Jean Campbell Cooper

Biographie :

Jean C. Cooper (1905-1999) was born in China where she spent much of her childhood. Informed by the perspective of the Perennial Philosophy, she wrote and lectured extensively on the subjects of philosophy, comparative religion, and symbolism. She was the author of lucid introductory works on Chinese religion such as Taoism, the Way of the Mystic (1972), Yin and Yang (1981), and Chinese Alchemy (1984). In addition, she wrote several works in the field of symbolism, including Fairy Tales: Allegories of the Inner Life (1983), Symbolism, the Universal Language (1986), Symbolic and Mythological Animals (1992), and the broad ranging classic in its field, An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols (1978).

Often writing under the name "J.C. Cooper," she was a regular contributor to Studies in Comparative Religion, penning many book reviews and a few essays, such as “The Symbolism of the Taoist Garden”, which appeared in the Autumn 1977 issue of Studies. An illustrated compilation of three of her books recently appeared under the title An Illustrated Introduction to Taoism: The Wisdom of the Sages (World Wisdom, 2010).