Modern

uring the last half of the 20th century, Americans' interest in mushrooms increased. Commercial production introduced fresh mushrooms to those who had only known canned. Aficionados organized mushroom-gathering clubs across the nation, creating a need for exceptional illustrations and texts that would enable an amateur to identify species in the field.

Ethnomycologists Valentina and Gordon Wasson researched an aspect of mushrooms that garnered an attentive audience in the 1960's and 70's. This was their work on the spiritual use of hallucinogenic mushrooms in Mexico.

Wildly inflated prices paid for white truffles, the availability of a wide variety of commercial grown and wild mushrooms, possible medicinal uses and fungus-caused illnesses have kept the world of fungi before the public. This increased exposure has generated a curiosity that has resulted in the creation of classes and books devoted to popularizing the wider world of mycology.