The Hero*s Journey: Joseph Camell On His Life And Work

Using the themes of Joseph Campbell's own Hero with a Thousand Faces -- including "The Call to Adventure, " "The Vision Quest, " the great cycle of the hero's journey and "The Return" -- this lyrical and masterfully crafted book follows the path of Campbell's lifelong investigation into the world of mythology.

Autobiographical in its nature, this volume is the collection of a series of exclusive interviews, in which Campbell tells his own story, from his Catholic upbringing and early interest in Native American culture, through Paris in the 1920s, and into the world of such modern myth makers as George Lucas. Readers are shown the origins of Campbell's thought, and his painstaking synthesis of mythology, religion, psychology and art, and his encounters with many of this century's seminal thinkers.

Campbell dealt with the essence of human nature through the ages and its struggle with the deep, imponderable "truths" that still mystify us -- the fundamental questions about our origins and the meaning of life and death. These questions, Campbell showed, are answered in every culture by mythic tales -- the human way of making sense of the world. Through his lectures and conversations with such figures as poet Robert Bly, Native American author Jamake Highwater, and anthropologist Angeles Arrien, Campbell emerges as the perennial philosopher. He reflects 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.