www nybooks com articles 1989-09-28 the faces of joseph camp (copy)

8/19/2019 Www Nybooks Com Articles 1989-09-28 the Faces of Joseph Camp (Copy)

1/7

pdfcrowd comopen in browser PRO version Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API

Welcome (sign in | sign up)

Advanced Search

The Faces of JosephCampbellBrendan Gill SEPTEMBER 28,

1989 ISSUE

Thanks to

television,

people

comparatively

obscure during

their lifetimes

Enter search keywords...

Subscribe Current Issue NYR Daily Calendar Archive Classifieds Shop Newsletters

http://shop.nybooks.com/products/joseph-campbell-1989http://www.smokeybear.com/http://www.smokeybear.com/http://www.smokeybear.com/http://www.nybooks.com/http://www.nybooks.com/account/signin/?current_page=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nybooks.com%2Farticles%2F1989%2F09%2F28%2Fthe-faces-of-joseph-campbell%2Fhttp://www.smokeybear.com/http://www.smokeybear.com/http://pdfcrowd.com/http://pdfcrowd.com/redirect/?url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.nybooks.com%2farticles%2f1989%2f09%2f28%2fthe-faces-of-joseph-campbell%2f&id=ma-160326134445-8a148525http://pdfcrowd.com/customize/http://pdfcrowd.com/html-to-pdf-api/?ref=pdfhttp://www.nybooks.com/account/signin/?current_page=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nybooks.com%2Farticles%2F1989%2F09%2F28%2Fthe-faces-of-joseph-campbell%2Fhttps://subscribe.nybooks.info/ecom/nyb/app/live/web_user_maint?org=NYB&pagemode=ahttp://www.google.com/+nybookshttp://www.facebook.com/nybookshttp://twitter.com/nybookshttp://www.nybooks.com/rss/http://www.nybooks.com/search/http://www.nybooks.com/http://shop.nybooks.com/products/joseph-campbell-1989http://www.nybooks.com/contributors/brendan-gill/http://www.nybooks.com/issues/1989/09/28/http://www.smokeybear.com/http://www.nybooks.com/subscriptions/order/http://www.nybooks.com/current-issue/http://www.nybooks.com/daily/http://www.nybooks.com/calendar/http://www.nybooks.com/issues/http://www.nybooks.com/classifieds/http://shop.nybooks.com/http://www.nybooks.com/newsletter/magazine/http://www.nyrb.com/


2/7


Joseph Campbell; drawing by David Levine

enjoy the

possibility of

becoming

celebrated after

they are dead.

Indeed, theymay do better

than that—they

may achieve

what amounts to

a substantial

measure of

immortality,

which is to say

that as long as TV tapes of them exist and as long as an

audience can be found of a size sufficient to make it

worthwhile to broadcast the tapes, they can go on

occupying a prominent place in the world for many

decades and perhaps even—who knows?—for centuries.

Of course I am thinking of a particular case: that of my

friend Joseph Campbell, who taught at Sarah Lawrence

College for almost forty years, his subject being the

role of myth in human history. He wrote a number of

books on this and related topics, the best known of them

http://www.smokeybear.com/http://shop.nybooks.com/products/joseph-campbell-1989http://shop.nybooks.com/products/joseph-campbell-1989http://pdfcrowd.com/http://pdfcrowd.com/redirect/?url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.nybooks.com%2farticles%2f1989%2f09%2f28%2fthe-faces-of-joseph-campbell%2f&id=ma-160326134445-8a148525http://pdfcrowd.com/customize/http://pdfcrowd.com/html-to-pdf-api/?ref=pdfhttp://shop.nybooks.com/products/joseph-campbell-1989http://www.nybooks.com/issues/1989/09/28/http://www.smokeybear.com/http://www.nybooks.com/issues/1989/09/28/


3/7


I

in his lifetime being The Hero with a Thousand Faces

and The Masks of God . He retired from Sarah Lawrence

in 1972 and was at work on still another book when, in

1987, at the age of eighty-two, he died after what his

obituary in The New York Times described simply as “a

brief illness.” That brevity was, so his friends thought,characteristic of him: he died within a few months, and

in doing so he displayed what many of his friends took

to be a characteristic—and enviable—alacrity.

call Campbell’s alacrity enviable because, in our

present state of medical ignorance, the disease that was

killing him wasn’t to be outwitted except in a negative

sense by the degree to which its duration could be

reduced: Why dawdle in the presence of the inevitable?

At the same time, however, for Campbell to have

consented to be sick at all seemed an impermissible

aberration. Ordinarily, it isn’t a reason for astonishment

when an old man is called upon to die, but Campbell hadseemed to us never to grow old. If by the calendar he

had reached his eighties, in person he was a good twenty

years younger than that, or so any stranger would have

assumed on meeting him. He was slender and quick-

moving and because of his erect carriage gave the

A Poet and Her Myths Al Alvarez

The Pizza Is Burning! Murray Kempton

Oh What a Lovely War! Noel Annan

‘Giacometti’s Code’

James Lord

About the European House Neal Ascherson

MORE

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

—— SEPTEMBER 28, 1989 ——

http://pdfcrowd.com/http://pdfcrowd.com/redirect/?url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.nybooks.com%2farticles%2f1989%2f09%2f28%2fthe-faces-of-joseph-campbell%2f&id=ma-160326134445-8a148525http://pdfcrowd.com/customize/http://pdfcrowd.com/html-to-pdf-api/?ref=pdfhttp://www.nybooks.com/articles/1989/09/28/a-poet-and-her-myths/http://www.nybooks.com/contributors/al-alvarez/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1989/09/28/the-pizza-is-burning/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1989/09/28/the-pizza-is-burning/http://www.nybooks.com/contributors/murray-kempton/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1989/09/28/oh-what-a-lovely-war/http://www.nybooks.com/contributors/noel-annan/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1989/09/28/giacomettis-code/http://www.nybooks.com/contributors/james-lord/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1989/09/28/about-the-european-house/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1989/09/28/about-the-european-house/http://www.nybooks.com/contributors/neal-ascherson/http://www.nybooks.com/issues/1989/09/28/http://www.nybooks.com/issues/1989/09/28/


4/7


impression of being taller than he was. He had thick dark

wavy hair, bright blue eyes, unwrinkled skin, and a pink

complexion. He laughed readily, boyishly, and his

laughter remained especially attractive in old age

because, as far as one could tell, his teeth were his own,

neither false nor capped. He was, in short, an invinciblyyouthful figure, so uncannily unaltered by time that I

used to accuse him, to his delight, of practicing some

hitherto unknown form of satanism.

We would encounter each other, Campbell and I, at

monthly meetings of the Century Club, in New York

City. Handsome in black tie, he would be standing near one or another of the bars that were set up…

This article is available to online subscribers

only.Please choose from one of the options below to

access this article:

PRINT PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION — $99.95

Purchase a print premium subscription (20 issues per

http://pdfcrowd.com/http://pdfcrowd.com/redirect/?url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.nybooks.com%2farticles%2f1989%2f09%2f28%2fthe-faces-of-joseph-campbell%2f&id=ma-160326134445-8a148525http://pdfcrowd.com/customize/http://pdfcrowd.com/html-to-pdf-api/?ref=pdfhttp://www.nybooks.com/subscriptions/premium/http://www.nybooks.com/subscriptions/order/http://x.vindicosuite.com/click/?v=5;m=3;l=472333;c=913141;b=3943347;ts=1459014283;ui=QylOXeNiXY0og1MFxsURBJdZGJyP4g--abbp_xcOyGOAFKNqJ72-qg_cmWvdVS1cJyb4Ou0woVEHzrCVaRuZ1g;ad=CI3qHBC8nwwY5gsgASgEMLQoONOXAUC0+RFIuuoQUPXdN1iz1/ABYABo4/IgcAF4AYgBAJABAJgBAKIBEjk3ODI1MTc0MjY2MDk5NzUzMLIBCENSRUFUSVZFuAEAwAECyAEN0AEA2AEA;z=CPXdNxCz1/ABZQAAIEBtAAAAAHUAAAA/zQEAAAA/0AEA2AEA4AEA6AEA8AEAkAIAmAIAtQIAACBAvQIAAAAAxQIAAAA/0AIA;xid=978251742660997530;ep=1;dct=https://adclick.g.doubleclick.net/aclk?sa=L&ai=CfU25i8r2VsPkEpe4fI6XqtgCmPfXkwSYgsHUZ8CNtwEQASAAYMkGggEXY2EtcHViLTIyNTg3OTkyMjIyNDMwOTfIAQmoAwGqBKoBT9D7AxtQ7jyw0LX_1zauOpKnmlmyBCC5_6Ymlr-gQc6otD8SATjacYUsrZV_jQd5_nuD9ee4hXzosuXbe3TeDnpuhzifnaVtQsxzPrObVJV22PLB52YLrPCggc0avs_RbfmbIWUKp72XhFT-j7REj0dGbKsQYXe_DbvuT18tWWYkmTUGDz5LgYO7jamtHALbwVgRoRByX5_QIDK-Jhjc6N5C78_scMsl0rmABpjMpNDe4Lqe3wGgBiHYBwA&num=1&sig=AOD64_2a6cC7I75fQrVeEdgL6qYHVSchYg&client=ca-pub-2258799222243097&adurl=https://bid.g.doubleclick.net/xbbe/creative/click%3Fd%3DAPEucNXU_CaMERboSGePrecZ0VPvB8coel7iQwl_E7j_0YMTWKYR-ckbNjNtIEcn3hqx7NpUnSPgFm73hAhMxB7sAOaTmeRA3w%26r1%3Dhttps://ad.atdmt.com/c/go;p=11022203438473;as=0;a=11022203449149;crs=11022203449132;cr=11022203457511;i.ts=1459014284


5/7


year) and also receive online access to all all content on

nybooks.com.

ONLINE SUBSCRIPTION — $69.00

Purchase an Online Edition subscription and receive full

access to all articles published by the Review since 1963.

ONE-WEEK ACCESS — $4.99

Purchase a trial Online Edition subscription and receive

unlimited access for one week to all the content on

nybooks.com.

If you already have one of these subscri ptions,

please be sure you are logged in to your

nybooks.com account. If you subscribe to the

print edition, you may also need to link your web

site account to your print subscription. Click here

to link your account services.

Rome: Behind the RuinsJenny Uglow

Why Belgium?Didier Leroy and JoostHiltermann

A Different SyriaRobyn Creswell

The Saga of SkateboardingJames Guida

2016: What We Now KnowElizabeth Drew

http://pdfcrowd.com/http://pdfcrowd.com/redirect/?url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.nybooks.com%2farticles%2f1989%2f09%2f28%2fthe-faces-of-joseph-campbell%2f&id=ma-160326134445-8a148525http://pdfcrowd.com/customize/http://pdfcrowd.com/html-to-pdf-api/?ref=pdfhttp://www.nybooks.com/subscriptions/online/http://www.nybooks.com/subscriptions/oneweek/http://www.nybooks.com/account/signin/?current_page=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nybooks.com%2Farticles%2F1989%2F09%2F28%2Fthe-faces-of-joseph-campbell%2Fhttps://subscribe.nybooks.info/ecom/nyb/app/live/web_user_maint?org=NYB&pagemode=ahttp://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/03/26/rome-behind-ruins-francis-towne/http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/03/26/rome-behind-ruins-francis-towne/http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/03/26/rome-behind-ruins-francis-towne/http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/03/24/brussels-attacks-isis-why-belgium/http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/03/24/brussels-attacks-isis-why-belgium/http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/03/24/brussels-attacks-isis-why-belgium/http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/03/21/voices-from-different-syria-abounaddara-films/http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/03/21/voices-from-different-syria-abounaddara-films/http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/03/21/voices-from-different-syria-abounaddara-films/http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/03/19/skateboarding-league-view-from-street/http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/03/19/skateboarding-league-view-from-street/http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/03/19/skateboarding-league-view-from-street/http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/03/17/what-we-now-know-2016-presidential-election/http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/03/17/what-we-now-know-2016-presidential-election/http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2016/03/17/what-we-now-know-2016-presidential-election/http://www.nybooks.com/daily/


6/7


http://pdfcrowd.com/http://pdfcrowd.com/redirect/?url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.nybooks.com%2farticles%2f1989%2f09%2f28%2fthe-faces-of-joseph-campbell%2f&id=ma-160326134445-8a148525http://pdfcrowd.com/customize/http://pdfcrowd.com/html-to-pdf-api/?ref=pdf


7/7

df d mi b PRO i Are you a developer? Try out the HTML to PDF API

Home Contact Us About Subscribe Advertise University Press Listing Independent Press Listing Customer Service

Help/FAQ Books Terms of Service Feeds Newsletters

© 1963-2016 NYREV, Inc. All rights reserved.
http://pdfcrowd.com/http://pdfcrowd.com/redirect/?url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.nybooks.com%2farticles%2f1989%2f09%2f28%2fthe-faces-of-joseph-campbell%2f&id=ma-160326134445-8a148525http://pdfcrowd.com/customize/http://pdfcrowd.com/html-to-pdf-api/?ref=pdfhttp://www.nybooks.com/http://www.nybooks.com/contact/http://www.nybooks.com/about/http://www.nybooks.com/subscriptions/order/http://www.nybooks.com/advertising/http://www.nybooks.com/upress/http://www.nybooks.com/ipl/http://www.nybooks.com/customer-service/http://www.nybooks.com/about/faq/http://www.nyrb.com/http://www.nybooks.com/about/terms-of-service/http://www.nybooks.com/rss-2/http://www.nybooks.com/newsletter/magazine/

www nybooks com articles 1989-09-28 the faces of joseph camp (copy)

Documents