88
308.WASSON, R. Gordon. soma: divine mushroom of immortality. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc. 1968.
£950
4to. original quarter blue morocco with blue cloth boards, t.e.g., in slipcase; pp. xiv + 381 + [1] printed on handmade paper, 22 plates including tipped-in photographs, text illustrations, 3 maps, 1 folding chart; spine a little sunned, otherwise near fine.
no. 602 of limited edition of 680, ethno-mycological studies no. 1. this groundbreaking work identifies soma,
the
intoxicating plant-god of the rig veda, as the psycho-active fly agaric mushroom, and traces the influence of the fungus on indo-european culture. his brilliantly argued and
researched theory flies in the face of traditional scholarship, which until then had identifed soma as an alcoholic beverage.
r. gordon Wasson (1898 - 1986) was a vice-president of J.p. morgan, a banker whose greatest contribution was in the field of entheogenic fungi. he became interested in edible mushrooms on his honeymoon in the catskills in 1927. passionately interested in the place of mushrooms in myth and folklore, he and his wife valentina became serious ethno- mycological scholars with a large number of publications. they were the first Westerners to participate in a mazatec mushroom ritual in mexico. Wasson had two species of psychoactive mushrooms named after him and provided the specimens used by Albert hofmann, the discoverer of lsd, to identify the chemical structure of the active compounds psilocybin and psilocin.
309. WAUGH, Evelyn. Wine in peace and War. Saccone & Speed Ltd. [1947].
£350
8vo. original white boards, decorations by rex Whistler on both covers; pp. 77; 2 full-page coloured decorations by rex Whistler; the paste-down endpapers brown-spotted as always, though noteably less so than usual, a very good copy indeed.
first edition.
310.WAUGH, Evelyn. the loved one. Folio Society. 1993. £498 8vo., in original nigerian goatskin over hand marbled sides by Ann muir. illustrated by beryl cook. spine slightly darkened otherwise a very good copy in slipcase.
limited edition of 100 copies signed by beryl cook.
311. WAUGH, Evelyn. brideshead revisited. The Folio Society. 1995.
£298
8vo., quarter bound in nigerian goatskin with hand-marbled sides by Ann muir. illustrated by leonard rosoman. A fine copy in slipcase.
limited edition of 100 copies signed by rosoman.
312.WERNER, Edward Theodore Chalmers. myths and legends of china ... With thirty-two illustrations in colours by chinese Artists. London: The Ballantyne Press/Spottiswoode, Ballantyne & Co. Ltd. for George G. Harrap & Co. Ltd., 1934.
£70
8vo (213 x 140mm). original green cloth, upper board blocked in blind with series device, spine lettered in gilt and with series device in gilt, top edges stained brown; pp. 453, [3 (last page of index and blank l.)], title printed in green and black and with a vignette;
colour-printed
frontispiece and 31 colour- printed plates; extremities very slightly rubbed, very occasional light spotting or marking, nonetheless a very good, clean copy.
fourth printing. Werner (1864-1954) was the british consul
to fuzhou, a
member of the chinese government historiographical bureau, beijing, the author of China of the Chinese (london: 1919) and A Dictionary of Chinese Mythology (shanghai: 1932), and the editor and translator of a number of works relating to china. Werner states in his preface that, ‘this is, so far as i know, the only monograph on chinese mythology in any non-chinese language. nor do the native works include any scientific analysis or philosophical treatment of their myths’, before explaining that, ‘my aim, after summarizing the sociology of the chinese as a prerequisite to the understanding of their ideas and sentiments, and dealing as fully as possible, consistently with the limitations of space (limitations which have necessitated the presentation of a very large and intricate topic in a highly compressed form), with the philosophy of the subject, has been to set forth in english dress those myths which may be regarded as the accredited representatives of chinese mythology — those which live in the minds of the people and are referred to most frequently in their literature, not those which are merely diverting without being typical or instructive — in short, a true, not a distorted image’ (pp. 7-8).
the work was first published in a larger format with the same collation and plates in late 1922, and two further printings followed before this. Werner’s sister Alice (1859-1935), professor in swahili and the bantu languages at the school of oriental studies, university of london, was the author of Myths and Legends of the Bantu, published by harrap in 1933.
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