Joseph John Campbell was born on March 26, 1904, and died on October 30, 1987. He was an American writer and the husband of Jean Erdman. He taught literature at Sarah Lawrence College and studied myths and religions from around the world. His work explored many parts of what it means to be human. Campbell's most famous book is The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), in which he explained his idea about a common story pattern found in myths worldwide, called the monomyth.

After the book was published, many modern writers and artists used Campbell's ideas. He once said, "Follow your bliss." He became well-known in Hollywood when George Lucas said Campbell's ideas helped create the Star Wars stories.

Life

Joseph Campbell was born on March 26, 1904, in White Plains, New York. He was the older son of Charles William Campbell, a man who sold hosiery products, and Josephine (née Lynch). Campbell was raised in an Irish Catholic family from a middle-class background. He said his paternal grandfather, Charles, was a peasant who moved from County Mayo, Ireland, to Boston. There, he worked as a gardener and caretaker at the Lyman Estate in Waltham, Massachusetts. Charles William Campbell later became a successful salesman before starting his own hosiery business. As a child, Campbell moved with his family to New Rochelle, New York. In 1919, a fire destroyed the family home in New Rochelle, killing his maternal grandmother and injuring his father, who tried to save her.

In 1921, Campbell graduated from the Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut. At Dartmouth College, he studied biology and mathematics but later chose to focus on the humanities. He then transferred to Columbia University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in English literature in 1925 and a Master of Arts in medieval literature in 1927. At Dartmouth, he joined Delta Tau Delta, a fraternity. He was an accomplished athlete, winning awards in track and field events and once being among the fastest half-mile runners in the world.

In 1924, Campbell traveled to Europe with his family. On his return trip, he met Jiddu Krishnamurti, a spiritual leader from the Theosophical Society, on a ship. They discussed Indian philosophy, which sparked Campbell’s interest in Hindu and Indian thought. In 1927, he received a scholarship from Columbia University to study in Europe. There, he studied Old French, Provençal, and Sanskrit at the University of Paris and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. He learned to read and speak French and German.

When Campbell returned to Columbia University in 1929, he wanted to study Sanskrit and modern art in addition to medieval literature. However, he did not receive approval from faculty to continue his graduate studies. Later in life, he joked that having a PhD in the liberal arts, the field covering his work, was a sign of incompetence.

During the Great Depression, Campbell lived in a rented shack in Woodstock, New York, from 1929 to 1934. There, he spent five years reading extensively and thinking about his future. He later said he divided his day into four three-hour periods, using three for reading and one for rest. This routine allowed him to read nine hours a day for five years straight.

In 1931–1932, Campbell traveled to California, continuing his independent studies. He became close friends with writer John Steinbeck and his wife, Carol. He met Carol’s sister, Idell, during a cruise to Honolulu, and she introduced him to the Steinbecks. Campbell had an affair with Carol. On the Monterey Peninsula, he became friends with marine biologist Ed Ricketts, who inspired characters in Steinbeck’s novels. Campbell lived near Ricketts, participated in his activities, and joined him on a 1932 trip to Juneau, Alaska, on the Grampus. He began writing a novel about Ricketts but did not finish it.

In 1933, Campbell taught for a year at the Canterbury School in Connecticut. During this time, he tried to publish fiction and sold his first short story, Strictly Platonic, to Liberty magazine.

In 1934, Campbell became a professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College in Yonkers, New York. In 1938, he married Jean Erdman, one of his former students, a dancer and choreographer. For most of their 49-year marriage, they lived in a two-room apartment in Greenwich Village, New York City. In the 1980s, they also bought an apartment in Honolulu and split their time between the two cities. They had no children.

Early in World War II, Campbell attended a lecture by Indologist Heinrich Zimmer. The two became close friends. After Zimmer’s death, Campbell edited and published Zimmer’s papers over the next decade.

In 1955–1956, Campbell took a sabbatical from Sarah Lawrence College and traveled to Asia for the first time. He spent six months in southern Asia, mostly in India, and six months in East Asia, mostly in Japan. This experience deeply influenced his understanding of Asian religion and myth and inspired him to teach comparative mythology to a broader audience.

In 1957, Campbell wrote about books by philosopher Alan Watts in a New York Times article.

In 1972, Campbell retired from Sarah Lawrence College after teaching there for 38 years.

In 1986, Campbell attended a Grateful Dead concert and said, “Everyone has just lost themselves in everybody else here!” He later organized a conference called “Ritual and Rapture from Dionysus to the Grateful Dead.”

Campbell died on October 30, 1987, in his home in Honolulu, Hawaii, from complications of esophageal cancer. Before his death, he completed filming interviews with Bill Moyers, which were later broadcast as The Power of Myth. He is buried in O’ahu Cemetery, Honolulu.

Influences

Campbell often talked about the work of modern writers James Joyce and Thomas Mann in his lectures and writings, as well as the art of Pablo Picasso. He learned about their work during his time as a graduate student in Paris. Later, Campbell wrote letters to Thomas Mann.

The ideas of Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche strongly influenced Campbell's thinking. He often used their writings in his own work.

The "follow your bliss" idea, which people often say is Campbell's, comes from the Hindu Upanishads. However, Campbell may have also been influenced by the 1922 novel Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis. In The Power of Myth, Campbell quotes a part from this novel.

The anthropologist Leo Frobenius and his student Adolf Ellegard Jensen helped shape Campbell's understanding of cultural history. Campbell was also influenced by the psychological work of Abraham Maslow and Stanislav Grof.

Campbell's ideas about myths and their connection to the human mind are partly based on the work of Sigmund Freud, but especially on the work of Carl Jung. Jung's studies of human psychology greatly influenced Campbell. Campbell's view of myths is closely connected to Jung's method of interpreting dreams, which uses symbols. Jung's ideas about archetypes were influenced by the Bardo Thodol, also known as The Tibetan Book of the Dead. In his book The Mythic Image, Campbell quotes Jung's thoughts about the Bardo Thodol.

Comparative mythology and theories

Joseph Campbell’s idea of monomyth, or one myth, suggests that many myths around the world are different versions of a single, shared story. This idea comes from noticing that most important myths, no matter where or when they were created, have a similar pattern. Campbell was influenced by Adolf Bastian, who talked about "folk" ideas (how myths change to fit different cultures) and "elementary" ideas (the basic, unchanging parts of myths). The most well-known version of this shared pattern is called "the hero’s journey," first described in Campbell’s book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949). He borrowed the term "monomyth" from the writer James Joyce’s book Finnegans Wake. Campbell also used ideas from Carl Jung about the human mind, including terms like anima, animus, and ego consciousness.

Campbell believed that myths help people understand the spiritual world and the idea that all humans are connected. He thought myths use metaphors—statements that point to something beyond themselves—to explain truths about the world and the universe. The hero’s journey describes a person who faces challenges, learns about a deeper, eternal source of energy, and returns with knowledge that helps their society. Over time, this story changed to fit different cultures, but its basic structure remained the same. Key stages of the hero’s journey include the Call to Adventure, Receiving Supernatural Aid, Meeting with the Goddess/Atonement with the Father, and Return. These stages and the symbols in the story help explain spiritual ideas. Unlike similes, which use the word like (e.g., "the relationship of man to God is like that of a son to a father"), metaphors, such as "Jesus is the Son of God," pretend to be literal.

In the 1987 documentary Joseph Campbell: A Hero’s Journey, Campbell explained how myths use metaphors to describe God. He also described four main roles of mythology in society, as written in his book The Masks of God: Creative Mythology and in his lectures. Campbell believed myths change over time to match the needs of different cultures. He identified stages of cultural development that each have their own unique but related myth systems.

Legacy

In 1991, Joseph Campbell's wife, choreographer Jean Erdman, worked with Campbell's long-time friend and editor, Robert Walter, to create the Joseph Campbell Foundation.

The foundation has started several projects. These include The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell, a series of books and recordings that collect Campbell's many writings; the Erdman Campbell Award; the Mythological RoundTables, which are groups around the world that study mythology, psychology, religion, and culture; and the collection of Campbell's books and papers, which are kept at the OPUS Archives and Research Center.

George Lucas was the first filmmaker to say that Joseph Campbell influenced his work. After the first Star Wars movie came out in 1977, Lucas said that the story was shaped in part by ideas from Campbell's book The Hero with a Thousand Faces and other works. Later reprints of Campbell's book used a picture of Luke Skywalker on the cover. Lucas talked about this in the book A Fire in the Mind, an authorized biography of Joseph Campbell.

Lucas did not meet Campbell or hear his lectures until after the original Star Wars trilogy was finished in 1983. In 1984, Campbell gave a lecture in San Francisco, and Lucas was in the audience. Lucas was introduced to Campbell by their mutual friend Barbara McClintock. A few years later, Lucas invited Campbell to watch the entire Star Wars trilogy at Skywalker Ranch, which Campbell called "real art." This meeting led to the making of the 1988 documentary The Power of Myth at Skywalker Ranch. In interviews with Bill Moyers, Campbell explained how Lucas used The Hero's Journey in the Star Wars films (IV, V, and VI) to create new myths for modern audiences. Moyers and Lucas made another interview in 1999 called The Mythology of Star Wars with George Lucas & Bill Moyers to discuss how Campbell's work influenced Lucas's films. Also, the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution had an exhibit in the late 1990s called Star Wars: The Magic of Myth, which showed how Campbell's work shaped the Star Wars films.

Many filmmakers from the late 20th and early 21st centuries have said Campbell's work influenced their work. Christopher Vogler, a Hollywood screenwriter, wrote a seven-page memo based on Campbell's work, A Practical Guide to The Hero With a Thousand Faces, which helped create Disney's 1994 film The Lion King. Some films that follow the pattern of the hero's journey include The Matrix series, the Batman series, and the Indiana Jones series. Dan Harmon, the creator of the TV show Community and co-creator of Rick and Morty, often says Campbell influenced his work. He uses a "story circle" in his writing, which is based on Campbell's ideas. A fictional version of Campbell appears in the seventh episode of the sixth season of Rick and Morty, called "Full Meta Jackrick."

After the popularity of Star Wars and The Power of Myth, artists in many fields began using Campbell's theories to understand how people react to stories. Novelists, songwriters, and video game designers studied Campbell's work to learn more about myths, especially the hero's journey.

The novelist Richard Adams said he was influenced by Campbell's work, especially the idea of the hero's journey. In his most famous book, Watership Down, Adams used quotes from The Hero with a Thousand Faces as chapter introductions.

Dan Brown said in a New York Times interview that Campbell's books, especially The Power of Myth and The Hero with a Thousand Faces, inspired him to create the character Robert Langdon.

One of Campbell's most famous and often misunderstood sayings was "Follow your bliss." He got this idea from the Upanishads, ancient Indian writings. He believed this was not just a saying, but a guide for people on their personal journey, similar to the hero's journey.

Campbell began sharing this idea in his lectures in the 1970s. By the time The Power of Myth was shown in 1988, six months after Campbell's death, "Follow your bliss" became a well-known idea in the United States, both among people who believe in religion and those who do not.

Later in his life, when some people thought Campbell was encouraging people to seek pleasure, he joked, "I should have said, 'Follow your blisters.'"

Academic reception and criticism

Campbell's ideas about myths, a type of folklore, have been criticized by experts who study folklore. American folklorist Barre Toelken noted that many psychologists have not fully understood the complexity of folklore. He said that some psychologists influenced by Carl Jung have created theories based on only parts of stories that support their ideas. Toelken used Clarissa Pinkola Estés's book Women Who Run with the Wolves (1992) as an example, pointing out that it incorrectly describes folklore. He also criticized Campbell's "monomyth" theory, saying Campbell only used stories that fit his ideas and ignored others that did not. Toelken explained that Campbell's theory influenced other books, like Robert Bly's Iron John: A Book About Men (1990), which also had similar issues with how stories were chosen.

American folklorist Alan Dundes strongly disagreed with Campbell's approach to folklore. Dundes called Campbell a "non-expert" and gave examples of how Campbell's work had biased sources. Dundes also criticized how the media portrayed Campbell as an expert on myths, even though he was not trained in folklore. Dundes wrote that many people outside of folklore studies believe they can speak about folklore without proper knowledge, and some, like Campbell, were accepted as experts by the public. Dundes argued that the idea of "archetypes" promoted by non-experts has harmed serious study of folklore.

Anthropologist Raymond Scupin said Campbell's theories were not well received in anthropology because of his overgeneralizations and other issues.

Campbell's knowledge of Sanskrit, an ancient language, has been questioned. Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, a former Sanskrit professor, said he met Campbell and believed Campbell had little real understanding of Sanskrit. Masson claimed Campbell used Sanskrit for his own purposes without proper knowledge. Richard Buchen, a librarian who worked with Campbell's collection, said Campbell relied on scholars who could translate Sanskrit well.

Ellwood noted that Campbell's book series The Masks of God was more popular with people who were not experts than with scholars. He quoted Stephen P. Dunn, who said Campbell's writing style was old-fashioned and sometimes annoying. Ellwood added that Campbell was not a social scientist and that others in that field could see this. He also mentioned concerns about Campbell oversimplifying history and letting myths mean whatever he wanted. Camille Paglia, a critic, disagreed with Campbell's negative view of ancient Athens in his book Occidental Mythology. She said Campbell ignored the artistic and spiritual aspects of Greek statues. Paglia also criticized Campbell for poor research and called his work a "fanciful, showy mishmash."

Some authors have accused Campbell of antisemitism. Tamar Frankiel wrote that Campbell referred to Judaism as the "Yahweh Cult" and used mostly negative language about it. Brendan Gill, in a 1989 article, accused Campbell of antisemitism and prejudice against Black people. However, Robert S. Ellwood said Gill's claims were based on limited and anecdotal evidence. In 1991, Masson also accused Campbell of hidden antisemitism and interest in conservative, semifascist ideas. Robert A. Segal's book Joseph Campbell on Jews and Judaism includes 70 references to Campbell's work.

Works

The first book published under Joseph Campbell’s name was Where the Two Came to Their Father (1943). This book describes a Navajo ceremony performed by a singer (medicine man) named Jeff King and recorded by artist and ethnologist Maud Oakes. The story follows two young heroes who visit the hogan of their father, the Sun, and return with the power to defeat monsters threatening their people. Campbell added commentary to the story. He used this tale throughout his career to explain both the common symbols and structures found in myths worldwide and the specific details of Native American stories.

James Joyce had a major influence on Campbell. Campbell’s first important book, A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake (1944), written with Henry Morton Robinson, is a detailed analysis of Joyce’s final book, Finnegans Wake. Later, Campbell’s most famous work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), discusses the "monomyth," a term he borrowed from Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. The monomyth describes the journey of a hero, a pattern found in many myths.

From college through the 1940s, Campbell wrote fiction. In later stories published in Mythic Imagination (a collection published after his death), he explored mythological themes he taught at Sarah Lawrence College. These ideas led him to focus more on non-fiction than fiction.

Originally titled How to Read a Myth, The Hero with a Thousand Faces was based on a class Campbell taught at Sarah Lawrence College. Published in 1949, it was his first major work as a solo author. The book argues that hero stories, such as those of Krishna, Buddha, Apollonius of Tyana, and Jesus, share similar mythological roots. It introduced the idea of the hero’s journey to the public and helped popularize the study of comparative mythology—the analysis of how myths from different cultures share universal themes despite their unique settings.

Between 1959 and 1968, Campbell wrote The Masks of God, a four-volume series about mythology from around the world. While The Hero with a Thousand Faces focused on shared myths (the "elementary ideas"), The Masks of God explored how myths changed across different cultures and time periods (the "folk ideas"). Unlike The Hero with a Thousand Faces, which used psychology, The Masks of God relied more on anthropology and history. The series includes books on Primitive Mythology, Oriental Mythology, Occidental Mythology, and Creative Mythology.

At the time of his death, Campbell was working on a large, illustrated series called Historical Atlas of World Mythology. This project built on the idea from The Hero with a Thousand Faces that myths evolve through four stages:

• The Way of the Animal Powers: Myths from the Paleolithic era, focusing on shamanism and animal totems.
• The Way of the Seeded Earth: Myths from the Neolithic era, centered on a mother goddess and fertility rituals.
• The Way of the Celestial Lights: Myths from the Bronze Age, featuring gods ruling from the heavens, led by a masculine god-king.
• The Way of Man: Myths from the Axial Age (around 600 BCE) onward, where myths became metaphorical, reflecting spiritual and psychological ideas rather than literal events. Examples include Buddhism, Vedanta, Taoism, and Christianity.

Only the first volume of Historical Atlas of World Mythology was completed when Campbell died. His editor, Robert Walter, finished the first three parts of the second volume after his death. These works are now out of print. As of 2014, the Joseph Campbell Foundation is working to create a new ebook edition.

Campbell became widely known after collaborating with Bill Moyers on the PBS series The Power of Myth, first broadcast in 1988, the year after his death. The series discusses mythological, religious, and psychological themes. A book, The Power of Myth, containing expanded versions of their conversations, was published soon after the series.

The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell is a project by the Joseph Campbell Foundation to publish new, official editions of Campbell’s writings, lectures, and recordings. As of 2014, the project has released over 75 titles. Robert Walter is the executive editor, and David Kudler is the managing editor.

Selected Works by Joseph Campbell:
– Where the Two Came to Their Father: A Navajo War Ceremonial (1943), with Jeff King and Maud Oakes, Old Dominion Foundation
– The Flight of the Wild Gander: Explorations in the Mythological Dimension (1968), Viking Press
– Myths to Live By (1972), Viking Press
– Erotic Irony and Mythic Forms in the Art of Thomas Mann (1973), Robert Briggs Associates (later included in The Mythic Dimension)
– The Mythic Image (1974), Princeton University Press
– The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: Metaphor as Myth and as Religion (1986), Alfred van der Marck Editions
– Transformations of Myth Through Time (1990), Harper and Row
– A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living (1991), editor Robert Walter, from material by Diane K. Osbon
– Mythic Worlds, Modern Words: On the Art of James Joyce (1993), editor Edmund L. Epstein
– The Mythic Dimension: Selected Essays (1959–1987) (1993), editor Anthony Van Couvering
– Baksheesh & Brahman: Indian Journals (1954–1955) (1995), editors Robin/Stephen Larsen and Anthony Van Couvering
– Thou Art That: Transforming Religious Metaphor (2001), editor Eugene Kennedy, New World Library
– The Inner Reaches of Outer Space (2002)
– Sake & Satori: Asian Journals – Japan (2002), editor David Kudler
– Myths of Light: Eastern Metaphors of the Eternal (2003), editor David Kudler
– Pathways to Bliss: Mythology and Personal Transformation (2004), editor David Kudler
– Mythic Imagination: Collected Short Fiction of Joseph Campbell (2012), ISBN 160868153X
– Goddesses: Mysteries of the Feminine Divine (2013), editor Safron Rossi
– Romance of the Grail: The Magic and Mystery of Arthurian Myth (2015), editor Evans Lansing Smith
– The Ecstasy of Being: Mythology and Dance (2017), editor Nancy Allison
– Correspondence 1927–1987 (2019, 2020), editors Dennis Patrick Slattery and Evans Lansing Smith

Other Works:
– The Power of Myth (1988), with Bill Moyers and editor Betty Sue Flowers, Doubleday, hardcover: ISBN 0-385-24773-7
– An Open Life: Joseph Campbell in Conversation with Michael Toms (1989), editors