Most Popular Books by Joseph Campbell

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

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An extraordinary book that reveals how the themes and symbols of ancient narratives continue to bring meaning to birth, death, love, and war. The Power of Myth launched an extraordinary resurgence of interest in Joseph Campbell and his work. A preeminent scholar, writer, and teacher, he has had a profound influence on millions of people—including Star Wars creator George Lucas. To Campbell, mythology was the “song of the universe, the music of the spheres.” With Bill Moyers, one of America’s most prominent journalists, as his thoughtful and engaging interviewer, The Power of Myth touches on subjects from modern marriage to virgin births, from Jesus to John Lennon, offering a brilliant combination of intelligence and wit. From stories of the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece and Rome to traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity, a broad array of themes are considered that together identify the universality of human experience across time and culture. An impeccable match of interviewer and subject, a timeless distillation of Campbell’s work, The Power of Myth continues to exert a profound influence on our culture.

Here he anchors mythology''s symbolic wisdom to the individual, applying the most poetic mythical metaphors to the challenges of our daily lives."--Jacket.

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.

This book presents approximately 450 illustrations of mythic art from Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Indian, Chinese, European, and Olmec cultures as a basis for an exploration into the relation of dreams to myth.

"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.

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.

Thou Art That is a compilation of previously uncollected essays and lectures by Joseph Campbell that focus on the Judeo-Christian tradition. Campbell explores common religious symbols, reexamining and reinterpreting them in the context of his remarkable knowledge of world mythology.Campbell believed that society often confuses the literal and metaphorical interpretations of religious stories and symbols. In this collection, he eloquently reestablishes these symbols as a means to enhance spiritual understanding and mystical revelation. With characteristic verve, he ranges from rich storytelling to insightful comparative scholarship. Included is editor Eugene Kennedy''s classic interview with Campbell in the New York Times Magazine, which originally brought the scholar to the attention of the public.

Examines myths and folk tales from around the world in an attempt to understand the symbolism of the hero as it appears in the mythologies and religions of mankind.

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.

This volume explores the whole inner story of modern culture since the Dark Ages, treating modern man''s unique position as the creator of his own mythology.

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.

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

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.

"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"--

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

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.

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.

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.

Developed from a memorable series of lectures delivered in San Francisco, which included a legendary symposium at the Palace of Fine Arts with astronaut Rusty Schweickart, Joseph Campbell''s last book explores the space age. Campbell posits that the newly discovered laws of outer space are actually at work within human beings as well and that a new mythology is implicit in this realization. He examines the new mythology and other questions in these essays which he described as "a broadly shared spiritual adventure."--From publisher description.

For contents, see Author Catalog.

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.

Examines and compares the world''s myths, compiled and arranged by theme, from stories of creation to tales of death and rebirth.

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.