A Tale from the Archives – Campbell & Jeffers

A great research tale on Campbell, Jeffers and some archive magic!

Archive Adventure Tales

Cover of the Jeffers Studies Journal with a page of Campbell’s notes, from the collection, wherein he is comparing Jeffers to Elliot. This was the first time in the history of the journal that they put anything other than a photo of Jeffers on the cover.

As a long standing member of the Robinson Jeffers Association (RJA) and a “reader” of Joseph Campbell’s works, I knew of Campbell’s appreciation of Jeffers’s poems Roan Stallion and Natural Music as having an influence on the development of his thinking during his visit to California’s Monterey Peninsula. I knew that Campbell moved into a cottage next to Ed Ricketts in Pacific Grove, CA, beginning his “year of magical thinking” in 1932, but I wanted to understand more about Jeffers’s influence on the young Campbell, particularly as they never met.

Through the internet, I learned that the collection of Campbell’s notes were held by Opus Archives and Research Center. As a resident of both San Luis Obispo and Montecito, I was amazed to find the very information I sought was within a few miles of my front door. With some trepidation, I contacted Richard Buchen at Opus to make an appointment to review the notes Campbell made of Jeffers’s work. Richard immediately made me feel at home as we descended the steps into the archives, as I “put on the white gloves,” and began searching though original hand written notes on brittle yellow paper. This was for me literally a dream come true. The time I spent with these documents was tantamount to having Joe himself—at my side—telling me what he thought at the twilight of his career.

Over the next few months, I organized my notes into a presentation which I gave at the RJA Annual Meeting where I was able to transfer the excitement, begun during my afternoon with Richard and “Joe”, to the audience. My presentation resulted in: 1) a request to write up my talk as a publishable article for Jeffers Studies, the scholarly journal of the RJA, and 2) a request by the Tor House Foundation (the not for profit foundation that maintains Jeffers’s home in Carmel) to present the same talk at their upcoming annual meeting. As regards preparation of a publishable article, I knew I needed more information. Again I contacted Opus and was delightfully welcomed by Gabrielle Milanich in the beautifully renovated facility. Following a thorough discussion of my project, Gabrielle made a number of insightful suggestions regarding content.  Among them was the critical use of photographs of Campbell’s original notes. Indeed, when the article was published, it was the issue’s lead article, adorned by the photograph clearly displaying a page from Campbell’s notations. (see image above)

Richard and Gabrielle not only made this project such a pleasure but also added quality to the content at every step. Without the study of Campbell’s notes and Opus, none of this would have been possible. My very most sincere thanks and appreciation to Opus for the opportunity to unite Jeffers and Campbell by underscoring their continuing contributions to what makes our culture fulfilling to us as human beings.

Gere’s article: “Phantom Rulers of Humanity: Influence of Robinson Jeffers’s Roan Stallion, Tamar, and Other Poems on Joseph Campbell’s The Masks of God: Creative Mythology“. Jeffers Studies, volume 13, pages 15-31, 2009