Joseph Campbell was an American author and teacher best known for his work in the field of comparative mythology. He was born in New York City in 1904, and from early childhood he became interested in mythology. He loved to read books about American Indian cultures, and frequently visited the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where he was fascinated by the museum's collection of totem poles. Campbell was educated at Columbia University, where he specialized in medieval literature, and continued his studies at universities in Paris and Munich. While abroad he was influenced by the art of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, the novels of James Joyce and Thomas Mann, and the psychological studies of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. These encounters led to Campbell's theory that all myths and epics are linked in the human psyche, and that they are cultural manifestations of the universal need to explain social, cosmological, and spiritual realities. After a period in California, where he encountered John Steinbeck and the biologist Ed Ricketts, he taught at the Canterbury School, and then, in 1934, joined the literature department at Sarah Lawrence College, a post he retained for many years. During the 40s and '50s, he helped Swami Nikhilananda to translate the Upanishads and The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. He also edited works by the German scholar Heinrich Zimmer on Indian art, myths, and philosophy. In 1944, with Henry Morton Robinson, Campbell published A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake. His first original work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, came out in 1949 and was immediately well received; in time, it became acclaimed as a classic. In this study of the "myth of the hero," Campbell asserted that there is a single pattern of heroic journey and that all cultures share this essential pattern in their various heroic myths. In his book he also outlined the basic conditions, stages, and results of the archetypal hero's journey. Throughout his life, he traveled extensively and wrote prolifically, authoring many books, including the four-volume series The Masks of God, Myths to Live By, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space and The Historical Atlas of World Mythology. Joseph Campbell died in 1987. In 1988, a series of television interviews with Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth, introduced Campbell's views to millions of people.
Series
Books
Historical Atlas World Myth, Vol 3
2006
Mystic Vision
Papers from Eranos Yearbooks
1982
The Hero's Adventure
1992
The Mythic Dimension
Selected Essays 1959-1987
1997
The Mythic Image
1974
Mythic Imagination
Collected Short Fiction
1997
Spirit and Nature
Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks 1
1954
Trick or Treat
Hallowe'en, Masks, and Living Your Myth
2014
Romance of the Grail
The Magic and Mystery of Arthurian Myth
2015
Mythic Worlds, Modern Words
Joseph Campbell on the Art of James Joyce
1993
Historical Atlas of World Mythology, Vol. 1
The Way of the Animal Powers, Part 1, Mythologies of the Primitive Hunters and Gatherers
1988
The Lost Teachings of Joseph Campbell, Vol. 1
Myths, Personal Dreams, and Universal Themes
1988
The Inward Journey
East and West
1996
Masks of Eternity
Power of Myth 6
1990
The Ecstasy of Being
Mythology and Dance
2017
Bios & Mythos
2017
Myths to Live By
1972
Historical Atlas of World Mythology, Vol 2, Part 3
Mythologies of the primitive planters: the Middle and Southern Americas
1988
Sacrifice and Bliss
Power of Myth 4
1990
Man and Myth
1997
Mythology and the Individual
1996
The Power of Myth
1988
Correspondence
1927-1987
2019
The Soul of the Ancients 1
1990
The Masks of God, Volume 4
1968
The Message of the Myth
Power of Myth
1990
A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake
1944
Love and the Goddess
1992
The Hero's Journey
Joseph Campbell on His Life & Work
1990
In All Her Names
Explorations of the Feminine in Divinity
1991
An Open Life
Joseph Campbell in Conversation with Michael Toms
1988
The Wisdom Of Joseph Campbell
1991
Man and Time
Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks
1954
The Symbol without Meaning
2013
Historical Atlas of World Mythology 1
The Way of the Animal Powers Part 2: Mythologies of the Great Hunt
1988
The Eastern Way
Joseph Campbell Collection
1997
خدش عظم الحياة
2022
The Inner Reaches of Outer Space
Metaphor as Myth and as Religion
1986
The Masks of God, Volume 2
1962
The Mysteries
Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks 2
1955
The Hero With a Thousand Faces
1949
I.D
Early Hunters of the Open Plains (Historical Atlas of World Mythology
2015
A Joseph Campbell Companion
Reflections on the Art of Living
1991
Prologue
Historical Atlas of World Mythology Part I.A
2013
Papers from the Eranos Yearbooks, Eranos 4
Spiritual Disciplines
1960
Dee
I Misteri del Divino Femminile
2024
Free Will
2010
Mythological Musings
Lost Teachings of Joseph Campbell 2
1993
Myths of Light
Eastern Metaphors of the Eternal
2003
Sake and Satori
Japan
2002
Baksheesh and Brahman
Indian Journal 1954-55
1995
The Masks of God, Volume 3
1964
The Way of the Seeded Earth, Part 1
The Sacrifice
1988
The First Storytellers
Power of Myth 3
1992
The Masks of God
Complete Four Volume Set
1969
Tarot Revelations
1987
Goddesses
Mysteries of the Feminine Divine
2013
I.E – Living Peoples of the Equatorial Forest
2014
Pathways to Bliss
Mythology and Personal Transformation
2004
The Masks of God, Volume 1
1959
Asian Journals
India and Japan
2017
This Business of the Gods
In Conversation with Fraser Boa
1990
Wings of Art
Joseph Campbell on James Joyce
1995
Myths, Dreams and Religion
1970
The Flight of the Wild Gander
Explorations in the Mythological Dimension
1969
Transformations of Myth Through Time
1990
The Mythic Dimension - Comparative Mythology
2011
Thou Art That
Transforming Religious Metaphor
2001
