My first teacher in unfolding the fairy story was Marie-Louise von Franz, and I have tried to be as true to the masculine stories as she has been to the feminine in her many books.
This book draws on a whole community of men, many of whom worked in this field long before I entered it. First among those is Alexander Mitscherlich, the German analyst, who died in 1981, and many fine thinkers in English as well. I am indebted deeply to the men with whom I have joyfully taught during the last eight years—Michael Meade, James Hillman, Terry Dobson, Robert Moore, and John Stokes, among many others.