“People have the notion of saving the world by shifting things around, changing the rules, and who’s on top, and so forth. No, no! Any world is a valid world if it’s alive. The thing to do is to bring life to it, and the only way to do that is to find in your own case where the life is and become alive yourself.”

American writer and professor of literature

Joseph Campbell was an American writer and professor of literature at Sarah Lawrence College. He worked in comparative mythology and comparative religion, and his life dates are not given here. He is best known for exploring myth, story, and the human condition. His best-known book is The Hero with a Thousand Faces, published in 1949. In it, he sets out his idea of the archetypal hero’s journey across world mythologies, a pattern he called the monomyth. His writing ranges across broad questions of meaning, symbolism, and experience.