R. Gordon Wasson
| Robert Gordon Wasson | |
|---|---|
Wasson in 1955
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| Born | September 22, 1898 Great Falls, Montana |
| Died | December 26, 1986 (aged 88) Danbury, Connecticut |
| Residence | Danbury, Connecticut |
| Nationality | American |
| Fields | Ethnomycology |
| Alma mater |
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism London School of Economics |
| Notable awards | Pulitzer Travelling Scholarship |
Robert Gordon Wasson (September 22, 1898 – December 23, 1986) was an American author, amateur ethnomycologist, and Vice President for Public Relations at J.P. Morgan & Co. In the course of independent research, Wasson made contributions to the fields of ethnobotany, botany, and anthropology. Several of his books were self-published in illustrated, limited editions that have never been reprinted.
Wasson began his banking career at Guaranty Trust Company in 1928, and moved to J.P. Morgan & Co. in 1934, where he became a vice president in 1943. Also that year, Wasson published a book on the Hall Carbine Affair, in which he attempted to exonerate John Pierpoint Morgan from guilt with respect to this incident, which had been viewed as an example of wartime profiteering. As early as 1937, Wasson had been attempting to influence historians Allan Nevins and Charles McLean Andrews regarding Morgan's role in the affair, and then he used Nevins' report as a reference for his own book on the topic. Researcher Jan Irvin noted a possible conflict of interest between Wasson's work as a publicist for J.P. Morgan & Co., and his authorship of a book on J.P. Morgan. However, the matter of Morgan's responsibility for the Hall Carbine Incident remains controversial.
Wasson's studies in ethnomycology began during his 1927 honeymoon trip to the Catskill Mountains when his bride, Valentina Pavlovna Guercken (1901–1958), a paediatrician, chanced upon some edible wild mushrooms. Fascinated by the marked difference in cultural attitudes towards fungi in Russia compared to the United States, the couple began field research that led to the publication of Mushrooms, Russia and History in 1957. In the course of their investigations they mounted expeditions to Mexico to study the religious use of mushrooms by the native population, and claimed to have been the first Westerners to participate in a Mazatec mushroom ritual. It was the curandera María Sabina who allowed Wasson to participate in the ritual, and who taught him about the uses and effects of the mushroom. Sabina let him take her picture on the condition that he keep it private, but Wasson nonetheless published the photo along with Sabina's name and the name of the community where she lived. Wasson's 1956 expedition was funded by the CIA's MK-Ultra subproject 58, as was revealed by documents obtained by John Marks under the Freedom of Information Act. The documents state that Wasson was an 'unwitting' participant in the project. The funding was provided under the cover name of the Geschickter Fund for Medical Research (credited by Wasson at the end of his subsequent Life piece about the expedition).
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