Mushrooms, Russia and History by Wasson, Valentina Pavlovna and Wasson, R. Gordon

NY: Pantheon Books [1957]. First edition, #355 of 512 copies printed at the Stamperia Valdonega, Verona. Two volumes. 4to (12.25" x 9.5"). [2], xxii, 213, [5]; xiv, 215-432, [4] pp. With 82 plates (30 in color), 5 color vignettes, and numerous maps and figures in the text. In publisher's green cloth, red cloth spine labels stamped in gilt, top edges gilt, housed in grey cloth slipcase. Minimal shelfwear to boards, slipcase shows light wear at extremities and minor toning. A groundbreaking study by the Wassons, a work that "effectively launched the field of ethnomycology" (Arora and Shepard, p.208). According to the couple their interest in the cultural status of mushrooms began on their 1927 honeymoon in the Adirondacks, when Valentina Pavlovna's eagerness to forage and prepare wild mushrooms - a traditional activity in her native Russia - stunned her husband. This contrast influenced their simple typology of "mycophilic" and "mycophobic" cultures, the insight that provides an entry into these volumes of collected history, folklore, art, and cultural practice - not confined to Russia alone, as the title suggests. Also in the year of publication, Mr. Wasson recounted his participation in a ceremony with the Nahua in southern Mexico, included in the chapter "Teo-Nanacatl: The Sacred Mushrooms of the Nahua," for an influential Life magazine article sensationally titled "Seeking the Magic Mushroom." Although the piece would introduce the hallucinogenic properties of certain mushrooms to mainstream America, the Wassons were frustrated by the emerging emphasis on mushrooms' psychedelic use divorced from traditional cultural practices. [Arora and Shepard, "Mushrooms and Economic Botany" in Economic Botany (Jan. 2008), 207-9] . VeryGood. Hardcover .