 1921 he settled outside Dublin and soon became active in radical nationalism. In the revolutionary years he became a republican justice and local councillor in Co. Wicklow. Having opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty, he was arrested in Bray, spending the entire Civil War interned in Mountjoy and Tintown on the Curragh. Campbell''s voluminous diaries, cannily concealed from his captors, provide much more than a chronicle of events and experiences. Being the work of a skilled writer and acute observer, they offer revealing cameos of his republican colleagues, vivid notes of personal conversations, and imaginative reflections on the psychological effects of incarceration. Sympathetically edited by another distinguished poet and scholar, this selection from his diaries will fascinate all students of the Irish Civil War.

In psychological terms, award-winning author Joseph Campbell explains how myths emerge from the unconscious of every culture and discusses the purpose of these myths. Full color.

"Myths, according to Freud''s view, are of the psychological order of dream. Myths, so to say, are public dreams; dreams are private myths. " "There is no one quite like Joseph Campbell. He knows the vast sweep of man''s panoramic past as few men have evern known it." -The Village Voice What is a properly functioning mythology and what are its functions? Can we use myths to help relieve our modern anxiety, or do they help foster it? In Myths to Live by, Joseph Campbell explores the enduring power of the universal myths that influence our lives daily and examines the myth-making process from the primitive past to the immediate present, retuning always to the source from which all mythology springs: the creative imagination. Campbell stresses that the borders dividing the Earth have been shattered; that myths and religions have always followed the certain basic archetypes and are no longer exclusive to a single people, region, or religion. He shows how we must recognize their common denominators and allow this knowledge to be of use in fulfilling human potential everywhere.

A collection of thirteen lectures, all given near the end of Joseph Campbell''s life, that examine the great sweep of mythological development around the world and across the ages.

Campbell at his very best, with his favorite interviewer: intimate national public radio conversations from 1975-1987, vigorously alive & glowing with the richness of Campbell''s brilliant & undying fire.