When Bill Moyers aired his program on Robert Bly, "A Gathering of Men," on public television in the winter of 1990, it generated an unprecedented flood of calls and letters from men and women attesting to the pain and confusion many modern young men experience. "Iron John" is Robert Bly's long-awaited book on male initiation rites and the role of the mentor, the product of ten years of working with men to uncover truths about masculinity that transcend our culture's common stereotypes. Bly uses the story of "Iron John" as the framework for his book, a tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in the early nineteenth century, but its core idea and theme date back thousands of years. In the story, an ancient man—Iron John—becomes a mentor to a young boy, where each event and adventure is a stage of maturity on the path to manhood. As Bly retells the story, he pauses to reflect on male initiation rituals that are still performed around the world or preserved in epics like the Odyssey. As the book progresses, it builds a rich, coherent picture of what it meant to transition from boyhood to manhood throughout the ages.

• Author: Robert Bly
• Translator: Israa Al-Barwani
• Publisher: Dar Alam Al-Adab for Translation and Publishing – Cairo
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Number of Pages: 329
• Binding: Paperback
• ISBN: 9789778564518