The Gift

by Lewis Hyde

Published 12 February 1983
Starting with the premise that the work of art is a gift and not a commodity, this revolutionary book ranges across anthropology, literature, economics, and psychology to show how the 'commerce of the creative spirit' functions in the lives of artists and in culture as a whole.

Trickster Makes This World

by Lewis Hyde

Published 31 December 1997
Trickster Makes This World brings to life the playful and disruptive side of the human imagination as it is embodied in the trickster mythology. Most at home on the road or at the twilight edge of town, tricksters are consummate boundary-crossers, slipping through keyholes, breaching walls subverting defence systems. Always out to satisfy their inordinate appetites, lying, cheating and stealing, trickster are a great bother to have around but paradoxically they are also indispensable heroes.

In this fascinating book, Lewis Hyde explores the old myths that state that the trickster made the world as it actually is. He argues that our world, with its complexity and ambiguity, its beauty and its dirt, was trickster's creation, and the work is not yet finished.