Books & Recordings by R. Gordon Wasson
SOMA Divine Mushroom of Immortality
New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., The Hague: Mouton, 1968 (1969). Edition limited to 680 copies.
Wonderous Mushroom: Sacred Mushrooms in Mexico and Mesoamerica
First published 1980 by McGraw-Hill
1983 by Fondo de Cultura Económica (Spanish)
Mushroom Ceremony of the Mazatec Indians of Mexico
Recording of María Sabina with translation and commentary by Eunice V. Pike and Sarah C. Gudschinsky
Folkways Record and Service Corporation, 117 W. 46th St, New York, NY. The record bears the listing FR 9875.
The Hall Carbine Affair a Study in Contemporary Folklore
First published 1941. First edition x & 141 pp., limited to 100 copies. Second editions x & 190 pp., limited to 750 copies, 1948 by Pandick Press Inc. Third edition privately printed, limited to 176 copies, 1971.
Books in Collaboration with Others
Mushrooms Russia & History
Two volumes, with 85 plates, of which 26 are watercolors by Henri Fabre, reproduced by Daniel Jacomet, Paris , by the pochoir process. Published January 1957 by Pantheon Books, New York. Edition limited to 512 copies.
Les Champignons Hallucinogènes du Mexique
By Roger Heim, with collaboration by R. Gordon Wasson who wrote the first three chapters
With 37 full page plates of which 17 are in color, 83 illustrations in the text of which 14 are in color; and three maps. Édition du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, Serie 7, Tome VI. 1958 (1959).
Nouvelles Investigations sur les Champignons Hallucinogènes
By Roger Heimm, with collaboration of Roger Cailleux, R. Gordon Wasson, and P. Thévenard
With 12 full page plates of which five reproduced by pochair process and one in four-color, 34 illustrations in the text of which five in color, and one map. Édition de Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris 1967.
María Sabina and Her Mazatec Mushroom Velada
By R. Gordon Wasson
Presented by R. Gordon Wasson, George & Florence Cowan, and Willard Rhodes. Harcourt Brace Javanovich, New York and London, A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book, 1974.
Prologue to La Vida de Maria Sabina: la Sabia de los Hongos
By R. Gordon Wasson. Book by Alvera Estrada.
Published in Mexico City by Siglo XXI, 1977. The prologue was written in English and translated by the publisher in Mexico City.
The Road to Eleusis: Unveiling the Secret of the Mysteries
by R. Gordon Wasson, Albert Hofmann and Carl A.P. Ruck
First published 1978 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York and London, with a new translation of the Homeric Hymn to Demeter by Daniel Staples.
1998 by William Dailey Antiquarian Books
1980 by Fondo de Cultura Económica (Spanish)
2008 by North Atlantic Books
2013 by Fondo de Cultura Económica (Spanish)
Persephone's Quest: Entheogens and the Origins of Religion
by R. Gordon Wasson, Carl A.P. Ruck, Stella Kramrisch and Jonathan Ott
First published 1986 by Yale University Press.
Articles by R. Gordon Wasson
'Lightning-bolt and Mushrooms: An Essay in Cultural Exploration'
Festschrift: For Roman Jakobson, Mouton, The Hague, 1956, pp 605-612.
Republished with illustrations in Dutch in Antiquity and Survival III: (1960) 1.
'The Hallucinogenic Mushrooms of Mexico: An Adventure in Ethnomycological Exploration'
Mouton, The Hague, 1956, pp 605-612. Transactions of The New Nork Academy of Sciences. Series II, Vol. 21, No 4, pp 325-339. Feb. 1959.
'Seeking the Magic Mushroom'
Life magazine, New York, May 13, 1957, with water colors by Roger Heim and photographs by Allan Richardson (International edition, June 10; 'En Busca de los Hongos Mágicos', Life en Español. June 3.
'The Divine Mushroom: Primitive Religion and Hallucinatory Agents'
Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Jun. 1958, 102 (3), pp.221-223.
'Wild Mushrooms: A World of Wonder and Adventure'
The Herbarist, Boston Mass., 1959, No. 24, pp.13-28.
'The Hallucinogenic Fungi of Mexico: An Inquiry into the Origins of the Religious Idea among Primitive Peoples'
(Annual Lecture of the Mycological Society of America, Stillwater, Oklahoma, Aug. 30, 1960) Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University, Vol. 19, No. 7, 1961, pp. 137-162. Reproduced (in abbreviated form) in International Journal of Parapsychology, Autumn 1962, pp. 41-58; also (in abbreviated form) in The Harvard Review, Vol 1, No. 4, Summer 1963, under the title 'The Mushroom Rites of Mexico', pp. 7-17; also in Psychedelic Review, No. 1, Summer 1963, pp. 27-42.
'A New Mexican Psychotropic Drug from the Mint Family'
Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University, Vol. 21, No. 3, Dec. 28, 1962, pp.7-84.
'Ololiuhqui and Other Hallucinogens of Mexico'
Summa Anthropologica en homenaje a Roberto J. Weitlaner, Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, Secretaría de Educación Pública, México, 1966, pp.329-348. This paper was published under the title 'Notes on the Present Status of Ololiuhqui and the Other Hallucinogens of Mexico', Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University, Vol 20, No. 6, 1963, pp. 161-193; it was reprinted under this title in Psychedelic Review, Vol. 1, No. 3, 1964, pp. 275-301, with slight corrections by the author.
'Fly-Agaric and Man'
Ethnopharmacologic Search for Psychoactive Drugs, Proceedings of a Symposium held in San Francisco CA, Jan. 28-30, 1967. US Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare; Public Health Service, Pharmacology Section, Psychopharmacology Research Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, pp. 405-414.
'Soma of the Aryans: an ancient hallucinogen?
Bulletin on Narcotics, Vol XXII, No. 3, Jul.-Sep. 1970. ('Le Soma des Aryens: un ancien hallucinogène?', Bulletin des Stupéfiants, vol. XXII, no. 3, juillet-septembre 1970.) Reprinted in Journal of Psychedelic Drugs, Vol. 3, No. 2, Spring 1971.
Letters to the Editor
Times Literary Supplement, 1) Aug. 21, 1970, 2) Sep. 29, 1970. (reply by John M. Allegro, Sep. 11, 1970.)
'Drugs: The Sacred Mushroom'
The New York Times, Sep. 26, 1970.
'SOMA: Comments Inspired by Professor Kuiper's Review'
Indo-Iranian Journal, Vol XII, No. 4, 1970, pp. 286-298. (Professor Kuiper's review immediately precedes the reply in the same issue.)
'The Soma of the RigVeda: What Was It?'
Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 91, No. 2, Apr.-Jun. 1971, pp. 169-187. Published along with Daniel H.H. Ingalls, Wales Professor of Sanskrit, Harvard University: 'Remarks on Mr. Wasson's SOMA' in the same issue of the Journal. (Both papers were reprinted by the American Oriental Society as No. 7 in their Essay Series with an introduction by Ernest Bender, Editor of the Journal.) Translated into Spanish and published in Plural, Mexico City, in Jan.-Feb. issues, 1976.
'The Death of Clausius or Mushrooms for Murderers'
Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University, Vol. 23, No. 3, Apr. 7, 1972, pp. 101-128.
Flesh of the Gods - Chapters 6 & 7
Edited by Peter T. Furst. Chapter 6, 'The Divine Mushroom of Immortality', pp. 185-200, and Chapter 7, 'What was the Soma of the Aryans?', pp. 201-213. Praeger Publishers, New York, 1972.
SOMA and the Fly-Agaric. Mr Wasson’s Rejoiner to Professor Brough
Botanical Museum of Harvard University, Cambridge Massachusetts, Nov. 1972.
‘The Rôle of “Flowers” in Nahualt Culture: A Suggested Interpretation’
Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University, Vol. 23, No.8, 1973, pp. 305-324.
‘Mushrooms and Japanese Culture’
With three black-and-white plates, The Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Third Series, Vol. 11, Dec. 1973 (Apr 1975), pp. 5-25.
Articles in Collaboration With Others
'The Hallucinogenic Mushrooms'
By Valentina P. Wasson and R. Gordon Wasson
The Garden Journal, the New York Botanical Garden, New York, Jan.-Feb. 1958, pp. 1-6.
‘Une Investigation sur les Champignons Sacrés des Mixtèques'
By Roger Heim and R. Gordon Wasson
In the Comptes rendus of the Académie des Sciences, Paris, session of 29 Jan, 1961.
'The Hallucinogenic Mushrooms of Mexico and Psilocybin: A Bibliography'
By R. Gordon Wasson and Sylvia Pau
Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard University, Vol. 20, No. 2a, Mar. 10, 1963, pp. 25-73c.
‘Note Preliminaire sur la Folie Fongique des Kuma’
By Roger Heim and R. Gordon Wasson
In the Comptes rendus of the Académie des Sciences, Paris, session of 3 Feb. 1964.
‘La Folie des Kuma’
By Roger Heim and R. Gordon Wasson
Cahiers du Pacifique, No. 6 Jun. 1964, pp. 3-27. Edited by the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle. This article appeared in English under the title ‘The “Mushroom Madness” of the Kuma’, Botanical Museum Leaflets, Harvard Universitu, Vol. 21, No. 1, Jun. 11, 1965, pp. 2-36.
‘Les Putka des Santals Champignons Doués d’une Ame’
By Roger Heim and R. Gordon Wasson
Cahiers du Pacifique, No. 14 Sep. 1970.
‘Kinpu, Mushroom Books of the Tokukawa Period’
By Rokuya Imezeki and R. Gordon Wasson
The Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, Third Series, Vol. 11, Dec. 1973 (Apr 1975), pp. 81-92.