This seminal work has influenced millions of readers since it was originally published in 1949, bringing the insights of modern psychology together with Campbell\'s revolutionary understanding of comparative mythology. In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell formulated the dual schemas of the Hero\'s Journey, a universal motif of adventure and transformation that runs through all of humanity\'s mythic traditions, and of the Cosmogonic Cycle, the stories of world-creation and -dissolution that have marked cultures around the world and across the centuries.

Translated into twenty languages, The Hero with a Thousand Faces has sold well over a million copies and continues to find new audiences among professors and students in fields ranging from the history of religion and anthropology to literature and film studies; among creative artists including authors, filmmakers, game designers and song writers; and among all of those interested in the basic human impulse to tell stories.

In addition to this new hardcover edition, the first truly new edition of ths seminal work in forty years, the JCF is making the few remaining copies of the old paperback edition available to JCF associates and to educational institutions. Associates should visit our contributions page; book stores and schools should contact us at hero.sales@jcf.org.

Reviews:

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In the three decades since I discovered The Hero with a Thousand Faces, it has continued to fascinate and inspire me. Joseph Campbell peers through centuries and shows us that we are all connected by a basic need to hear stories and understand ourselves. As a book, it is wonderful to read; as illumination into the human condition, it is a revelation. -- George Lucas

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The book itself really needs no introduction, as it is Campbell’s masterly study of the key themes of world mythology, in the light of twentieth century knowledge including psychology.... Exploring topics ranging from apotheosis to initiation to quest to vocation, this book belongs in the library of anyone interested in the role that myth plays in art, in human development, and its continued relevance to postmodern spiritual seekers.

This edition, published a year ahead of the book’s sixtieth anniversary, is a feast. Not only is it a reasonably priced hardcover edition, but it has new features including more illustrations than ever before, a comprehensive bibliography and new annotations sprinkled throughout the text. The cover design makes its own statement about the book’s universal message: a montage of photographs of very ordinary looking people from cultures throughout the world that blend to form a hero’s face (it looks like Christ to me, but that could be my own bias).

Donate your old paperback copy (you know, the one with Luke Skywalker on the front cover) to Goodwill, and get a copy of this splendid new edition. And carry on with your heroic quest. -- Carl McColman