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Myth and Meaning: Conversations on Mythology and Life
A wide-ranging collection of insights from legendary mythologist Joseph Campbell, sourced from rare and previously unpublished interviews
What would you ask Joseph Campbell if you had the chance? Comparative mythology was an obscure academic subject until Joseph Campbell published The Hero with a Thousand Faces in 1949. With that groundbreaking study, Campbell moved mythology out of the halls of academia and into mainstream America. He conclusively demonstrated that all myths, regardless of culture, have a fundamental unity. Readers responded enthusiastically to his message, and subsequent generations of psychologists, artists, and writers have found inspiration in his work.
In addition to writing prolifically, Campbell gave thousands of lectures and interviews throughout his life. Myth and Meaning compiles some of Campbell’s most thoughtful responses to an array of interviewers, including audience members at various seminars, the historian Studs Terkel, and journalists from publications such as Time, Esquire, and Psychology Today. The informal question-and-answer format allows Campbell’s charm, humor, and effortless command of the subject matter to shine through. Divided into chapters by theme, the dialogues in the book address a wide range of questions,
• Where do myths come from?
• How did Campbell discover the timeless pattern of the Hero’s Journey?
• Can our politically fractured, multicultural society find a set of common myths to live by?
• How did Campbell’s life story influence his scholarship?
Throughout, Campbell emphasizes the universal aspects of human experience and finds striking parallels between cultures separated by time and distance. Longtime fans of Campbell will gain a deeper appreciation of the man and his legacy, while new readers will receive a memorable introduction to a thinker who revolutionized our understanding of human nature.
What would you ask Joseph Campbell if you had the chance? Comparative mythology was an obscure academic subject until Joseph Campbell published The Hero with a Thousand Faces in 1949. With that groundbreaking study, Campbell moved mythology out of the halls of academia and into mainstream America. He conclusively demonstrated that all myths, regardless of culture, have a fundamental unity. Readers responded enthusiastically to his message, and subsequent generations of psychologists, artists, and writers have found inspiration in his work.
In addition to writing prolifically, Campbell gave thousands of lectures and interviews throughout his life. Myth and Meaning compiles some of Campbell’s most thoughtful responses to an array of interviewers, including audience members at various seminars, the historian Studs Terkel, and journalists from publications such as Time, Esquire, and Psychology Today. The informal question-and-answer format allows Campbell’s charm, humor, and effortless command of the subject matter to shine through. Divided into chapters by theme, the dialogues in the book address a wide range of questions,
• Where do myths come from?
• How did Campbell discover the timeless pattern of the Hero’s Journey?
• Can our politically fractured, multicultural society find a set of common myths to live by?
• How did Campbell’s life story influence his scholarship?
Throughout, Campbell emphasizes the universal aspects of human experience and finds striking parallels between cultures separated by time and distance. Longtime fans of Campbell will gain a deeper appreciation of the man and his legacy, while new readers will receive a memorable introduction to a thinker who revolutionized our understanding of human nature.
400 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 5, 2023
51 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
Joseph Campbell
423 books6,140 followersJoseph 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 14, 2024
This book of interviews contains some outstanding sections, mixed with sections that are of only mild interest. In the interviews, Campbell touches on Jungian psychology, the differences of function between mythology and religion, the East and West, and how these all play against each other. These were terrific. Other sections, touching on art, and personal history, all felt less engaging.
October 31, 2025
Excellent, Could Not Be Better!
It took me a long time to find this book. I started it years ago. It never occurred to me that it would be on Kindle Unlimited. I loved it, and, as a long-time metaphysician (since 1968), I reveled in Joseph Campbell's research and phenomenal knowledge.
It took me a long time to find this book. I started it years ago. It never occurred to me that it would be on Kindle Unlimited. I loved it, and, as a long-time metaphysician (since 1968), I reveled in Joseph Campbell's research and phenomenal knowledge.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews