The Larsens (Stephen: The Mythic Imagination, 1990; Robin: a Swedenborg scholar), longtime friends and students of Joseph Campbell (1904-87), team up—with Campbell family permission and full access to his papers—to deliver a hefty but hollow biography of the illustrious expositor of world myths. Plodding resolutely and diligently through Campbell's life, the authors begin with the early experiences that provided the impetus for their subject's research. Fascinated by Native Americans as a youth, Campbell, born in N.Y.C., absorbed their wood-lore and mythology through voracious reading and the guidance of an old naturalist neighbor. Early trips to the West Coast and Europe, plus later sojourns as a young scholar in Paris, Munich, and other cultural centers made Campbell a citizen of the world, and also brought chance meetings with other travelers who would become valued friends—the Indian mystic Krishnamurti among them. Another friendship led to John Steinbeck, Ed Ricketts, and their circle, while Campbell's studies eventually brought him, in 1934, to a teaching career at Sarah Lawrence, where he met future wife Jean Erdman, a student. A popular figure in the classroom, Campbell, with the 1949 publication of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, found his reputation spreading in scholarly circles as well, while encounters with other dynamic figures such as Maya Deren or Heinrich Zimmer in New York, and journeys to India and the Far East, added fuel to this mythological quest. Remaining decades of travel and meetings with the notable and famous receive equally lavish attention here, bolstered throughout by extensive quotations from Campbell's journals and correspondence—but, even so, the discussion is often rarely more than a calendar of events and an apologia for Campbell's apolitical nature and other traits. A lackluster offering, with an abundance of information but little critical distance or depth. (Fifty b&w photographs—not seen.)
Pub Date: Dec. 1, 1991
ISBN: 0-385-26635-9
Page Count: 656
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 1991
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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