"No one in our century — not Freud, not Thomas Mann, not Levi-Strauss —has so brought the mythical sense of the world and its eternal figures back into our everyday consciousness."
— James Hillman
Joseph Campbell, arguably the greatest mythologist of our time, was certainly one of our greatest storytellers. The Hero’s Journey recounts his own quest and conveys the excitement of his life-long exploration of our mythic traditions, which he called “the one great story of mankind.” This lyrical and masterfully crafted book interweaves conversations with Campbell and some of the people he inspired, including poet Robert Bly, anthropologist Angeles Arrien, filmmaker David Kennard, Doors’ drummer John Densmore, psychiatric pioneer Stanislov Grof, Nobel laureate Roger Guillemen, and others.
Behind the man who spent his life journeying through the mythologies of the world was someone whose life was a deep personal quest for his own immortal hero. Through a series of interviews The Hero’s Journey, the seventh book in New World Library’s “Collected Works of Joseph Campbell” series, follows the footsteps of Campbell as he tells stores of his life, his love, and his passion.
Following Campbell’s own themes from Hero with a Thousand Faces, Phil Cousineau, as editor, lets that story unfold. First comes “the Call to Adventure” in which the young child, sensing the mystery and the poetry inherent in life, makes the first of his many discoveries — he meets the Native American, who embodies his reverence and respect for the world not only in his life but in his rituals. Campbell immerses himself completely in this world, reading everything he can find and being deeply influenced. He then moves on, through his student days, along his own “Road of Trials” and his “Vision Quest,” searching out those places where his experiences, his own taste of life will be heightened.
An athlete, traveler, and avid scholar, he moves to Paris, where he comes in contact with his very deepest passion, the world that is common to all of mankind — the world of inner transformation. He finds the immortal questions revealed in mythology, art, and literature and he begins to lecture and to write as he dedicates himself to the mythology of his own personal journey.
In conversations with poets, anthropologists and philosophers, Campbell reflects in The Hero’s Journey on subjects ranging from the origins and functions of myth, the role of the artist and the need for ritual, to the ordeals of love and romance. We follow him through his “Meeting with the Goddess” and move with him through the experiences and understandings that lead him to become the “Master of Two Worlds.” With his poetic and pragmatic language, Joseph Campbell stands as a signpost in a time when we have lost our connection to mythology.
About the Author Perhaps most responsible for bringing mythology to a mass audience, Joseph Campbell’s works rank among the classics in mythology and literature: Hero with a Thousand Faces, the four-volume The Masks of God, The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers, and many others. Among his many awards, Campbell received the National Institute of Arts and Letters Award for Contribution to Creative Literature and the 1985 Medal of Honor for Literature from the National Arts Club. A past president of the American Society for the Study of Religion, Campbell was professor emeritus at Sarah Lawrence College in New York until his death in 1987.
THE HERO’S JOURNEY: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work By: Joseph Campbell / Preface: Phil Cousineau
Publication Date: October 7, 2003
ISBN: 1-57731-404-2
Price: $24.95, Hardcover
Pages: 288
Published by New World Library
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