Joseph Campbell

Joseph Campbell became a superstar of public TV in the 1980s when he discussed mythology in interviews with Bill Moyers. The conversations are one of the most compelling events in the history of television. What's not commonly known is that some aspects of Campbell's worldview were shaped by the Monterey Peninsula in the early 1930s. During a visit here, he befriended the great marine biologist Ed Ricketts, who Campbell said became a "special teacher of consciousness." Thanks to Ricketts, close friend of author John Steinbeck, Campbell fell in love with the Monterey Bay seashore, and used the lessons of the tide pools – ecology, balance, struggle, connectedness – to inform his pioneering exploration of the world of myth. Campbell made an annual pilgrimage to Big Sur to celebrate his birthday at Esalen in the last fifteen years of his life. (Photo: copyright © Joseph Campbell Foundation (JCF.org). Used with permission.)