WASSON, Robert Gordon. Great Falls, Montana 22.9.1898 — Danbury, CT (or Binghampton, NY) 26.12.1986. U.S. “Ethnomycologist”. Son of an Episcopal clergyman, grew up in Newark, NJ. Studied at Columbia University (graduated 1920) and 1920-21 at London School of Economics and Political Science. Then worked as journalist and from 1928 on in banks. For a while also worked for C.I.A. (1956). Retired 1963. In 1979 living in Dunbury, Connecticut. Married 1926 Valentina Pavlovna Guercken (1901–1958), who then participated in their ethnomycological studies. They had one son and one daughter.
In 1957 Wassons made the hallusinogenic use of mushrooms famous and thus destroyed the traditional Mazatec society in Mexico. Wasson wrote much about ethnobotany, mycology and anthropology, often as private publications. His famous Soma hypothesis was criticised i.al. by Brough and given a death-blow by H. Falk. His last project was an attempt to show mushroom use in the Eleusine mysteries.
Publications: Soma, divine mushroom of immortality. Ethno-mycological studies no. 1. 14+382 p. 23 pl. N.Y. 1968; “Soma: comments inspired by Professor Kuiper’s Review”, IIJ 12:4, 1970, 286-298; “The Soma of the Rig Veda: What was it?”, JAOS 91, 1971, 169-187, 10 pl.
– Soma and the Fly Agaric. Mr. Wasson’s Rejoinder to Professor Brough. Ethno-mycological studies 2. 58 p. Cambridge 1972.
– “The Last Meal of the Buddha”, JAOS 102, 1982, 591-603.
– Much unrelated to India.
Sources: D.H. Pfister, Mycologia 80, 1988, 11-13 with photo; Wikipedia with bibliography, another photo and further details about his theories.
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