A Fire in the Mind

Fans of Joseph Campbell may gain additional insight into how to live an authentic life by considering the chance occurrences in his life and the choices he made from an early age. His anxiety regarding various life changing situations and the consequent choices offer a rare insight to those who enjoy (suffer?) the artist's temperament. The Larsens have presented a satisfying panorama of Joseph Campbell's life. I wonder how they were able to choose from the wealth of information available, but am grateful for their work.

Phenomenal.Never mind that people think I'm pretentious if I carry it around: Read it and you will not care what anyone thinks:What a handsome man he was,what a focus: Joy.His notes,his diary,sensitive students writing this automatic genius.It's really good.F haters.

You state that this book is out of stock. Boarders got it for me in three days.

FROM THE BIG SUR AND ROBINSON JEFFERS TO THE MYSTERY WORLD OF JAMES JOYCE'S FINNIGAN'S WAKE, THE LARSENS TAKE US TO ALL THE PLACES IN MIND AND LOCATION THAT CAMPBELL FREQUENTED. HIS LONG-TIME CONNECTIONS TO GREAT NOVELISTS LIKE JOHN STEINBECK AND NEW THOUGHT THINKERS LIKE MICHAEL MURPHY OF THE ESALEN INSTITUTE REVEAL THE ECLETIC PANORAMA THAT WAS THIS GREAT, AND SOMETIMES UNDER-APPRECIATED, MAN'S PURVIEW.IT IS VERY SAD THAT THE PUBLISHER NO LONGER BELIEVES THAT THERE IS AN AUDIENCE FOR THE DETAILS OF THIS WONDERFUL MAN'S LIFE.

Not one for biographies I nevertheless enjoyed this one tremendously. It is quite an intimate account of Campbell's life presented in an interesting format of his personal journal entries and recollections of others inbetween the Larsens' well written flow. Who could not marvel at this man's brilliant life? The only problem with this biography is that in light of its length it loses a bit of the focus on Campbell's vision near the last few decades of his life. The many anecdotes of friends he accumulated in the 70's and 80's are nice but I would've liked to have kept more with Campbell's journal entries (if he did indeed keep up with personal writings). The last several chapters show Campbell living his life in the parasitic throes of 'new-agers', and portray them (unintentionally) as enjoying his company for their own benefit to the point where he probably was unable to get much of his own work done. Of course, who could blame people for wanting to be near the man and hear his erudition? But I would like to know more about his personal thoughts in his last years. Joseph Campbell lived a truly enchanted life and will be the teacher for the next century in more ways than one.