Mythic Imagination: Collected Short Fiction
Enjoy seven never-before-collected stories from the master of myth and story himself

Before he was the engaging professor who brought mythology into people’s living rooms through his conversations with Bill Moyers, before he became known as the thinker whose ideas influenced Star Wars, and before his now-beloved phrase “follow your bliss” entered the popular lexicon, Joseph Campbell was a young man who tried his hand at writing fiction. At the age of twenty-nine, after years of Depression-era unemployment, when he lived off money he had earned playing saxophone in a jazz combo and read the world’s great literature in a syllabus of his own design, Campbell published his first short story. That tale, included in this collection, remained the famed mythologist’s only published piece of fiction, until now.

In these stories, readers will find rich mythological symbolism, down-to-earth concerns with the ravages of the Second World War, and singular iterations of Campbell’s famous Hero’s Journey schema — all interwoven into a literary style that anticipates the genre that would years later come to be known as “magical realism.” Compelling in their own right, these seven stories are essential reading for longtime Campbell fans and the many who continue to discover him afresh.
1110915280
Mythic Imagination: Collected Short Fiction
Enjoy seven never-before-collected stories from the master of myth and story himself

Before he was the engaging professor who brought mythology into people’s living rooms through his conversations with Bill Moyers, before he became known as the thinker whose ideas influenced Star Wars, and before his now-beloved phrase “follow your bliss” entered the popular lexicon, Joseph Campbell was a young man who tried his hand at writing fiction. At the age of twenty-nine, after years of Depression-era unemployment, when he lived off money he had earned playing saxophone in a jazz combo and read the world’s great literature in a syllabus of his own design, Campbell published his first short story. That tale, included in this collection, remained the famed mythologist’s only published piece of fiction, until now.

In these stories, readers will find rich mythological symbolism, down-to-earth concerns with the ravages of the Second World War, and singular iterations of Campbell’s famous Hero’s Journey schema — all interwoven into a literary style that anticipates the genre that would years later come to be known as “magical realism.” Compelling in their own right, these seven stories are essential reading for longtime Campbell fans and the many who continue to discover him afresh.
19.95 In Stock
Mythic Imagination: Collected Short Fiction

Mythic Imagination: Collected Short Fiction

by Joseph Campbell
Mythic Imagination: Collected Short Fiction

Mythic Imagination: Collected Short Fiction

by Joseph Campbell

Paperback

(Not eligible for purchase using B&N Audiobooks Subscription credits)
$19.95 
  • SHIP THIS ITEM
    In stock. Ships in 1-2 days.
  • PICK UP IN STORE

    Your local store may have stock of this item.

Related collections and offers


Overview

Enjoy seven never-before-collected stories from the master of myth and story himself

Before he was the engaging professor who brought mythology into people’s living rooms through his conversations with Bill Moyers, before he became known as the thinker whose ideas influenced Star Wars, and before his now-beloved phrase “follow your bliss” entered the popular lexicon, Joseph Campbell was a young man who tried his hand at writing fiction. At the age of twenty-nine, after years of Depression-era unemployment, when he lived off money he had earned playing saxophone in a jazz combo and read the world’s great literature in a syllabus of his own design, Campbell published his first short story. That tale, included in this collection, remained the famed mythologist’s only published piece of fiction, until now.

In these stories, readers will find rich mythological symbolism, down-to-earth concerns with the ravages of the Second World War, and singular iterations of Campbell’s famous Hero’s Journey schema — all interwoven into a literary style that anticipates the genre that would years later come to be known as “magical realism.” Compelling in their own right, these seven stories are essential reading for longtime Campbell fans and the many who continue to discover him afresh.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781608688098
Publisher: New World Library
Publication date: 05/10/2022
Pages: 288
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 65.00(d)

About the Author

Joseph Campbell is widely credited with bringing mythology to a mass audience. His works, including The Hero with a Thousand Faces, the four-volume The Masks of God, and The Power of Myth (with Bill Moyers), rank among the classics in mythology and literature.

Table of Contents

About The Collected Works of Joseph Campbell vii

Introduction David Kudler ix

Part I Moonlight in Vermont 1

Part II Where Moth and Rust: A Story Cycle 21

Foreword 23

Prelude 24

1 The Forgotten Man 27

2 The Belly of the Shark 59

3 The Lord of Love 87

4 Voracious 135

Part III Last Paradise 197

Appendix. Strictly Platonic: The Romance of a Bookworm Who Lost His Goat and Found Himself Famous 247

A Joseph Campbell Bibliography 261

About the Author 265

About The Joseph Campbell Foundation 267

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“No one in our century—not Freud, not Thomas Mann, not Lévi-Strauss—has so brought the mythical sense of the world and its eternal figures back into our everyday consciousness.”
—James Hillman

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews