The Flight of the Wild Gander by Joseph Campbell

Publishing: 1969 The Viking Press; New York

Signed and Inscribed by Author on flyleaf

First Edition of Joseph Campbells first collection of essays.

Joseph Campbell was an American professor who wrote extensively oncomparative mythology, specifically the concept of the monomyth, or journey of the archetypal hero that can be applied as a common template to a range of mythological narratives.He and other scholars described the narratives of Odysseus, Gautama Buddha, Moses, and Jesus Christ in terms of the monomyth. Adams Watership Down exhibits strong parallels to the epic themes of Homers Odyssey.

In Flight of the Wild Gander, mythologist Joseph Campbell explores the individual and geographical origins of myth, outlining the full range of mythology from Grimms fairy tales to American Indian legends. Originally published in 1969, this collection describes the symbolic content of stories: how they are linked to human experience and how they along with our experiences have changed over time. Throughout, Campbell explores the function of mythology in everyday life and the forms it may take in the future. Included are some of Campbells first groundbreaking essays: Bios and Mythos and Primitive Man as Metaphysician, both of which examine the biological basis and necessity for story and mythology, and establish mythology as a basic function or fact of nature. Campbells essay Mythogenesis turns from the natural and biological to the cultural and historical the rise, flowering, and decline of a particular myth, a single American Indian legend. Campbell explores how the myth was born, as well as the personal experiences of the visionary medicine man through whose memory the myth was preserved

Condition: Publishers red cloth boards with title along the spine, dust jacket remains unclipped ($7.50) with minor creasing along the spine and corner edges- jacket protected in mylar,