Mushrooms, Russia and History

New York: Pantheon Books, 1957.
First Edition.

32.5cm x 14cm. xxi, xii, 433 pages, 2 volumes (continuous pagination), 82 plates (32 in colour), illustrations in the text, some colour, 1 folding chart in rear pocket. Original green cloth, gilt lettering, top edge gilt, glassine jackets, cloth slipcase.

The founding work of ethnomycology. One of 512 numbered copies. The Wassons’ central thesis divided cultures into “mycophilic” and “mycophobic” (those that embraced mushrooms and those that feared them), with Russia and the Anglo-Saxon world as the defining poles. Their investigations led to the study of psychoactive mushroom use in Mesoamerican religious ceremony, culminating in R. Gordon Wasson’s participation in a Mazatec velada with the curandera Maria Sabina in 1955. The resulting work bridges folklore, linguistics, botany, and anthropology, and laid the groundwork for the modern study of psychoactive fungi and later, entheogens. Produced at the Stamperia Valdonega in Verona under the direction of Giovanni Mardersteig, the edition is equally significant as a feat of book production, two large quarto volumes with 82 plates including 32 in colour, printed in a limited edition at the authors’ expense.

Very minor tanning to cloth at spine tails. Minor tanning and wear to slipcase and original glassine jackets, with a few small tears and chips to edges. Near Fine Condition.

AU$14,000.00

1 in stock