Joseph Campbell (1904-1987), a renowned mythologist and Professor of Literature at Sarah Lawrence College, was one of the most influential and well known scholars in the study of mythology and its significance in exploring, defining and understanding the human experience.Through his 38 year career of teaching at Sarah Lawrence College and delivering hundreds of lectures to other audiences, including institutions such as Eranos and Esalen, Campbell demonstrated his vast breadth of knowledge and interest in mythology.
Some of the most well known of his publications include: The Hero With a Thousand Faces (1949), the 4 volume set of The Masks of God (1959-1968), Myths to Live By (1972) and the 2 volume, 5 part Historical Atlas of World Mythology (1983-1989). Additionally, he edited six volumes of selections from the Eranos Yearbooks published by the Bollingen Foundation, and four volumes of the posthumous works of the Indologist Heinrich Zimmer including Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization (1946). See the Joseph Campbell bibliography. For in-depth biographical information on Joseph Campbell, visit the Joseph Campbell Foundation.
The Joseph Campbell lecture tapes and artifacts are held at OPUS Archives on Pacifica Graduate Institute’s Ladera Lane campus. Campbell’s personal library is also held by OPUS in The Joseph Campbell and Marija Gimbutas Library, located at the Lambert Road campus. The Campbell and Gimbutas Library is open to the public by appointment, or without appointment Sundays from 2:00-4:00pm.
Joseph Campbell’s Study