James Baldwin

David Adams Leeming

The controversial writer contemplates the whole spectrum of contemporary American life, with a look at the problems and continuing plight of blacks in white America, by focusing on the Atlanta child murders and public reaction.

Reissued Edition

The Evidence of Things Not Seen

Examines the universal themes of myths from cultures ranging from ancient Egypt and Greece to Christianity and modern science, analyzing how different cultures and societies have addressed fundamental human concerns and experiences.

The World of Myth

Jake Page

Recounts more than seventy Native American myths from a variety of cultures, covering gods, creation, and heroes and heroines, and discusses each myth within its own context, its relationship to other myths, and its place within world mythology.

The Mythology of Native North America

What makes something mythic? What do mythic events and narratives have to do with us? In Mythology, David Leeming offers an unusual and effective approach to the subject of mythology by stressing universal themes through myths of many cultures. This anthology collects a wide array of narrative texts from the Bible to English literature to interpretations by Joseph Campbell, C.G. Jung, and others, which illustrate how myths serve whole societies in our universal search for meaning. Leeming illustrates the various stages or rites of passage of the mythic universal hero, from birth to childhood, through trial and quest, death, descent, rebirth, and ascension. The arrangement of texts by themes such as "Childhood, Initiation and Divine Signs," "The Descent to the Underworld," and "Resurrection and Rebirth" strip mythic characters of their many national and cultural "masks" to reveal their archetypal aspects. Real figures, including Jesus and Mohammed, are also included underlining the theory that myths are real and can be applied to real life. This edition is updated to include additional heroine myths, as well as Navajo, Indonesian, Indian, Chinese, and African tales.

The Voyage of the Hero

Mythology

David Adams (Professor of English and Comparative Literature Leeming, University of Connecticut)

A Dictionary of Creation Myths

Nearly every belief system in every part of the world has its own distinctive answers to how the world was created, often taking the form of a story or myth. These narratives offer insight into a culture's values, its world view, and its interpretations of the relationship between the individual, society, and the divine.

Creation Myths of the World: Parts I-II

Professor of English and Comparative Literature David Leeming

Gathering seventy-five noted tales of Goddess mythology, an introduction describes a divine figure's growth throughout history, chronicling her first appearances during the Ice Age and her re-emergences in modern religion, psychology, and science. UP.

Myths of the Female Divine

Goddess

This text explores classic works such as the Song of Songs to reveal the cultural energies that ancient mythmakers sought to corral in their creations. Leeming suggests that myth and factual knowledge do not negate, but complement each other.

A Biography of Belief

Myth

Esteemed scholar David Leeming, who has authored more than twelve books on mythology, here offers the first comprehensive narrative study of the mythology of the Middle East, that tumultuous region that was the cradle of civilization. Leeming begins with a brief, engaging history of the Middle East, spanning Neolithic cultures, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age, the invention of writing and the rise of Egypt and Babylonia, Israel and Roman rule, and the early history of the Jews, Christians, and Muslims. This is followed by an in-depth discussion of the mythology of the region, covering individual pantheons, cosmic myths, mythic heroes, and much more. Leeming ranges from prehistoric figures such as the Mother Goddess of Catal Huyuk to Mesopotamian gods such as Marduk and mythic heroes such as Gilgamesh, to the pantheon of Egyptian mythology, including the falcon-headed sky-sun god Horus and jackal-headed Anubis. The author also offers an illuminating exploration of the mythology of the three great monotheistic religions of the region: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In a provocative Epilogue, Leeming depicts today's crisis in the Middle East as "violent, clearly immoral, and illegal actions" justified by "what can only be called myths." He notes that fundamentalists in the area's three religions all see their way as the only way, forgetting that myths represent truths that are spiritual and philosophical--not historical events that can be used to justify acts of violence. With key maps, illustrations, bibliography, and index, Jealous Gods and Chosen People provides an inclusive, authoritative, and captivating account of a mythology that remains a potent--and often destructive--force in the world today.

The Mythology of the Middle East

Jealous Gods and Chosen People

Leeming illustrates the various stages or rites of passage of the mythic universal hero, from birth to childhood, through trial and quest, death, descent, rebirth, and ascension. The arrangement of texts by themes such as "Childhood, Initiation and Divine Signs," "The Descent to theUnderworld," and "Resurrection and Rebirth" strip mythic characters of their many national and cultural "masks" to reveal their archetypal aspects. Real figures, including Jesus and Mohammed, are also included underlining the theory that myths are real and can be applied to real life. This editionis updated to include additional heroine myths, as well as Navajo, Indonesian, Indian, Chinese, and African tales.

A Biography

Illustrating their points with materials ranging from the prehistoric cave paintings to the mystic Jewish Kabbalah, from the ancient Indians Vedas to tales of the North American Indians and other myths from around the world, Leeming and Page reveals the changing mask of the male divine.

Myths of the Male Divine

This is an A-Z dictionary of mythologies of the Asian continent. Major characters, places and events of Asian mythology, as well as certain relevant themes and cultural traditions are included.

A Dictionary of Asian Mythology

Mitoloji - Kahramanin Yolculugu

David Leeming

Examines the life of the twentieth-century's most influential Black writer, discussing his literary works, his homosexuality, and his struggle against white society's denial of African American identity

A portrait of Beauford Delaney chronicles the extraordinary life of one of the most important African-American painters of the twentieth century, looking at the evolution of his work, his friendships, his spirituality, and his eventual madness. UP.

A Life of Beauford Delaney

Amazing Grace

David A. Leeming

Examines the universal themes of myths from cultures ranging from ancient Egypt and Greece to Christianity and modern science, analyzing how different cultures and societies have addressed fundamental human concerns and experiences

Hercules, Zeus, Thor, Gilgamesh--these are the figures that leap to mind when we think of myth. But to David Leeming, myths are more than stories of deities and fantastic beings from non-Christian cultures. Myth is at once the most particular and the most universal feature of civilization, representing common concerns that each society voices in its own idiom. Whether an Egyptian story of creation or the big-bang theory of modern physics, myth is metaphor, mirroring our deepest sense of ourselves in relation to existence itself. Now, in The World of Myth, Leeming provides a sweeping anthology of myths, ranging from ancient Egypt and Greece to the Polynesian islands and modern science. We read stories of great floods from the ancient Babylonians, Hebrews, Chinese, and Mayans; tales of apocalypse from India, the Norse, Christianity, and modern science; myths of the mother goddess from Native American Hopi culture and James Lovelock's Gaia. Leeming has culled myths from Aztec, Greek, African, Australian Aboriginal, Japanese, Moslem, Hittite, Celtic, Chinese, and Persian cultures, offering one of the most wide-ranging collections of what he calls the collective dreams of humanity. More important, he has organized these myths according to a number of themes, comparing and contrasting how various societies have addressed similar concerns, or have told similar stories. In the section on dying gods, for example, both Odin and Jesus sacrifice themselves to renew the world, each dying on a tree. Such traditions, he proposes, may have their roots in societies of the distant past, which would ritually sacrifice their kings to renew the tribe. In The World of Myth, David Leeming takes us on a journey "not through a maze of falsehood but through a marvellous world of metaphor," metaphor for "the story of the relationship between the known and the unknown, both around us and within us." Fantastic, tragic, bizarre, sometimes funny, the myths he presents speak of the most fundamental human experience, a part of what Joseph Campbell called "the wonderful song of the soul's high adventure."

An Anthology

From the legend of Paul Bunyan to the icon of Uncle Sam, a unique collection of America's great myths and legends includes excerpts from primary material and an analysis of how immigrants assimilated to American folklore.

David Adams Leeming

About

Books

Join the club