SOURCE: Goodrich, Chris. “PW Interviews: Joseph Campbell.” Publishers Weekly 228 (23 August 1985): 74-5.

In the following essay, Goodrich offers an overview of Campbell's life and work.

Joseph Campbell starts talking about myth even before we exit the elevator en route to his room at the Clift Hotel in San Francisco. He has just returned from the coastal town of Mendocino, three hours to the north, where he participated in an annual retreat organized by the poet Robert Bly. Campbell is brimming with enthusiasm—he walks right by his suite on the first attempt, too busy describing his recent experience to remember which corridor is which. “You know that white Masonic hall in town? With that freemason symbol, the Time and the Virgin statues on the top? The town is wonderful, and that building—marvelous!”

“Marvelous” is a word one hears frequently while listening to Campbell, this year's recipient of the...