Lorusso, Caroline

[Illustrated botanical manuscript on mushrooms]

New York to Corvallis, Oregon: Caroline Lorusso, 1968-2005.

8.75" x 11" pp. [48] (4 pages are blank), inc. hand-written annotations and hand-drawn illustrations throughout, some taped in, one written on paper towel. Copious pencil drawings and 109 spore prints, including a full 6-leaf magazine article from 1980 and 6 leaves of student work on mushrooms, laid in. Original blue spiral-bound notebook with mushroom print taped to the cover, all very good. 

While the majority of the manuscript details mushroom varieties (including physical descriptions of color, texture, gill type, smell, and soil type relating to where the mushroom was found), we begin this amateur mushroom forager's journey with a drawing of the interior of a van, titled "Back of the Bus' 1968," which kicks off this mycological trek from Wiscoy Creek, New York to Corvallis, Oregon, with several samples collected from the grounds of Magruder Hall located at Oregon State University. The manuscript's author, Caroline Lorusso, spent over 40 years collecting and describing mushrooms, wherever she could find them. Lorusso died in 2023 in Albany, Oregon, at the age of 84.  

Aside from the obvious mushroom charm, this “mushroom manuscript” has untapped scientific potential for any fungi researcher or enthusiast.

Item #2361

Price: $600.00