Robert Gordon Wasson (September 22, 1898 – December 23, 1986) was an author, amateur researcher and banker. In the course of independent research, he made contributions to the field of ethnobotany, botany and anthropology. Several of his books were self-published in illustrated, limited editions and have never been reprinted. Wasson's studies in ethnomycology began during his 1927 honeymoon trip to the Catskill Mountains when his bride, Valentina Pavlovna Guercken, a pediatrician, chanced upon some edible wild mushrooms. Fascinated by the marked difference in cultural attitudes towards the fungus in Russia compared to the United States, the couple began field research which led to the writing of Mushrooms, Russia and History published in 1957. In the course of their investigations, they mounted expeditions to Mexico to study the religious use of mushrooms by the native population. They became the first westerners to participate in a Mazatec sacred mushroom ritual. In 1957, they published a Life magazine article (Seeking the Magic Mushroom), bringing knowledge of the existence of psychoactive mushrooms to a wide audience for the first time. Through his collaboration with Roger Heim, the mushrooms were subjected to scientific study, and Albert Hofmann, using material grown by Heim from specimens collected by the Wassons, identified the chemical structure of the active compounds, psilocybin and psilocin. Two species of mushroom, Psilocybe wassonii Heim and Psilocybe wassonorum Guzman were named in honor of R. Gordon Wasson. Hofmann and Wasson were also the first westerners to collect specimens of the Mazatec hallucinogen Salvia divinorum, leading to its description as a new species, and bringing it into cultivation outside of Mexico.