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Evans Lansing Smith, Ph.D.
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EVANS LANSING SMITH, PH.D.

Evans has degrees from Williams College, Antioch International, and The Claremont Graduate School. He is the author of ten books and numerous articles on comparative literature and mythology, and has taught at colleges in Switzerland, Maryland, Texas, and California, and at the C.G. Jung Institute in Kusnacht. In the late 1970s, he traveled with Joseph Campbell on study tours of Northern France, Egypt, and Kenya, with a focus on the Arthurian Romances of the Middle Ages and the Mythologies of the Ancient World. His books include:

The Descent to the Underworld in Literature, Painting, and Film: 1850-1950: The Modernist Nekyia
Figuring Poesis: A Mythical Geometry of Postmodernism
Haiku for Aphrodite
The Hero Journey in Literature
The Myth of the Descent to the Underworld in Postmodern Literature
Postmodern Magus: Myth and Poetics in the Works of James Merrill
Rape and Revelation
Ricorso and Revelation: An Archetypal Poetics of Modernism
Sacred Mysteries: Myths About Couples in Quest
Thomas Pynchon and the Postmodern Mythology of the Underworld
His areas of emphasis include: Myth in Literature from Antiquity to Postmodernism; Arthurian Romances, and The Hermetic Tradition. He currently teaches: Myth and the Underworld; Alchemy and Hermeticism; Arthurian Romances and the Grail; Folklore and Fairytales; Theoretical Approaches to Mythological Studies; Cultural Mythologies; and Native Mythologies of the Americas.
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Evans has degrees from Williams College, Antioch International, and The Claremont Graduate School. He is the author of ten books and numerous articles on comparative literature and mythology, and has taught at colleges in Switzerland, Maryland, Texas, and California, and at the C.G. Jung Institute in Kusnacht. In the late 1970s, he traveled with Joseph Campbell on study tours of Northern France, Egypt, and Kenya, with a focus on the Arthurian Romances of the Middle Ages and the Mythologies of the Ancient World. His books include: The Descent to the Underworld in Literature, Painting, and Film: 1850-1950: The Modernist Nekyia Figuring Poesis: A Mythical Geometry of Postmodernism Haiku for Aphrodite The Hero Journey in Literature The Myth of the Descent to the Underworld in Postmodern Literature Postmodern Magus: Myth and Poetics in the Works of James Merrill Rape and Revelation Ricorso and Revelation: An Archetypal Poetics of Modernism Sacred Mysteries: Myths About Couples in Quest Thomas Pynchon and the Postmodern Mythology of the Underworld His areas of emphasis include: Myth in Literature from Antiquity to Postmodernism; Arthurian Romances, and The Hermetic Tradition. He currently teaches: Myth and the Underworld; Alchemy and Hermeticism; Arthurian Romances and the Grail; Folklore and Fairytales; Theoretical Approaches to Mythological Studies; Cultural Mythologies; and Native Mythologies of the Americas.
Evans Lansing Smith is Chair and Core Faculty of the Mythological Studies Program at the Pacifica Graduate Institute, in Santa Barbara, CA. In the 1970s he traveled with the late Joseph Campbell on tours of Northern France, Egypt, and Kenya. He is the author of thirteen books (including two recent volumes of poems) and numerous articles on comparative literature and mythology. He has his Ph.D. from The Claremont Graduate School, an M.A. in Creative Writing from Antioch International (London and Dublin), and a B.A. from Williams College. He has taught at colleges and universities in Switzerland, Maryland, Texas, and California, and is the recipient of awards for distinguished teaching and publication from Midwestern State University, and the Pacifica Graduate Institute. In addition, he has lectured at the C.G. Jung Institutes in Küsnacht and New York, The Seattle Friends of Jung, the Modern Language Association, the American Popular Culture Association, the Ojai Writer’s Conference, the Pacifica Graduate Institute, and the Casa dei Pesci in Circeo San Felice, Italy. His edited volume of Joseph Campbell’s writings and lectures on the Grail Romances was published in the Collected Works Series by New World Publishing in November, 2015, and his edition of the Correspondences of Joseph Campbell is forthcoming.
Evans Lansing Smith once told CA: "My work was inspired by meeting and traveling with Joseph Campbell in the late 1970s. We went on study tours of northern France, Egypt, and Africa, and I subsequently attended seminars in New York, Santa Barbara, and San Francisco. His work in mythology and my interest in modernist literature and culture came together in my studies of the descent to the underworld. I am currently writing more creative nonfiction, at work on a kind of historical novel tracing the lives of my ancestors. This represents a major and challenging change of direction in my work."
Evans has degrees from Williams College, Antioch International, and The Claremont Graduate School. He is the author of ten books and numerous articles on comparative literature and mythology, and has taught at colleges in Switzerland, Maryland, Texas, and California, and at the C.G. Jung Institute in Kusnacht. In the late 1970s, he traveled with Joseph Campbell on study tours of Northern France, Egypt, and Kenya, with a focus on the Arthurian Romances of the Middle Ages and the Mythologies of the Ancient World.
Evans Lansing Smith, Ph.D., co-chair of Mythological Studies at the Pacifica Graduate Institute – home of Joseph Campbell archives and the only advanced degree Mythology program in the world. Evans Lansing Smith traveled with Joseph Campbell on tours of Northern France, Egypt, and Kenya, with a focus on the Arthurian Romances and the mythologies of the Ancient World.He is a published poet, and the author of 8 books and many articles on Comparative Literature and Mythology. He has a B.A. in English from Williams College, an M.A. in Creative Writing from Antioch International, and a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the Claremont Graduate School. He has taught at colleges in Switzerland, Maryland, Texas, and California, and is currently Co-Chair of the Mythological Studies Program at the Pacifica Graduate Institute, in Santa Barbara, CA.
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