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Correspondence: 1927–1987 (The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell) Hardcover – January 8, 2019
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This brand-new collection of letters features illuminating conversations between Joseph Campbell and a fascinating cast of correspondents, ranging from friends and cowriters to renegade scholars and fellow visionaries. Including letters from both Campbell and his correspondents, and spanning the course of his entire adult life (1927–1987), the collection demonstrates the lasting influence of Campbell’s work, which inspired creative endeavors and radical shifts in so many people’s lives. Included are exchanges with artists such as Angela Gregory and Gary Snyder; colleagues including Alan Watts, Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, and Maud Oakes; editors of his books, from The Hero with a Thousand Faces to The Mythic Image; and many others who engaged with Campbell in his exploration of humanity’s “one great story.”
In selecting the letters, editors Evans Lansing Smith and Dennis Patrick Slattery discovered that the dynamic exchanges formed themselves into what Smith describes as a “narrative, with multiple voices and points of view, dramatic conflict and resolution, character development, and even mystery.” In the end, they found “a portrait not just of Campbell but of a remarkable generation of artists, dancers, filmmakers, musicians, spiritual seekers, poets, and novelists, all engaged in the creative powers unleashed by mythology.” With crucial historical context provided by the editors, this compelling volume provides vital new insight into Campbell’s personal life and mythological vision.
- Print length464 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherNew World Library
- Publication dateJanuary 8, 2019
- Dimensions6 x 1.25 x 8.75 inches
- ISBN-101608683257
- ISBN-13978-1608683253
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“No one in our century — not Freud, not Thomas Mann, not Lévi-Strauss — has so brought the mythical sense of the world and its eternal figures back into our everyday consciousness.”
— James Hillman
“Campbell has become the rarest of intellectuals in American life: a serious thinker who has been embraced by the popular culture.”
— Newsweek
About the Author
Throughout his life, he traveled extensively and wrote prolifically, authoring many books, including the classic The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 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. Campbell died in 1987. In 1988, a series of television interviews, Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth with Bill Moyers, introduced his views to millions of people.
Product details
- Publisher : New World Library; 1st edition (January 8, 2019)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 464 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1608683257
- ISBN-13 : 978-1608683253
- Item Weight : 1.4 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 1.25 x 8.75 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,110,044 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #611 in Educator Biographies
- #1,868 in Comparative Religion (Books)
- #2,962 in Folklore & Mythology Studies
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) 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.
For more on Joseph Campbell and his work, visit the web site of Joseph Campbell Foundation at JCF.org.
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CORRESPONDENCE is a great read for long-time fans of Joseph Campbell. The book is organized by decades of his life, with letters that originated during the associated times. The opening chapter starts in 1927 and covers a young Campbell studying in Paris, discovering Joyce, and follows his adventures to and from Pacific Grove with Steinbeck in the ‘30’s. The book is filled with wonderful correspondences from many well-known writers and scholars. Alan Watts and Thomas Mann both have several pages devoted to their letters, which for different reasons made for fascinating reading. His letters with Ananda Coomaraswamy illuminate how their relationship unfurled. Even Jung makes a brief appearance in the book, which was a real treat.
CORRESPONDENCE shows Campbell in a consistent light, that his professional interests never waned. You can, in a sense, watch the author grow up and go through the many trials and tribulations we face when trying to see our calling through to its highest fidelity. Campbell certainly faces such trials late in his career with his publisher, as this book demonstrates.
I deducted one star because of the final chapter of the book, which was focused on the 1980’s. 36 pages were given to Einar Pálsson, an Icelandic mythologist, all of which were letters to Campbell, not from. 16 pages were given to Campbell’s letters to Jamake Highwater, which, while interesting enough, couldn’t help but make me wonder why no one else was given such prominence throughout the book. These two correspondents make up 98% of the final chapter, which is radically different from the preceding six chapters. Telephones and health undoubtedly changed how Campbell communicated, from writing letters to making phone calls, but nonetheless this was a lackluster way to end a nicely woven tapestry of a book. There must have been more to choose from than these two individuals, and if there wasn’t, a note saying so in the editor’s forward would not have been misplaced. It yields an unsatisfying ending to an otherwise wonderfully arranged book about an extraordinary person’s working life.
The book is strictly professional correspondences. Letters to/from family members, Jean, or close friends are not to be found here. This is not a memoir. There are some personal remarks in the Coda of the book, containing testimonials and condolences, including heartfelt letters to Jean from Bill Moyers, Paul Mellon, and Martha Graham.









