GLOSSARY · WORDS AND HISTORY

Valentina Wasson

Also called: Valentina P. Wasson, Tina Wasson

A New York pediatrician and co-author, with her husband R. Gordon Wasson, of Mushrooms, Russia and History (1957). Scholars credit her with inspiring his interest in mushrooms; she wrote her own 1957 account of the Mexican mushrooms.

Valentina P. Wasson was a New York pediatrician and the wife and research partner of R. Gordon Wasson; Life introduced her that way in its 13 May 1957 issue (Life, 1957). A 2024 scholarly bibliography notes that she is credited with inspiring her husband’s interest in mycology (Spiers et al., 2024).

The couple first reached Huautla de Jiménez in August 1953, with their daughter and the anthropologist Robert Weitlaner (García de Teresa, 2022). In 1957 they published the two-volume Mushrooms, Russia and History, which, among much else, argued that Mesoamerican mushroom stones were mushroom effigies (Wasson and Wasson, 1957). Six days after the Life article, she described her own experience in This Week magazine (Spiers et al., 2024).

Her name is part of the later reckoning. The Mycological Society of America’s award was called the “Gordon and Tina Wasson Award” until the society renamed it, citing concerns that the Wassons’ actions harmed Indigenous communities and breached research ethics (MSA committee, 2025).

Sources

Last checked October 26, 2026.