Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom

Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic MushroomDid mushroom tea kick start ancient Greek philosophy? Was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland a thinly veiled psychedelic mushroom odyssey? Is Santa Claus really a "magic mushroom" in disguise? Psychedelic mushrooms reappeared on the cultural landscape only fifty years ago, but have since become the subject of many folktales and legends. In Shroom, Andy Letcher takes a critical and humorous look at how hallucinogenic mushrooms, once shunned in the West

Did mushroom tea kick-start ancient Greek philosophy? Was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland a thinly veiled psychedelic mushroom odyssey? Is Santa Claus really a "magic mushroom" in disguise? Psychedelic mushrooms reappeared on the cultural landscape only fifty years ago, but have since become the subject of many folktales and legends. In Shroom, Andy Letcher takes a critical and humorous look at how hallucinogenic mushrooms, once shunned in the West as the most pernicious of poisons, came to be such a popular illicit drug.

This entertaining book chronicles the history of the psychedelic mushroom, from its use by the Aztecs of Central America and the tribes of Siberia to its reappearance on the cultural landscape in the modern era. Informative, lively, and impeccably researched, Shroom is a unique and engaging exploration of this most extraordinary of psychedelics.

Andy Letcher is a freelance writer, lecturer and musician living in Oxford, England. He has two doctorates: the first in ecology from Oxford University, the second in religious/cultural studies from King Alfred's College, Winchester. During the 1990s he lived in a tree house for three months while protesting against the Newbury Bypass and toured the British festival circuit playing in a variety of psychedelic bands. Today he sings and plays the mandolin and English bagpipes in his own acid folk group, Telling the Bees. Shroom is his first book.

"Letcher has contributed a delightful, journalistic addition to the genre known as trip lit." -- New York Times Book Review

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Ecco Press
Published: 02/19/2008
ISBN: 9780060828295
Pages: 360
Weight: 0.74lbs
Size: 8.05h x 5.78w x 0.96d

Review Citations: New York Times Book Review 04/06/2008 pg. 24