The Wondrous Mushroom

The Wondrous Mushroom: Mycolatry in Mesoamerica.  New York:  McGraw-Hill Book Company, (1980), First Edition, 248 pages, with many black and white and color illustrations and maps.  Printed on special paper made by Cartiera di Sarego.  Bound in quater green morocco over decorative linen boards, gilt spine, decorated in green and black on the upper and lower cover, housed in a matching linen slipcase.  Design, monotype Dante composition, negatives and presswork were carried out by Stamperia Valdonega in Verona.  This is the last printed copy, #475, and inscribed by Wasson on the last page.  This volume is in pristine/new condition, in original wrapping paper and box.

This is Wasson's history of the use of psilocybin mushrooms in Centra America from pre-Columbian times to the present.  Wasson and his companion, photographer Allan Richardson, were given sacred mushrooms to eat at the end of June 1955, on the occasion of a nocturnal mushroom ceremony.  They thus became probubly the first outsiders permitted to take teonanacatl.

An amazing book in truly wonderful condition.