Officials at the Joseph Campbell Foundation, devoted to the memory of the mythology scholar who died in 1987, say quite firmly that Campbell would never have wanted to be associated with something so nonliterary as a coffee table book. So when Brompton Books of Greenwich, Conn., published "Great Figures of Mythology," a coffee-table book that used Campbell's name on the cover, the foundation was miffed enough to take the company to court.
To be sure, Brompton had received permission to use an excerpt from Campbell's work "The Hero With a Thousand Faces" from Princeton University Press, which owns the copyright. But the foundation argued that Brompton had mischaracterized the excerpt as an introduction to "Great Figures of Mythology" and tried unfairly to capitalize on Campbell's reputation.The two parties settled the lawsuit recently, with Brompton agreeing to remove Campbell's name from the cover in future editions and to pay $35,000 in damages. The publisher also agreed to put ellipses in the Campbell text to show where cuts had been made. "It represents a complete vindication of rights in this matter," said Jonathan D. Reichman, a lawyer for the foundation.
But Brompton's lawyer, Robert Kreutzer, hardly thinks so. The company settled the lawsuit only to avoid the cost of litigation, he said. "The Campbell people seemed to think that somehow we're not authorized to use his name," Kreutzer said, "but if we have the license to use his excerpt, we would of course identify its source. We think they're being a bit sensitive."