Joseph Campbell

The Joseph Campbell collection consists of artifacts and audiovisual materials, including lecture recordings and film, that were created or collected throughout the course of his lifetime, as well as his personal library (catalogued separately). There are approximately 1,200 audio taped lectures and video tapes from during the decades he taught at Sarah Lawrence College, Eranos, Esalen, and elsewhere. The approximately 650 audio tape cassettes of Campbell’s public lectures reveal the scope of his interests in comparative mythology, religious studies, the hero’s journey, Indian mythology, the literature of James Joyce and Thomas Mann, and the psychologies of Sigmund Freud and C.J. Jung. Consists of two series: 1) Artifacts and 2) Audiovisual. Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) was an American mythologist, writer, lecturer and Professor of Literature at Sarah Lawrence College from 1934 to 1972. His work focused on comparative mythology and comparative literature. He was born in 1904 in White Plains, New York and studied at Columbia University, where he received a BA in 1925 and then an MA in Arthurian Studies in 1927. During the years he was on a traveling Fellowship in Europe to continue his studies at the University of Paris (1927-28) and at the University of Munich (1928-29), Campbell was exposed to the modern artists including Pablo Picasso and Paul Klee, the literary works of James Joyce and Thomas Mann, and the psychological work of Sigmund Freud and C.G. Jung. These individuals and their work greatly influenced Campbell’s work, which centered on mythology, literature, and psychology. Campbell was also a prolific public lecturer and traveled around the world to many universities and institutions. These include Eranos, Esalen Institute, the Theatre of the Open Eye in New York City, and many others. In 1988, a year after his death, the PBS series Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers was broadcast. The effect of this series upon the culture and the study of mythology and Jungian psychology has been extensive. For further biographical history see the authorized biography Joseph Campbell: Fire in the Mind by Stephen Larsen and Gail Larsen. Also visit the Joseph Campbell Foundation website.